My Writing Year 2017

Today, as tradition requires, I shall be looking back at all the lovely things (writing and otherwise) that I've done during 2017. Many thanks to those of you who made the journey with me.

January - I started the year with the usual teacakes and goal setting with writing chum, Tracy Fells, and I shall be posting how I got on with them after Christmas. I re-joined the RNA New Writers' Scheme. The People's Friend made a new audio of one of my stories, 'Out of the Dark' which you can read here . Merryn Allingham was guest on my blog talking about her inspiration for The Buttonmaker's Daughter. Vivien Hampshire wrote a guest post for me on how to say thank you.

February -  The sixth anniversary of the day I started writing. Louise Jensen was my guest, talking about psychological thrillers. Simon Whaley was guest on my blog, talking about the business of writing.

March - We had a lovely weekend away in the grounds of a medieval abbey in Dorset and Alex Gazzola wrote a guest post on the mistakes writers make. I went on a ballroom weekend in Bournemouth and started writing my second novel.

April - I wrote an article for The People's Friend about a bread making course I'd been on and wrote a blog post on how to make your hobbies work for you. Margaret Mounsden wrote a post for me on writing pocket novels. Deirdre Palmer was my guest talking about writing a sequel. Went on a jive weekend to Hayling Island.

May - I interviewed Lynda Stacey. Had a wonderful holiday in Cadgwith Cove, Cornwall.

June - Liz Eeles was guest on my blog. I interviewed commonwealth regional prizewinner, Tracy Fells. Went on a weekend to Bath with my daughter to find Mr Darcy. Went to the RNA Summer Party.

July - Took an afternoon tea bus tour of London with my daughter. Went to the RNA Conference and interviewed Susan Griffin about what it was like to be an RNA Conference newbie.

August - Wendy's Writing Now had its sixth birthday. Alison Maynard wrote a blog post on her five tips for editing a novel. Sonja Price wrote a post for me on writing a novel set in unfamiliar territory. Finished writing my second novel and it received a glowing critique from my RNA New Writing Scheme reader. I sadly parted company with my agent. My article on the ballroom weekend in Bournemouth was published in The People's Friend.

September - Debbie Howells wrote a post about her latest psychological thriller. We had our annual holiday to Greece - this time to beautiful Paxos.  My novel pitch in the #TellAMH twitter event was a winner.

October - Alison Morton wrote a blog post on what not to do when self-publishing. Vivien Hampshire wrote a post on an insider's guide to a blog tour. It was publication day for my third story collection, Silent Night. I wrote a post on book marketing for dummies. I was a guest on Clare Flynn's blog. The commissioning editor of a major publishing house requested to read manuscripts of both novels. I was on Lynda Stacey's blog, talking about seeing Christmas through other people's eyes. Angela Petch interviewed me on her blog. I was guest on Anne Hamilton's blog. I was interviewed by Debbie at Brook Cottage Books, Emma at Books and Winegums and Rosie Hendry. I was invited to put an extract from Silent Night on Books in the My Handbag blog.

November - I wrote a post on editing out banned words. I went to the RNA Winter Party. I wrote a post on making Twitter Banners and adverts. I was guest on Karen Aldous' blog talking about the five things not to do at Christmas, the RNA blog where I discussed moving from short story to novel and Katrina Marie's blog talking about weaving Christmas memories into my story collection.  Had a week on La Gomera. 

December - I was interviewed by Morton Gray and Anne at Books and Authors. Full manuscript for first novel was requested by an agent. Second novel was shortlisted in Flash500 novel opening and synopsis competition. 

** Since writing this post my novel has won the Flash500 novel opening and synopsis competition! **

I haven't mentioned my story publications in this post as it would have taken too long to find them but I do have two in the Christmas special edition of The People's Friend which is out this week.

I'm feeling rather exhausted now!

And that's it folks. Apart from letting you know that as a special Christmas present (and a reward for wading through this post) I have reduced the price of the ebook version of all my short story collections to 99p for the Christmas week. Yes... all three of them!

Why not treat yourself on Amazon

Let's Celebrate a New Writing Year!

Hap... Hap... Happy New Year! 

I hope 2017 brings you everything you hope for.

On Wednesday, in time-honoured tradition, writing chum, Tracy Fells, and I got together to set out our writing goals for 2017. As we sat in our favourite cafe with our coffee and teacakes, we found ourselves looking back to the same day one year ago. We remembered how excited we were at having finished our novels and how the talk was all about where we would be in a year's time.  

2016 was to be 'The Year of the Novel' for us both but, as everyone knows, things don't always go to plan. I was incredibly lucky to find an agent fairly quickly but getting a novel ready for publication, in a format that everyone is happy with, hasn't been a simple process. I haven't talked a lot about it recently as things have been a bit up in the air.

Anyway, this leads me on to my targets for 2017 (or rather lack of them).

I will be putting my yearly targets on my blog but not until I've met with my agent in a couple of week's time. They have a new project they want to discuss with me and until that has happened, I can't really plan anything. You'll have to watch this space.

In the meantime, 2017 has started with a bang! I've already had two story sales and, at the time of writing, have five stories on sale in the shops - one in The People's Friend Special, two in Woman's Weekly Fiction Special, and two in Take a Break Fiction Feast (I can't imagine that happening again!). One of the stories was a ghost story but two were a new genre for me - crime mystery.

I was also excited to discover that the People's Friend have made a new audio of one of my stories, Out of the Dark. I loved this one and found it very moving as there is a lot of me in it (I had to hold my husband's hand when the reader got to the tube station scene as it brought back unsettling memories).

You can listen to my story here.