Dorothy Says

ORDER GIVE HIM TO ME    

Read a Give Him To Me Extract

Click the link to read the first few chapters of Give Him To Me Give Him To Me Extract   And click here to buy: Buy Give Him To Me!    

December’s Big Reveal Book Club Choice is . . .

It’s taken me a while to send you December’s book choice because I have been doing so many events. Since the beginning of September, I’ve had at least one event a week – plus a few family issues to sort out and I have been flat out! Anyways, I’m hoping you’ll have a chance to read this book choicebe

Goal-Setting For Writers

People regularly ask me how I stay motivated when it comes to writing. And the short answer is: ‘because this is my job and I need to do it. I have a goal – usually in the shape of a deadline when the book needs to be delivered – and I have to get on with it.’ I have a goal. A specific goal. Because

The Big Reveal Book Club Choice Is. . .

As I’m sure I’ve told you before, as well as being a bestselling author, I am a HUGE reader and I love nothing better than to share the book love. So here I am, sharing the love with The Big Reveal Book Club. Last time the majority of you who answered the poll said you would love to have online book

Welcome To The Big Reveal Book Club!

As well as being a bestselling author, I am a HUGE reader and I love nothing better than to share when I find a book I adore. So here I am, sharing the book love with you via The Big Reveal Book Club. This book club is all about helping you to find your next favourite read, so I’ll be recommending a

Extract of Every Smile You Fake

Every Smile You Fake Extract Prologue Please take care of my baby. You’re the only one I can trust with him. His name is Arie. I don’t want to do this, but I have to. So please don’t try to find me. You’ll put him in danger. I’ll be in touch as soon as I can. X Part 1 Kez   16 May, Shoreham ‘Th

Are You A Natural-Born Profiler?

So how you doing? Hope things have been all right for you despite all that’s been going on. Cos it’s been a LOT hasn’t it? I’ve spent a lot of time trying to regroup, and I think I’m getting there. Hope you are, too. Anyways, I asked you a question about whether you’re a natural-born profiler? Do yo

Did I Tell You About How My Sewing Teacher Hated Me?

My sewing teacher hated me. There, I’ve said it. I’ve started this so many times and each time I abandon writing it down because I felt bad about revealing just how awful this woman was to me. I’ve felt ashamed that it happened. Why did she hate me, I hear you ask? Why indeed. To paraphrase Kez says

So, how do you deal with your friendly neighbourhood psychopath?

‘They’re over-represented in politics for sure.’ That’s what the clinical psychologist I spoke to when I was researching Give Him To Me told me when we discussed psychopaths. ‘You definitely meet more in every-day life than you do in say prisons, but they do seem to be over-represented in politics a

So I’ve finally admitted to myself I was dumped . . .

4-minute read My husband asked me the other day why I seemed so miserable recently. ‘You’ve finished the book, the sun’s (mostly) out and Sewing Bee is back on, what’s the matter?’ I had to finally admit to him and myself that mixed in with the sheer euphoria of finishing book 21, Give Him To Me, wa

Read An Every Smile You Fake Extract!

Just click the link or cover below and you’ll be able to read an exclusive extract of Every Smile You Fake. Enjoy!     EverySmileYouFake-extract

Flashy Birthday To You

Happy 1st Birthday My Other Husband paperback!! Remember when we had a flashmob down at the UpsideDown House on Brighton seafront to celebrate? Loved it so much.

Welcome to The Big Reveal!

I’ve got a new podcast! It’s called The Big Reveal and it is all about helping you to find your next favourite read, watch or listen. Have a listen to the trailer here: The Big Reveal Podcast This podcast is all about sharing the love on the things I consume in the hope that it will help you to find

Let’s Review, Shall We?

6-minute read Can a hater help you? One of mine did. I’ll tell you how in a minute or two because today we’re talking about the outside world and your writing. No matter where you are in the publishing process – just starting to send your stuff ‘out there’ to agents and publishers, just about to giv

Listen Up!

