If you are a parent of a primary aged child or work in a primary school this is unlikely to be news. As a kidlit author I am, probably obviously, all in favour of anything that encourages children to read. World Book Day and the National Year of Reading in the UK are great initiatives that hopefully make a difference. Reading is fun and the benefits go way beyond falling into a fantasy world that won’t let go, amazing as that is in itself.

Tell me about your book It’s a YA reverse portal fantasy with a queer romance arc – a sweet, naïve mage from a ‘perfect’ world finds his way to ours and has to navigate it. Luckily, he has the help of an awkward, nerd who has always loved fantasy stories and believed in magic. It’s very cosy and wholesome, with lots of tea and libraries.

I am including Small Press Books as Indie Books. Given their small teams the members can be called to multi task and they do not have the reach of the larger and more well known publishers. Some are also authors themselves. As some of them told me 'they need all the help they can get'. I will talk about some of the presses themselves in another part of this series but for now here's some books you might like.

Thea is a queer writer of various types of SFF, including the Seer of York series published by Brigids Gate Press, and a number of short fiction works published by Eerie River Publishing, Bag of Bones Press, and others. She is currently querying cyberfae adventure Legend of the Bard. She’s also the British Fantasy Society Event Coordinator for Greater Manchester. See Thea’s upcoming events page for details of what they’re doing.

As an Indie author and a fan of Indie and Small Press books I am always keen to encourage others to read them. Throughout 2026 I will be sending a monthly newsletter with some examples you might want to take a look at. I have read or am reading the novels listed below. Having looked at this list I think I need to say I don’t always need a dead body in it to enjoy fiction!

Red - what is one of your favourite books?  Perfume by Patrick Suskind

Red - what is one of your favourite books?  My favorite book is a classic children’s picture book: The Little Engine That Could. Its positi

First all the books in these awards were read by me in 2023 but could have been published at any time up to and including 2022 (with the...

Thanks, Lily, for inviting me to be part of your guest author feature. When and how did you start writing? I've been writing since my...

First all the books in these awards were read by me in 2022 but could have been published at any time up to and including 2022 (with the...