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About me

My name is Graeme Shimmin. I was born in Manchester, UK in 1967, so I’ll never see England win the World Cup. According to my mother, my first word was ‘Satellite’. It was downhill from there.

Graeme Shimmin - Author Photo

After graduating from Hazel Grove High School and Durham University, I lived in Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK for several years. Despite this, I still have a soft spot for Newcastle United F.C.. I worked freelance for various rapacious financial institutions on a series of dysfunctional, disastrous and/or otherwise doomed projects until 2003, when I decided to throw it all away and become a writer.

However, there’s only one way to make a small fortune as a writer: start with a large fortune. The subsequent almost total reduction in income lead to me moving to Donegal, Republic of Ireland, for three years to live in a cottage with half a roof. Eventually I came back to do an MA in Creative Writing. The weather is better in Manchester, so that’s something.

Major publishers Transworld (a division of Penguin Random House) bought and published my novel A Kill in the Morning in June 2014. You can read the opening here: the first two chapters of A Kill in the Morning.

A Kill in the Morning was shortlisted for the Terry Pratchett First Novel Award, won the YouWriteOn Book of the Year, and the Alternate History Book of the Year, and was chosen as one of five Book Plank Debut Novels of the Year. Lots of people said nice things about it (and some said mean things too, but you can’t please everyone).

A Kill in the Morning was also considered for the Arthur C. Clarke Award, losing out to Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie, who, rather greedily, won all the major awards that year.

Since my big break, I’ve worked as a writer and editor for novels, video-games, television and Hollywood. Everything I’ve written has ended up stuck in development hell, but that’s what professional writing is like, I guess.

I’m open to work, so you’d like my help with your project, then please email me (to discuss the creative aspects) or my agents AM Heath (to discuss contracts and money).

Apart from that, as I have a dog, my only remaining ambition is to live forever.

Graeme Shimmin: Interviews

Manchester Metropolitan University

International Thriller Writers

Civilian Reader

Book Plank

Alternate History Weekly Update

Sealion Press

Graeme Shimmin: Media Pack

Includes frequently asked questions about me and about A Kill in the Morning, contact details, author and book cover photos, etc.

Download the Media Pack here.

Writing Group

I’m also heavily involved in the Manchester Speculative Fiction Writing Group.

You never write, you never call…

If you’d like to stay in touch with the life and increasingly bizarre times of Graeme Shimmin, then click on the links below.

  • Facebook: for articles, competitions and free stuff
  • Twitter: for news, links and chat
  • Quora: for questions and answers and my caption competition
  • Pinterest: for artwork, posters and book covers
  • Goodreads: for reviews of my books
  • LinkedIn: for professional stuff