5-minute read   Hello you. How are you? Sorry to have missed you last week. And I did miss you, if that doesn’t sound too sentimental. I missed last week’s newsletter because I had to go to hospital for a procedure (I’m totally fine, please don’t worry) and newsletter-writing time got away from

Be More FuFu

5-minute read Hello you. My dog Fufu is small. And MIGHTY. And hilarious.  Jollof, Fufu’s physically bigger sister (they’re from the same litter), only really barks at people in the street who get too near to us, and bigger animals in the garden and the sounds of people sitting in their back gardens

That’s Me In The Corner

5-minute read There’s this face I make when I’m writing sometimes. It’s hard to describe (yes, I am aware of the irony of a writer writing that) but it’s a bit like this emoji: 😩 That’s the face I make when I realise I’ve written myself into a corner. I do it all the time. ALL. THE. TIME. With All M

Let’s Talk Character

6-minute read Hello you. It’s Word Count Wednesday and today, we’re talking character traits. I’ll be coming back to character building more than once, because I think when you’re writing fiction, character and plot are the two most important cornerstones to sucking readers in and then keeping them

Hay, Where Did You Go?

4-minute read   Hello you. ‘For two days she sat on the sofa in the window, waiting for you to come back.’ That’s what I was told about my biggest little dog when I got home yesterday. Poor Jollof honestly lay on the back of the sofa looking out of the window all day Friday and Saturday, waitin

Why Mary Poppins Was Wrong

6-minute read   Far be it from me to disrespect the iconic supernanny, but she honestly is. Before I explain why, let me ask: how’s your writing going this week? Have you actually done any writing? Or have you found a hundred trillion other things to do instead of just writing? Have you even st

Sew What Do I Do? (Pt 1)

6-minute read   Hello you. I’m going through an existential crisis and could do with your help to decide what to do. I need you to bear with me for a bit, though, while I explain. I need some new cushion covers. The cushions I have are more than a decade old. . . actually, I think most of them

Word Count Wednesday – Goal Setting

Hello you. I was really excited yesterday when I did the final readthrough of this letter to send out. I mean, kicking off Mentoring with Dorothy Koomson/The Happy Author is something I’ve been working really hard on and I love the idea of helping other people with their writing. But then, as it see

Saturdays In Sydney

5-minute read    Hello you How are you? Back in 2005 to 2007, I lived in a central suburb in Sydney, Australia. Not sure if you know that? If you took a walk or drive around Sydney on Saturday mornings, you’d find all manner of furniture and items left outside on the pavements of various proper

My Other Husband – Exclusive Extract

Click the link below to be taken to an exclusive extract of My Other Husband. Enjoy!   MyOtherHusband-Exclusive Extract   You can buy My Other Husband wherever you get your books, including: Afroribooks Where you can get personalised signed copies Amazon For eBooks and Audiobooks Bookshop

Setting Writing Goals Worksheet

  For those who’ve signed up for my Dorothy Koomson/The Happy Author mentoring newsletter, I’ve created this SETTING WRITING GOALS WORKSHEET that you can fill in if you feel it would be helpful for you on your writing journey. You don’t even have to physically fill it in – just think about the

Do you need a writing mentor?

Hello! It’s May 2022 and I’m launching the Happy Author with Dorothy Koomson Mentoring Group/Writing Circle, my newest way to help authors – especially new writers – on their writing journey. It’s basically remote group mentoring that’s, like, totally free. With this remote group mentoring, we’ll ha

New Book, New Title

I know it’s been a while, but it’s so good to be giving you the first look at my new book! Here it is…   https://www.dorothykoomson.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/someone-is-trying-to-frame-me-for-murder.mp4 My 18th book is about a mystery writer who is in the middle of a divorce. Things re

