Confessions of an RNA Conference Newbie - Guest Post Susan Griffin

What's it like to be a first timer at an RNA Conference? I thought I'd ask this question to friend and fellow writer, Susan Griffin. who attended this year's conference at Harper Adams University. Susan is a member of the RNA New Writers' Scheme.

This was your first RNA conference, Sue. What made you decide to go?

I was keen to meet other Facebook writers and to get to know more about the publishing industry and how it works.

You’ve been back from the conference a week now. Looking back, what was the highlight of your weekend?

The highlight of the conference was my two one-to-one pitches which I found really helpful.

Tell me a little about how it felt to be a ‘first timer’ and what was done to make you to feel welcome?

I immediately felt part of the whole conference experience despite being a first timer as soon as I arrived. Everyone was very helpful and friendly and there was a welcome drinks get together, in the lovely Kate Thomson’s kitchen. This helped me to connect with other first timers and break the ice.

A big part of the RNA conference is the one-to-one sessions with industry professionals. I know you took advantage of a couple of these. How did you prepare for them?

I prepared by writing notes on the novel I was pitching to the agents. This included key things about the novel I was likely to get asked, and anything I felt they needed to know about me. I also noted down a couple of questions I wanted to ask them.

I’m guessing you were nervous before your sessions. Do you have any hints for first timers on how to remain calm?

I did feel nervous about my one-to-ones and felt the best way to overcome this was to be well prepared.

The talks and workshops were many and various. If you could pick out two that were particularly helpful to you, which would they be?

The two workshops I found most helpful were: Playing with Time in Romantic Fiction, by Pia Fenton and Anna Belfrage, and Building Characters from the inside out, by Fiona Harper.

You’ve told us about the business side of things, what about the social aspect? As a first timer, was it daunting being with so many other writers?

It was good to meet with other writers I’ve only communicated with before through Facebook or Twitter. I enjoyed chatting to them and hearing about their publishing experiences.

Any tips on what to take with you?

Coffee and tea are provided so I took milk, snacks and my favourite tipple of Gin & Tonic (essential). Other than that, comfortable clothes and a dress for the Gala dinner is all you need.

Did this year’s conference, make you want to go to another?

Yes it did and I fully intend to go to the conference again next year in Leeds.

What is the main thing you’ve taken back from the RNA conference 2017?

A better idea of the way the publishing industry works and some very valuable feedback from the literary agent Felicity Trew.

Any tips for first timers thinking of going to the 2018 conference in Leeds?

Don’t feel worried about attending the conference, even if you’re thinking of going on your own. There is so much you can learn and experience while there, you’ll come away full of enthusiasm for your writing and with added knowledge about the whole industry.

Contact Susan:

Twitter @suegriffinwriter

Facebook 

Website

Susan's novel, Bird in a Gilded Cage can be bought at Amazon

So That's What You've Been Doing!

'How's the writing going?'

'Finished the novel yet?'

'When can I read it?'

'Still writing the short stories?'

'What? You didn't go to the RNA Conference!'

I notice you didn't write a blog post on Sunday - not giving up are you?

These are just some of the things that have been said to me in the last couple of weeks. Some by writers and some by non-writers. So I thought I'd make this blog post a bit of a catch up.

How's the writing going?

Actually it's going very well. As many of you know, every month I get together with writer friend, (and hard task master) Tracy Fells, for teacakes and goal setting. Last month's goal was to write a chapter by chapter summary of my novel, write and sub two short stories and (as a bonus) make a start on the new draft of my novel for my agent, Eve White. I'm happy to say I worked very hard, completing the first two goals and also finishing the novel edits ready for their final read through. 

Finished the novel yet?

Getting a novel fit for publication is a slow old progress. Agents don't want to send anything out until they're 100% happy with it. If it gives the novel a better chance, then I don't care how many drafts I have to do (within reason!). I'm keeping my fingers crossed that with this draft I shall be a little closer to my goal.

When can I read it?

It won't be for a long while yet!

