10 Things I Love About Being a Writer

Photo by Jacqueline Munguía on Unsplash I've recently found myself slowly falling into a bit of a negative mood. Some of you are probably feeling the same. Dreary February, combined with lockdown and uncertainty, a deep wish to return to work, and the feeling that I'm repeating myself in these posts 😉 So today I'm …

Interview with… Phill Provance

It's time for another interview with a fantastic writer. This month, it's Phill Provance. In addition to his most recent poetry collection A Plan in Case of Morning (Vine Leaves Press), Phill’s books include two works of nonfiction, A Brief History of Woodbridge, New Jersey (The History Press 2019) and Postcards of McHenry County, Illinois (The History Press 2021), the …

Distraction and procrastination

The beta reads for WIP 1 are coming back. The general consensus is it's good, messy, and stuff doesn't work (but not the same stuff for each reader, which is to be expected). And in response to their notes, I've made my own notes of what needs to change which doesn't even correspond to anyone …

Weird dreams!

I normally write my blog posts on Sundays because I like them to go out early on Monday mornings. I was all discombobulated yesterday, so I didn't. And then this morning, I woke up at 3.30am, got up at 4.30, and basically my morning has been on a downhill trajectory ever since. So, I'm just …

January

January is my nemesis. It's dark and dreary and haunts me, and it's twice the length of any other month. Sometimes, it's even longer than that! A canine representation of my usual January despair. You can almost hear the huffing from here, can't you? But not this year. In a strange inversion of reality, being …

Interview with… Joanne Nelson

It's author interview time, and I'm delighted to introduce you to Joanne Nelson. Joanne is the author of the memoir, This is How We Leave available from Vine Leaves Press. Her writing appears in anthologies and literary journals such as Brevity, the Citron Review,the museum of americana,Consequence, and Redivider. In addition, she is a contributor …

Look for the sunshine

This photo was taken on a beautiful day. Cold, blue skies, sunny - wrapped up in my hat and gloves, it was glorious. Then I turned 180O and saw these doom-laden clouds. They didn't remain long, they didn't unleash a torrential downpour; I turned away, and the rest of the walk remained perfect. I avoid …

New Book Out This Year!

Happy New Year! This isn't a New Year post, I did that last week - it's the first Monday of the month, so this is a post about my writing projects. This time last year I was preparing for the release of Grace & Serenity. And oh, what plans I had for books signings and …

Farewell, 2020

I've written three posts for today - varying themes and tones, not quite settling on what I want to say. In fact, I don't think I want to say anything - a bizarre state of affairs for a writer! But there are only so many times you can say the same thing. We've all suffered …

Interview with… Tom Gillespie

For my final interview of the year I'm delighted to be joined by Tom Gillespie, author of The Strange Book of Jacob Boyce. Tom is a novel and short fiction writer. His stories have been published worldwide in journals, e-zines and creative anthologies including East of the Web, Linden Literary Review, The Ogilvie. His work …