Terms & Conditions

Dorothy Koomson Prize Draw Terms & Conditions   This is a prize draw to win one copy of a Dorothy Koomson book. By entering this competition you are agreeing to sign up to the Dorothy Koomson newsletter and receive regular updates The winner will be selected at random at 11.59pm on the clos

The Television Advert!

https://youtu.be/z_e7B5gLs6M Hello! I am SO EXCITED to present the TELEVISION advert for #AllMyLiesAreTrue! 🎉🎉🎉 It is SO GOOD!! It’s voiced by Maria Gbeleyi, who is Verity from the audiobook, and airs from tomorrow. Let me know when you see it! I love it so much… 😍🥰 x #TheHappyAuthor #AllMyLiesAre

It’s a cover up!

https://youtu.be/vChQNtbq29A   It’s a cover up… All My Lies Are True is coming out in paperback THIS THURSDAY! Did you notice we’d changed the hardback cover? Do you want to know why? Well, it goes back to that saying – don’t judge a book by its cover. We say that, but the whole of the publis

Hello! I’m so excited to share with you my new adventure…The Happy Author! What is that exactly? Well, it’s a podcast and a series of posts that come together to form a writing guide for aspiring authors and anyone who loves books. ⁠ ⁠ Why? Because over many, many years I’ve been asked about the h

New Edition, New Cover

News klaxon!! All My Lies Are True has a brand new cover for paperback! I love the hardback cover (the model Jocelyn is as lovely as she is beautiful) but we’ve decided to change things up on the cover front. Have you noticed that a lot of books that come out in hardback change when they come to pap

What Black Panther did for me

I’d been waiting on the Black Panther film since I saw Captain America: Civil War in 2016. I’ve always been a comic book fan and have indulged my love with the movies over the years. So when it was released in February 2018, I walked into the cinema excited to see what the latest Marvel offering wou

THE ICE CREAM GIRLS: 8 BOOK & TV DIFFERENCES

         All My Lies Are True, the sequel to my bestselling novel The Ice Cream Girls, is just around the corner. If you haven’t read the book and only saw the TV mini-series loosely based on the book or decide to track down the series to watch instead of reading it, I need to let you know ther

Film & TV news

Not sure if you saw the news that the screen rights for Tell Me Your Secret have been optioned by Silver Milk and Nicholas Pinnock, who played Doctor Evan in the TV version of The Ice Cream Girls.

It’s Nearly Here . . .

Find out more about All My Lies Are True here: All My Lies Are True And buy it here: Buy All My Lies Are True

Exclusive extra scene

All My Lies Are True

Find out more about All My Lies Are True here: All My Lies Are True And buy it here: Buy All My Lies Are True

Mothering Heights

Read this guest post by Sharon Wright about her book, The Mother of the Brontës: When Maria Met Patrick I wrote the book that could never be written. Writing it took over my whole life for a long while but The Mother of the Brontës: When Maria Met Patrick is definitely, definitely written. So, I’m t

Find My Verity

Headline launches open casting call for the new Dorothy Koomson audiobook to bring more black voices to audiobook narration . . . Headline and Dorothy Koomson have launched an open casting call to find a new narrator for the audio edition of Dorothy Koomson’s eagerly awaited novel, All My Lies Are T

The Thing About Revenge. . .

In Tell Me Your Secret, one of the characters is out for revenge. Is she justified or will she be damaging herself and everyone around her?  ‘Revenge is a dish best served cold’ I think that’s the revenge quote I have heard most over the years. And it’s the one that makes the most sense: someone hur

Would You Survive A Serial Killer?

In Tell Me Your Secret, one of the characters survives a weekend with a serial killer. Would you manage to make it out alive? When I was researching Tell Me Your Secret, I read a lot about what it takes to survive a traumatic experience. In case you don’t know, my fifteenth novel is about two women

So THAT was 2019

I don’t normally document my year, I usually move on and will sometimes talk about my hopes for coming 12 months. But 2019 has been something of a wild ride and I had to get some of it down just so I could read it and weep or laugh. The last 12 months have been a wondrous, terrifying, strange journe

Book 16 is . . .

