'These darkly comic tales place the author snugly between Douglas Adams and Terry Pratchett. Be sure: Chris Fielden is one funny feller.' Allen Ashley, British Fantasy Award winner.
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Meet The Team

Here you will find details of the amazing team of people involved with running this website and the various projects that take place on it.

Quick links on this page:

Allen Ashley - Amanda Garzia - Angela Googh - Christopher Fielden - Dr Lynda Nash

Emilie Lauren Jones - Edward Field - Glo Curl - John Notley - Jo Iles - Lesley Anne Truchet

- Mel Ciavucco - Michael Rumsey - Sarah Doyle

 

Christopher Fielden

Christopher Fielden

Founder & CEO (Cardinal Editorial Overlord)

Yes, he thought up his own job title …

Chris is an award winning and Amazon bestselling author. His work has featured in books published by independent press, established magazines and renowned competition anthologies.

He is the author of How to Write a Short Story, Get Published & Make Money, which has been an Amazon bestseller.

Chris is a publisher. He works with a variety of established authors to run educational and fun flash fiction writing challenges. Via these challenges, he has published over 1,500 authors and raised thousands of pounds for various charities.

Chris runs a short story writing course. There is a free course available so writers can see if they like Chris's teaching style before investing in his comprehensive course.

Chris runs, and is the head judge of, the To Hull And Back humorous short story competition, which attracts entries from all over the planet.

Chris is also a successful blogger and has written for many websites, including Moz, Matthew Woodward, The Short Story and many more. His website currently attracts around 300,000 users each year.

While not from an academic background, Chris draws on his real-life experience to give authors advice and tips to help them see their words in print. Whenever possible, he uses his published stories as case studies, to clearly show how any advice was used in practice to achieve success.

This format has been very successful, and helped a lot of writers become published short story authors, via the website (see Rhiannon Lewis’s case study as an example) via his book (read the reviews on Amazon) and his proofreading services (see the testimonials in the writing services section).

You can learn more than you are likely to want to know about Chris on the About page of this website.

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Allen Ashley

Allen Ashley

Short Story & Poetry Expert, Editor, Critique Provider and Writing Challenge Instigator

Allen has won the British Fantasy Award and has been shortlisted on five other occasions. He is a renowned short fiction author, editor and poet specialising in, but not limited to, the science fiction and fantasy genres.

He is the author or editor of fourteen published books. He is the sole judge for the annual British Fantasy Society Short Story Competition and is a committee member for the British Fantasy Society with the particular focus of encouraging new writers.

Since 2013, he has been a professional critical reader for a reading agency. He works as a creative writing tutor, with six groups currently running across north London, including the advanced science fiction and fantasy group Clockhouse London Writers.

He is the singer and lyricist with the indie-rock band The False Dots and is also an event host, including co-hosting (with Sarah Doyle) the successful Rhyme & Rhythm Jazz-Poetry Club series at the Dugdale Theatre in Enfield from 2013 to 2016.

He runs Allen's Sensory Overload Writing Challenge with Chris on this website.

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Amanda Garzia

Amanda Garzia

Writing Challenge Instigator and Facebook Group Administrator

Amanda was born in Canada and came to Malta, her parents’ homeland, at the age of eight. As a teenager still pining for the Land of Maple Leaf, she launched Penpal Magazine to keep in touch with friends and family left behind.

After obtaining a B.A. (Hons.) in psychology, she spent the following summer lending a hand with the family business. To this day she is still there. Likewise, her love for writing was there to stay, spurring her on to moonlight for Malta’s major English language newspapers, The Times and The Sunday Times, and quarterlies, such as Child: A Magazine for Parents. When her son was almost a teenager, she took advantage of Roehampton University’s distance learning options and she read for an MA in children’s literature.

Thrilled to stumble upon Christopher Fielden’s website in time for her stories to appear in the first volume of Adverbially Challenged, she’s taken part in the challenges with gusto. The regular prompts on the AotFFWC Facebook page have been marvellously engaging, entertaining and instructive, as will also be, for sure, the opportunity to be part of its administration team.