Still writing the short stories?

Yes! I still write two stories a month (mainly for The People's Friend) and am still getting regular sales. I even sold two to Take a Break Fiction Feast that I'd forgotten I'd sent (one of which was my first ever sci-fi). For anyone who's interested in reading my stories, I have a story in the latest Fiction Feast, two stories in the new People's Friend Special (out Wednesday) and one in the latest People's Friend weekly (also out on Wednesday).

What? You didn't go to the RNA Conference!

Not this year, no. It was in Lancaster and, as I'm not a great traveller, I felt it was a bit far. Also, I wanted to devote every bit of time to my writing. It's at an important stage and I didn't want any distractions. I had a great time last year though. It's hard to believe that when I went I had only written a quarter of my novel and having an agent was still just a dream. As well as having great talks and workshops, the conference gave me faith in my work in progress - as my opening chapter was favourably received by two editors from publishing houses. It made me want to rush home and finish it. If you are a new writer, I would definitely recommend going - if only for the one-to-ones.

I notice you didn't write a blog post on Sunday - not giving up are you?

Nooo! But I might be cutting down just a teensy bit. At the moment, my novel has to take priority over everything else but I will still be blogging and have some great guest blogs lined up for you. In fact, next week, I am delighted to welcome back the fabulous Becca Puglisi from the website Writers Helping Writers. What writer hasn't heard of The Emotion Thesaurus? I'm very lucky as Becca is a very busy lady, but she's taken time out to answer questions about her, and her co-writer Angela Ackerman's, new 'Setting' thesauruses. Don't miss it!

So, for those who asked, my writing is going very well. I have new goals for this month and I've already made a good start so hopefully I'll have positive things to report to Tracy in August.

The RNA New Writers' Scheme - My First Year

In last week's post (which you can read here) I talked about the reasons why I decided to join the Romantic Novelists' Association (RNA) New Writers' Scheme (NWS). Today I'll be looking back on my first year and thinking about what this has meant for my writing career.

A week ago, I left you with an image. I was opening the email telling me that I'd successfully been enrolled onto the scheme... yippee! After congratulating myself, I decided I needed to sit down and think carefully about the coming year. As I said in my post last week, my novel just wasn't happening: I hadn't been giving it enough time and, with no deadline, there was every likelihood that it would never get finished.. 

This was certainly no way to carry on. Did I think my novel idea was good? Yes. Did I want to complete it? Yes. Did I want others to enjoy it? Definitely. I needed to give myself a kick up the backside and what better way to do this than by giving myself a deadline. I knew the end of August was the last opportunity to submit to the NWS reader for a critique - this could be it. 

Now I'm not suggesting that waiting until the last minute to submit a novel is a good idea (the poor readers are inundated with late submissions) but I had to give myself enough time to have a reasonable amount to send. I needed to give myself a target - a concrete number of words to complete - and I needed someone who would keep me on the straight and narrow and have the stick waiting when I was slacking. Who better than lovely writing buddy, Tracy. After much discussion (and teacakes) we came up with the magic number - a minimum of 40,000 words. Of course I could have said that I should have the whole novel finished by August (which would have been much better) but I wanted my expectations to be realistic and I also wanted what I sent to be the best it could be.

With a word count to aim for, I found I had more focus and drive and, as the months went by, the novel started to take on a greater importance in my writing life. I wanted to talk about it... share the experience with others. What better way to do this than to join in some of the RNA events (you can find a list of them here). I'd already been to the Winter Party the previous year as a guest but it was time to get my teeth into something a little meatier - the RNA Conference. Last year it was held in London so, in July, I trotted along to St Mary's College in Mile End. I spent a wonderful weekend attending talks, meeting other writers and, best of all, having one to one sessions with publishing editors. To be told that the first chapter of my novel suggested it was a marketable story idea was music to my ears. (You can read my post called Ten things I've learnt from my first RNA Conference here.)

