My Goals of 2015 - Did I Succeed?

It's time to say goodbye to 2015 and hello to a new writing year.

As usual, at the beginning of the year, I sat down with writing chum Tracy Fells over teacakes and set myself some writing goals for the year - you can read the full post here.

So how did I do?

Below are the goals in brief and whether or not I achieved them.

Goal: To continue to write one short story a week.
Achieved? Sort of. I can't say that I wrote a story absolutely every week for the whole year (due to holidays etc.) but I did manage to keep up the output most weeks even while writing the novel.

Goal: Write at least 40,000 words of my novel by the end of August to submit to the RNA New Writers' scheme reader.
Achieved? Yes! I sent 54,000 words to the reader and completed the novel (85,000 words) in September.

Goal: Go to the RNA conference
Achieved? Yes! I went, I saw... I conquered (my tube phobia). It was a great weekend and you can read all about it here.

Goal: To self-publish another collection of magazine stories.
Achieved? Yes! I published The Last Rose (Stories of family and Friendship) in March. This collection contains stories from The People's Friend, Take a Break Fiction Feast and Woman's Weekly and I am thrilled with it.

Which leads me very nicely to my end of year present to you. The last Rose is on Kindle Countdown for one week only at a bargain price of 99p! So if you had a new e-reader for Christmas, it might be a welcome addition to your collection. You can buy it here from Amazon.

All that's left is to wish you all  a very Happy New Year and I hope you will continue to enjoy my blog in 2016.

A Dance, a Date, a Garden Centre and a Cracking Deal!

A bonus post this week where I share the inspiration behind my stories in this week's People's Friend Weekly and the Special.

 First there is Dance Fever. It's a story very personal to me. As most of you will know, I love dancing - all types, but my first love was modern jive. I have written many stories about dancing and also many posts... you can read them....here

A few years ago, I went to a dance class and was saddened at the way some of the men showed off, throwing their women around and making out they knew it all. Although I was a competent dancer, I still wanted a courteous dance partner, someone who would make me feel special on the dance floor. I found him in Fred... who was wheelchair bound. This story is for him.

The man in the next illustration, in my story Sowing the Seeds  (in the People's Friend special) was someone who I saw in a garden centre while I was having coffee. He looked sad until the woman who was serving behind the counter went over and talked to him, and I wondered what his story was. I like to think that this was it.

My other story in The Friend Special, called First Night Nerves, was inspired by a friend of mine who had split up from her husband. After they had been separated a while, they started seeing each other again as if for the first time. This is the story of their first date nerves.

If anyone reading this would like to read more of my People's Friend stories, I have reduced the price of my romance collection, Room in Your Heart to 99p for one week only.

You can buy it here at Amazon