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Angela Googh

Angela Googh

eBook Formatting Expert

Angela studied mathematics in school, and has had a long career in information technology. Her foray into writing in her early fifties was a surprise even to her. Writing started out as therapy. In a relapse of depression, she decided to use the intensity of her emotions to write a new story. Not a fictional version of her story, just a new story with new characters; none of whom were she, and all of whom were she. Without realising it, writing became a conduit, in the same way any adrenalin rush would be, to release stress. And the writing bug had taken hold.

Angela has since won a place in both of Grindstone Literary’s Dirty Dozen and Twelve Apostles micro fiction competitions. Angela is working on a Publishing Certificate from Toronto Metropolitan University, and it was through this program she became especially interested in ebook production and indexing. Angela has had the privilege to help Chris Fielden with the production of several of his challenge books and with To Hull And Back anthologies. 

Angela is studying for Web Accessibility Specialist certification through the International Association of Accessibility Professionals. Ebooks produced with accessibility in mind provide a better experience for everyone.

Angela lives in her native country, Canada, in Waterloo, Ontario.

You can learn more about Angela and her eBook formatting services here.

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Dr Lynda Nash

Dr Lynda Nash

Short Story & Poetry Expert, Editor and Critique Provider

Lynda is a Creative Writing tutor who has been educating, mentoring and encouraging authors of all ages and abilities for over ten years. She understands the highs and lows of being a writer and knows the importance of solid, constructive and affordable feedback. Her teaching experience and love of her craft helps her to connect with students and clients on a more personal level.

Lynda is an Arts Council trained creative practitioner – working with the Lead Creative Schools project – and has taught GCSE English Language and Literature in community colleges. As a freelance editor, she helps clients realise their self-publishing dreams by taking them from written manuscript to formatted publication. Her own fiction and poetry has been published in magazines such as Mslexia, Penumbra and Borderlines and in various anthologies such as Secondary Character, The Dance Is New, Exposure and The Welsh Women’s National Coalition. She regularly writes reviews for Buzz, Cardiff’s entertainment magazine.

Lynda lives in South Wales where she runs the award-winning writing group,Caerphilly Scribes. Her professional qualifications include a Bachelor of Arts, an MPhil and a PhD in Creative and Professional Writing. She is the author of Ashes Of A Valleys Childhood (poetry), Not As Pointless As You (short fiction, paperback and audio book), and Danny Down The Drainpipe and The Detention Gang: Day of The Desperate for younger readers.

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Edward Field

Edward Field

Novel & Short Story Copy Editing Expert

Edward Field is an award-winning screenwriter, having penned two features and four short films (and counting) including Things They Say of Me, which won both the Fresh Voices Short Script and Humanitarian awards in 2021.

Separately, Edward has written three children’s plays (pub. Via Afrika), which are on the South African curriculum; published a humorous manual, Permission to Rage: The Book on How to Complain Effectively, edited seven novels and a short story collection (pub. Dreamloft and Victorina Press); written a decade’s worth of award ceremony scripts for the likes of Claudia Winkleman, Gyles Brandreth, Mark Dolan, Rhod Gilbert, Chris Barrie and Hugh Dennis; and written printed features, one of which generated the biggest ever mailbag for The Stage.

His short stories and flash fiction have been recognized and published by Storgy, Reflex Fiction, To Hull And Back, Idle Ink, 101 Words, London Independent Story Prize and Grindstone Literary.

He is also the winner of the Golden Nail and Dennis Cartledge Award, though neither has very much to do with writing.

You can learn more about Edward on his website and Twitter.

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Emilie Lauren Jones

Emilie Lauren Jones

Pic by Lee Allen Photography

Poetry Expert, Editor and Critique Provider

Emilie Lauren Jones has performed across the UK and internationally. In 2021, the year Coventry became UK City of Culture, she became the city's first Poet Laureate.

Emilie has performed alongside poets such as Simon Armitage, Roy McFarlane and Hollie McNish. Her poetry has been featured on local and national radio, including BBC Radio 3, 4, 5 Live and 6 Music. Her poetry has also featured on national television including Sky Arts (as part of the Unlocked series of short films) and BBC4.