I’ve been working on Book number 16 for a number of months. This book is different to my other books and, actually, exactly the same for many, many reasons. I really hope you enjoy it. The secret’s out, but if you haven’t already seen it, here’s the news:   https://www.dorothykoomson.co.uk/wp-c

A Different Flavour of Title

I’m often asked if would I go back and revise anything I have written in my previous books. It’s a tempting thought, but even if I could, I wouldn’t. Admittedly, there are elements to my previous stories that I wouldn’t have written in the same way were I to be working on them today, but everything

Tell Me Your Secret Video Series – Ep 6

The countdown to publication continues with a fabulous competition! I’m giving one lucky person the chance to win a gorgeous pot inspired by TELL ME YOUR SECRET. And the best bit? It will have been lovingly painted by me! Watch the video clip to find out how to enter… #22Days ENTER HERE: https://sma

Tell Me Your Secret Video Series – Ep 5

Next episode in the TELL ME YOUR SECRET series is now out! The characters in my stories often have a ‘quirk’ or hobby. In this book, Pieta’s quirk resulted in me taking up pottery. Find out more: https://smarturl.it/TMYSpreorder

Tell Me Your Secret Video Series – Ep 4

Hello! This is the next episode of the #TellMeYourSecret video series. Today, we’re going to Brighton Marina to find out why it’s such an atmospheric setting for some of the book’s scenes. (I’m really working those hands in this vid!) Pre-order your copy (link: http://smarturl.it/TMYSpreorder) smart

Read the first 50 pages!

Just click on the cover to read the first 50 pages of Tell Me Your Secret.

Tell Me Your Secret Video Series – Ep 3

Hello! Episode 3 in the TELL ME YOUR SECRET video series is a special competition! You could be in with a chance to win some rather snazzy armwarmers AND get your hands on a limited-edition early reading copy of TELL ME YOUR SECRET! (You can see the prizes in the video.) [THIS COMPETITION IS NOW CLO

Tell Me Your Secret Video Series – Ep 2

This is episode 2 in the TELL ME YOUR SECRET video mini series. This time I’m talking about my main character, Pieta, who has a devastating secret, and how #Brighton & #Hove feature in her story… Enjoy! (I honestly tried very hard to keep the talking with my hands to a minimum!)    

Tell Me Your Secret Video Series – Ep 1

I recently filmed a series of short videos to give you a little insight into TELL ME YOUR SECRET. It’s all about the book’s characters, settings and my writing process. This is the first episode where I talk about the storyline. Enjoy!        

Just asking

Here are some answers to the questions I’m asked the most. If your question isn’t here do email me via the contact me page. I will do my best to get back to you. When is your next book coming out? My next new novel, Tell Me Your Secret, will be on sale in June. What order did you write your books in

The Dancers’ Stories

Music and dance play an integral role in my eleventh novel, When I Was Invisible. These videos tell their stories in a beautiful way.   This is Nika’s story   This is Roni’s story You can buy the paperback of When I Was Invisible here: When I was Invisible on Amazon

The Brighton Mermaid Extract

  Hurrah! Read an extended extract of my 14th novel.  Click on the image above or here on THE BRIGHTON MERMAID. And this video is of me reading an extract from The Brighton Mermaid.   Dorothy Koomson reads from The Brighton Mermaid  

THE FRIEND EXTRACT

It’s here! The first read of  The Friend. Click on the image above or on THE FRIEND EXTRACT to read the first few pages of my 12th novel. If you want to read more, you can sign up for my booky letter at: By Your Shelf and you’ll be emailed the passcode so you can read an extra 20 pages. Don’t forget

Total Fangirl

So, I went to the National Literacy Trust midsummer’s party last night. I am a huge supporter of their work and how they aim to help to lower and eventually eradicate the high levels of illiteracy in this country. It’s only when you hear the patrons of the charity talk that you’re reminded how so ma

My events

  Keep checking back here for news of my new events. And don’t forget to sign up for my newsletter to be kept up to date on the new stuff I’m up to.

