I have been writing books since I was a teenager. Under the pen-name T.O.Munro, I have a successful self-published fantasy trilogy and have contributed short stories to speculative fiction anthologies. I also review books and write articles for Fantasy Faction and The Fantasy Hive. I have been a judge and team leader for Mark Lawrence’s Self-Published Fantasy Blog Off (SPFBO) as part of The Fantasy Hive judging team. I have also been a judge in flash fiction competitions for the that thorn guy website.

I have taken a break from a career in education to study creative writing at Queen’s University Belfast, securing an MA with Distinction in Creative Writing in 2020, and completing a PhD in Creative Writing in 2023. As a postgraduate student I have taught undergraduate Creative Writing workshops and provided feedback on students’ submissions. I have assessed student summative assignments for first and second year undergraduates. I also teach an Open learning Creative Writing course in Genre Fiction at Queen’s. 

As a PhD student I have delivered research papers on speculative fiction at various conferences and mentored other PhD students in their study.

For some years, I have been beta reading the work of friends within the speculative fiction community – including both traditionally published and self-published authors. My feedback has included aspects of plot development, characterisation and story structure as well as basic copy editing.