Her poems have appeared in magazines including Under the Radar and HCE Magazine, and anthologies including The View From Olympia (Half Moon Books), and Places of Poetry (One World Publications). Plus award winning anthology Bloody Amazing (Beautiful Dragons Collaborations), and Saboteur award nominated anthology Elements (Fawn Press).

She facilitates writing workshops for adults and young people, and also enjoys visiting schools and community groups to share her love of words. She has delivered sessions in person and online for a variety of organisations including NAWG, Arvon, Writing West Midlands, Positive Images Festival, Wilderness Festival, BBC CSL and more.

She is experienced in performances, commissions, community projects, residencies, guest speaking, school visits, workshops (adults and children), poetry critiques and mentoring.

You can find out more about Emilie on her website.

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Glo Curl

Glo Curl

Writing Challenge Instigator and Facebook Group Administrator

Glo came very late to writing, after a ten year stint in software followed by self-employment printing other people’s photographs from negatives (remember them?), and took early retirement when digital came knocking.

The lack of literary qualifications (apart from English O level) has never suppressed her creative gift for silly songs; these are performed in the privacy of her own home to a tone-deaf husband and various rescue animals. This secret talent eventually evolved into writing poetry. Flash fiction popped its head up on social media one lockdown day in 2020 and provided another intriguing creative outlet, not least because the principal of brevity appealed to her lazy nature. Glo’s verse has appeared several times on Lighten Up Online, in The Poet Magazine anthology A New World, and various other places. Her flash fiction has found its way into Chris’s challenge anthologies, three Secret Attic booklets, and a handful of online platforms. She attributes these small but welcome successes to regular participation in the challenges in the Authors of the Flash Fiction Writing Challenges group.

Glo also regularly adds stuff to her website, The Old Fashioned Poet, from the comfort of her home office chair. She lives in the beautiful county of Cornwall, UK.

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John Notley

John Notley

Writing Challenge Instigator and Facebook Group Administrator

John was born and spent his early years in Forest Hill, South London.

After leaving Alleyn's School, Dulwich, he joined a local newspaper as office boy with a view to becoming a journalist. After two years he was called for National Service, most of which was spent in Egypt.

On return to civvy street, for some unknown reason, John became a travel agent. He worked for several companies over the next 40 years, ending up with his own travel agency in Kent. 

John started writing quite late in life after obtaining a BA with the Open University. Some of his short stories and flash fiction have been published in  Short Story Magazine (now defunct), Pure Slush and Glittery Literary, and by Michael Terence Publishing and Jane Austen Literary. Several of John's poems are featured in The Poet Magazine and of course he contributes to Chris's publications.

Most of his time is now spent in Thailand. This makes it harder for the rejection letters to find him.

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Jo Iles

Josephine Iles

Social Media Manager

Jo was born in Kuwait, moved to America and then to the UK all before the age 6. Though not a writer, she has always been an avid reader and is a lover of all things fantasy and sci-fi. She is a self-confessed book hoarder and you can find pretty much all of her favourite books from childhood until now, stored in every nook and cranny in her home.

Along with reading, Jo's other true love is motorsport, F1 in particular. You will find her glued to the TV every Sunday when it is race season. She plans to set up an F1 blog very soon so she can share her passion with others and try her hand at some writing of her own. Long term, Jo would love to combine her love of motor sport and content creation, and transition to working in the industry (a contrast to her current career in financial services).

Jo also loves music and describes herself as a semi-competent pianist; she is the proud borrower of Grandpappy Fielden's piano (thanks to Chris for entrusting her with it) and loves to play on evenings after taking her crazy beagle, Pebble, out for a stroll.

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Lesley Anne Truchet

Lesley Anne Truchet

Writing Challenge Instigator and Facebook Group Administrator

Lesley Anne Truchet, a lovely lady from Leeds, is native English and lives in France. She has been writing for several years and has a number of short stories, flash fictions, articles, blogs and poetry published in print and online. Lesley is an active member of Writers Abroad, an international online writing group for ex-pat writers and also a long-time member of The Oldham Writing Café. She is currently working on her first novel. 

