At the 2012 UK Meet, held in Brighton, the opening session was “Novel Openings”, where writers from a number of sub-genres read out the opening (first 150 words – at least that’s what the guidelines said!) to one of their stories. I volunteered to take part, and read out the …
Something I’ve often told people about myself, but rarely explained its significance, is that I spent two summers working as a crew-girl on a hotel narrowboat pair. For anyone who needs a translation, that means I spent two summers travelling around the inland waterways of England, living aboard a traditional …
I’ve had this last week off from my day-job. Not something I often do, taking a full week off, but I had enough days of annual leave left (our year runs Apr-Mar so nearly at an end), and it was my birthday last Monday so I thought “Why not?” I …
A couple of weeks ago, I finally got as absolutely as far as I could on my own with my WW2 story “Under Leaden Skies”. After a last check through, I sent it off to the publisher I pitched it to* back in September and decided a small celebration was …
I had to prune a few branches out of the Christmas tree, in order to make space for baubles to hang from rather than just sit on branches. “You could make a wreath for the front door from them,” husband suggested. So I asked Google how to do this, and …
In less than an hour it will officially be Advent, as the 1st Sunday of Advent falls in November this year, and in our family (as with several other families), means the start of mince pie eating season. Hence calling it Mince Pie Sunday. A few years ago I made …
I’m considering choosing which story to write next based on how many different places the tale takes place in. Having spent arggh-many hours finding out, reading up on, looking at pictures of, and in some cases visiting, all the different places, aircraft and buildings which my main characters in Under …
The Wales Rally GB were around near our village last week. It doesn’t usually affect me as I tend to stick to the main roads once winter weather starts coming in but this year it co-incided with a week when I was heading over to Mach for Write Club on …
I’ve been thinking a bit recently about my reasons for writing stories, and realised it can’t ever be pinned down because each story has its own reason for me writing it. Some stories are about exploring a mood, some stem from learning something really cool* and wanting to share it …
On the verge of a Weekend of Geekery – we’re off to a model railway exhibition at a vintage vehicle museum tomorrow, and on Sunday we’ll be at RAF Museum Hendon (where the Sunderland is! I’ve been wanting to go there since I first decided to feature on Sunderland flying …