Thorough, Compassionate Coaching for New Writers
MY WRITING
Since 2009, I have written everything from novels to micro-fiction, and even TV!
OUT IN THE COLD - THE AUDIOBOOK
2023 - Audiobook
Out in the Cold, tells the story of ranch hand Faron Noble and his boss, Marius Tillman.
Set in 1887’s Montana, during the ‘Big Die-Up’ that killed thousands of cattle, the two men battle against the brutal winter, injury, and—the most challenging of all—secrets.
OUT IN THE COLD
2022 - Novelette
Published in Snapshorts: Collected Stories, my novelette, Out in the Cold, tells the story of ranch hand Faron Noble and his boss, Marius Tillman.
Set in 1887’s Montana, during the ‘Big Die-Up’ that killed thousands of cattle, the two men battle against the brutal winter, injury, and—the most challenging of all—secrets.
THEO
2021 - Microfiction
Published in Vine Leaves Press's "The 50-Word Stories of 2021".
"Apparently the best things really do come in small packages." Peter Snell
"Dollops of humanity...in 50 words." Elaina Battista-Parsons
"Like a firecracker - tiny but explosive." Steve Zettler
"50 sizzling words that open glorious, new worlds." Cordelia Biddle
"50 is the new 70." John McCaffrey
"Size does matter. 50 words packs a knock-out punch." Jean Gill
"When small things matter you take your time." Adam Byatt
BEHIND THE SEAMS
2020 - Novel
A 2021 BookLife Prize Fiction Contest Semifinalist!
Praise for Behind the Seams:
"Sumptuous detailed descriptions of clothing and the art of sewing and fashion design are what make this story a cut above other gay romances. Wakefield develops the relationship between Kit and Barker in tandem with the filming of the episodes of a reality TV show and that device adds interest and tension to the story." — The 2021 BookLife Prize Fiction Contest Critic's Report
"A heart-warming gay romance in a fresh and vivid setting."
"Excellent telling of a classic human story set in one of the more bonkers corners of our modern world."
"Everything was good: the characters, the pacing, the conflicts, the humour, the banter, all of it."
About Behind the Seams:
When apprentice Savile Row tailor Kit Redman auditions for smash-hit UK TV show Runway Rivals, he’s instantly drawn to charismatic fellow auditionee Barker Wareham.
After a disastrous audition at the hands of savage fashion editor, and Runway Rivals judge, Nancy Shearsmith, Kit’s convinced he won’t get through, but he’s wrong.
As filming begins, Kit comes face-to-face with Barker, who makes it clear it’s all about winning the show and nothing more.
But there’s more to Barker than meets the eye.
Now, with Nancy intent on ruining Kit’s dream of becoming a world-class fashion designer, can he ever hope to win the show and get the man?
Behind the Seams is a gay romance bursting with eccentric, unashamedly British characters of all ages and walks of life.
GOODMAN'S CHILD
2015 - Short Story
** Available in eBook and audiobook. **
While Moire stands in the doorway of the croft house, watching Goodman leave, she plans her escape.
She’s long since given up wondering what lies beyond the dry stone wall that marks the edge of her experience because, once lured there by Goodman, she's never been able to leave.
Her thoughts always return to the weight of the ocean and of freedom she hasn’t known in years.
Praise for Goodman’s Child:
“It's beautifully written and observed on many different levels - from the descriptions of the Orkney landscape, to Moire's emotions, to making folklore a reality - it just flows and I love it!” – Kate Tenbeth, author of Burly & Grum and Unlucky Dip.
“…a thoughtful, beautifully written tale that evokes Kafka's 'Metamorphosis' or, perhaps more closely, Roger McGough's wonderful poem 'Angel Wings'” – Mark Watkins, co-author of Keeping Mum.
ISALI DREAMS
2012 - Novelette
Diplomat and linguist Everett leads a quiet life on an Earth colony outpost until he's called on to translate for a strange creature discovered on a crashed ship.
Despite the magnetic attraction he feels to it, Everett can't communicate well enough to resolve the apparent murder of the ship's pilot. At least not until Isali, the survivor, shows up in Everett's dreams.
Isali is on the run from a supreme being hellbent on destroying him, and Everett soon finds himself caught up in a fight for their lives. The increased intimacy between them triggers memories for Everett, but can he put the pieces together before Isali's nemesis destroys them both?
MEMORY OF WATER
2012 - Novel
Despondent and suicidal over the disappearance of his beloved Leven, Shaun goes from medical observation to the River Thames—where he wades into the freezing water intent upon ending it all.
Instead, Shaun finds himself rescuing the mysterious floating body of a man in strange armour. And he learns that Leven is not dead, hope is not lost, love is not over. . .and the world of London is not the world he thought it was at all.
Shaun and his sister Beth struggle to save the life of this man so like Leven as to be identical, although he has no memory of Shaun or anything that’s happened to him.
When their struggle becomes one of escaping their own tyrannical parents and violent past, it is Beth’s wild, uncontrollable art that brings to them the clues Shaun needs to piece together where Leven has been, what happened to him there, who’s coming for him now. . .and how only a fine thread of precognition hangs between London and oceanic apocalypse.
Before it’s too late, Shaun must recover this man’s memory— The memory of water.
BODY OF WATER
2011 - Novel
The #1 Kindle Gay Fiction Best Seller, Body of Water, is the first novel in the Orcadian Trilogy, and 1 of 10 books long-listed for the Polari First Book Prize for a first book which explores the LGBT experience:
“Fear the water.”
Leven has never forgotten his mother’s terrible warning. So how can he explain his strange attraction to water, his powerful sensitivity to it, his extraordinary ability to swim as though possessed?
Water is Leven’s natural element.
And it’s water that takes the one he loves and destroys everything he’s ever called his own.
Set on the Orkney Islands in the mysterious realm of Selkie mythology, Leven’s story of lost identity, lost love, and the search for redemption leads him from London to a terrifying meeting with the dark and volatile man who will change his heart forever.
Something in the water is coming for Leven.
But can a man born of chaos ever calm the storm?
