Past Me is a bit of a nightmare!

I've mentioned my diary before. It's one of those 5-year ones which has just enough space for a tweet-length analysis of my day. Sometimes I love immersing myself in the events of the previous year or the year before that. Sometimes, I can't read them, because I know those entries contain painful memories. And sometimes, …

Charging onwards!

A couple of weeks ago, I was frazzled - emotionally and mentally - so my best friend took me to her allotment and let me sit while she worked (only the bestest of friends do that!!) And this was the view that helped to soothe me. Isn't it gorgeous? It was a warm September day …

Research: the best and worst of it

My current WIP is accidentally historical. And current. And possibly a little bit into the future (but that's a whole other matter). I normally avoid writing about the past because I don't like research. Or, I do, but I get so involved I forget there's a book to write. But my character is 80, so …

Drowning in words!

I've simultaneously got too many and yet not enough words! And what words I do have seem to be spectacularly in the wrong order... After spending a couple of weeks hiding from my critique partners' comments, I opened the file of my novel-in-progress and started to work my way through my notes, their notes, and …

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 …

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 …

Stuck in Covid

I've got eleven days to write, edit, polish and submit a short story to a very prestigious short story competition, the Manchester Fiction Prize. Well, I've got something written, but I'm not sure it can actually be called a short story - it's currently a jumble of words with the Covid pandemic as its central …

I’ve finished and just started…

Hello! Today I've watched the FIFA World Cup Final - still feeling a bit gutted England weren't in it, but excited for the next stage of their development - and completed the first draft/very detailed outline of my next project. I'd aimed to write the draft, aiming for 20,000 words, in June. But as it …

Write with Fey

Hello, dear readers! Today I'm welcoming another guest to share her book with you - this time Chrys Fey, whose new book will help you navigate the world of writing and publishing. I'm still busy querying my novel, gearing up to write a new one (I'm planning another month-long blitz, so I've been jotting down the …

The end, the end, the very very end…

My novel is complete. It's been sent for editing - the lovely Karen Sanders removed a million extraneous commas - and I've looked over the notes, and now it's done. Completely and utterly done! Next, I have to decide what I want to do with it. I'd like to submit it, either to an agent …