The Two Ice Cream Girls

It’s a little-known fact that my readers often make me cry. They do so by telling me how my books have deeply moved them. With The Ice Cream Girls, I have had numerous emails from people all over the world telling me how the book changed their lives or the life of someone they know. Such as the 60-y

From There To Here

To whet your appetitie for my tenth novel That Girl From Nowhere, I’ve penned this short prequel called FromThereToHere. It basically tells the story of what the main character Clemency ‘Smitty’ Smittson’s life was like there in Leeds and how she ends up here in Brighton, where most of the present-d

What Is A Literacy Hero

At the end of 2013, to celebrate 20 years of working to improve literacy skills, The National Literacy Trust launched a national  search for Literacy Heroes – people who have overcome problems with reading and writing, or helped inspire other people to improve their literacy skills. I’m a supporter

Why That Girl From Nowhere slept in a cardboard box

A couple of years ago, when I was starting to flesh out the story for my tenth novel, That Girl From Nowhere, my husband mentioned a story he had read on babies sleeping in cardboard boxes. I’d being thinking a lot about babies being left in cardboard boxes on the steps of churches and hospitals fro

The Flavours Of Love Muffins

In The Flavours of Love, Saffron Mackleroy spends a lot of time trying to find out which foods can be combined together so they make up the flavours of love. It’s the only way she can start to move on after her husband’s murder and to handle the new devastation that has arrived in her life. One of t

This is where it all started

The Cupid Effect was my first novel to be published and it recently received a revamp with a new cover, which is why I wrote a new introduction to it, explaining why it is so special to me.     It’s 3.30 a.m. on a dark October morning and I’m wide awake because I’ve just finished writing m

Teapots & Islands

I had a reminder this month why I need to do more when I attended a local event. Last week, I went to an event hosted by artist and book lover Sue-Kim Steele Green in Hove. The event featured the divine Bethan Roberts, who very kindly took part in 2014 Hove Book Festival, and Carola De Mese an artis

That Girl From Nowhere, The Whistle-stop Tour

If you’ve been following my exploits on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram, then you’ll know I’ve been doing a lot of running around since publication of my tenth novel, That Girl From Nowhere. On publication day I went with one of the lovely peeps from my publishers to see Claudia Winkleman, Donna from

Easy-Peasy Frozen Yoghurt

If you’ve read The Flavours of Love you’ll know that the main character, Saffron, is holding a bowl of blackberries when she receives some devastating news. While she eventually decides to use blackberries in a recipe that also has some significance to her, I’ve come up with this one that I hope you

From There To Here

March 20, 2015Me and this diary malarkey. Plus a short story for you. Let’s face it, I’m super rubbish at updating my diary. I mean to, I honestly do, but then life kind of gets in the way and suddenly weeks, months and years have gone past and I haven’t updated with anything new. So, please accept

Dear Library

Dear Library (Every Public Library), I wanted to tell you how much I love you. I would not be the person I am today without you. You were always there for me, throughout my life. You were there, when I was a child and on the way home from school I would drop in and spend hours reading – nurturing an

You Wear It Well

Way back in 2007, I attended a library talk in Birmingham. It was a great event and I met some really nice people (as I did on all the library talks/events I participated in). I remember, though, the lovely librarian at that particular event said to me when she met me, ‘I picked out my outfit for to

10 years on the shelves

I was living in South London at the time and went up to central London to be interviewed by a reporter from The Voice newspaper at Borders in Oxford Street. I didn’t know how I’d feel when I saw a book on with my name on it. Excited, proud, a little shocked. I’d spent so long wanting to be published