Lesley is perpetually involved in the ever expanding activities of Chris Fielden’s writing realm, working with him on the ongoing Nonsense Challenge, assisting with the Facebook group administration and generally supportive when Chris calls a muster.

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Mel Ciavucco

Mel Ciavucco

Short Story Expert, Editor and Critique Provider

Mel Ciavucco is a freelance writer, blogger, fiction writer, screenwriter, editor and content writer. She has been published online and in print, and has made appearances on BBC2, Radio 5 Live and BBC Radio Bristol.

Mel has been published by The Huffington Post and Bust magazine. She was a body positivity columnist for an online lifestyle magazine called Zusterschap. She underwent an intense writing residency in Thailand which involved content writing, copywriting, content editing and social media account management.

Mel is an annual judge for the To Hull and Back short story competition. She is also a co-founder of Stokes Croft Writers, a writing group that has been running for over four years. Mel has been a member of writing groups for over seven years and has critiqued short stories, novellas, novels, scripts and non-fiction.

You can find Mel at Write Kerfuffle, or follow her on Twitter and Facebook, or check out her personal blog.

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Michael Rumsey

Michael Rumsey

Writing Challenge Instigator and Facebook Group Administrator

Whilst in Saudi Arabia, a country of few distractions, Michael signed up for a correspondence course with The Writing School. Upon completion he was invited to submit farming and nature articles to a UK county magazine and supplied 20 in total. Years later, in Cyprus, he wrote 18 articles published in newspaper's financial pages.

In writing non-fiction Michael enjoys the live interview. He admits he did not actually get to see Vincent Van Gogh but did enjoy posting a report on the artist’s exhibition. He did, however, sit down with the Greek artist and author of the graphic novel A = -A Dimitris Anastasiou resulting in A Portrait of An Artist. Both of these, and several other, short stories can be seen on Michael's Facebook page.

Michael's first ever published fiction short story appeared in Christian Herald and was followed by seven more. His stories have been featured in True Story, Love Story, Grapevine and others plus inclusion in the Marble City Publishing anthology Edge of Passion. Turning to the internet, he won a runner-up prize in Five Stop and has over 100 published pieces at Ad Hoc Fiction.

An ardent supporter of our challenges and Authors of the Flash Fiction Writing Challenges, Michael, together with Lesley Truchet, introduced our much sort after Hall of Fame and 1,000 Word Club.

Michael lives in Athens with wife Maria, dog Sammy and a laptop that, to use his own words, just occasionally produces something of interest.

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Sarah Doyle

Sarah Doyle

Poetry Expert, Editor and Critique Provider

Sarah Doyle is Poet-in-Residence to the Pre-Raphaelite Society, for whom she writes commissioned new poetry responding to the lives and work of the Pre-Raphaelites, and co-judges an annual poetry competition. 

She is co-author (with Allen Ashley) of a poetry collection, Dreaming Spheres: Poems of the Solar System, published by World Fantasy Award-winning PS Publishing in 2014. 

Sarah holds an MA in Creative Writing from Royal Holloway College, University of London, and has been published widely in magazines, journals and anthologies.  She won the William Blake Poetry Prize in 2015, and has been placed in numerous poetry competitions, including The Frogmore Prize, Winchester, Poetry on the Lake, Mslexia, Live Canon, Café Writers, York Mix, etc.

Sarah has guested at many poetry readings in and around London, also curating events and performing as a jazz-poet in collaboration with musicians. 

As a freelance professional critical reader, Sarah works both for a highly-regarded authors’ advisory service, and directly with private clients. She is a meticulous close-reader and a perceptive critic, providing robust yet sensitive critiques on poetry manuscripts (ranging from free verse to formal poetry to contemporary, experimental work), and offering practical advice on where and how to submit work.

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The Critically Acclaimed Thriller by Christopher Fielden.
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