With renewed enthusiasm, I came home and wrote and wrote. By August I had written 54,00 words - more than my target. I sent it off and then I waited... and waited. I carried on writing and eventually, on September 20th, I finished it. My post The Day I Wrote The End is here.

When I eventually received my critique back from my reader, I was delighted. They'd obviously read what I'd sent them carefully and their observations were neatly labelled under 'plot', 'character' etc. The comments were thoughtful and very positive and luckily a lot of the suggestions they made were things that I'd already addressed in the final half of the novel (the problem with only sending a partial). It was the final comment that stayed with me though -  'This novel deserves to be read'. It was worth joining the NWS just for that!

So where am I now, a year on? I've researched agents and started to send the novel out. It's early days yet but one thing I do know... being in the New Writers' Scheme was what gave me the confidence to finish my novel and start the second. It you're new to the scheme this year or thinking about joining it in the future... good luck with your writing and I hope it gives you the boost you're looking for.

You can find out more about the RNA NWS here.

My Writing Year 2015

Today I am going to be looking back at all the lovely things that have happened in 2015 (excluding general story sales or publications).

January - The year started as usual with teacakes and goal setting with writing chum, Tracy Fells. I joined the RNA New Writers' Scheme and author Ben Adams wrote a guest  post.

February - Met Karen Aldous in London for a celebrity make-over with daughter Gemma as a prize win.

March - A fanfare to celebrate the Publication and Launch party for story collection The Last Rose. As part of my bog tour I was guest on these  blogs The Write Romantics, Anne Harvey, Write Minds Write Place, Karen Aldous, Ben Adams, Never too Late to Write.

April - My first serial, Charlotte's War, was published in The People's Friend. I had an article published in Writing Magazine on writing serials. Patsy Collins and Samantha Tonge were blog guests. Went to the Riot Jive Weekend on Hayling Island.

May - Had a wonderful holiday to Vengen in Switzerland and a weekend at Corfe Castle. Alison May was my blog guest. I am guest on A Woman's Wisdom blog.

June - Had three lovely guests on my blog: Julie Shackman, Malcolm Welshman and The People's Friend Fiction editor, Shirley Blair talking about writing serials for the magazine.

July - I attended my first RNA Writers' Conference in London. Deirdre Palmer was my blog guest and I had a lovely boating holiday on the Kennet and Avon Canal.

August - Entered the #PitchCB contest and had two agents 'favourite' my novel pitch. Had a story in The People's Friend Annual 2016. Merryn Allingham was my blog guest. I was asked to be competition judge for the SWWJ John Walter Salver award.

September - Had my second serial, Life at Babcock published in The People's Friend magazine. I was interviewed by Doug McPherson for his article on breaking into serials in Writers' Forum. Writing chum Tracy Fells and I joined forces to discuss writing buddies in Lyn Hackles' 'Novel Ideas' column in writing Magazine. I was featured author on the Writing and Wellness blog. Had a weekend in Bordeaux with my girlfriends. Went on a wonderful research trip to Skopelos and Alonissos and finally finished my novel.

October - Sold my 100th story to The People's Friend. Samantha Tonge and Julia Gibbs were guests on my blog.

November - Went to the RNA Winter Party in London. Patsy Collins and Leonora Frances were my blog guests. I was guest on Elaina James' and Susanna Bavin's blogs. Had my novel back from my RNA NWS reader.

December - I was special guest at the SWWJ Christmas tea in London, along with Sir Tim Rice, where I awarded the prizes for the story competition. Had four Christmas stories published in magazines. I was guest on Rachel Brimble's  blog.

Now I'm off to have a sherry and a mince pie so all that's left is to wish all you lovely readers a very Happy Christmas and thank you all for supporting my blog through another year!

The Day I Typed THE END!

Today I am celebrating the moment I finally wrote THE END at the bottom of my novel. So how do I feel?

Proud, amazed, relieved and scared!

Actually, I can hardly believe I've done it - there were times, especially around the first quarter, when I wondered whether I would ever manage to write those two little words. 

There were several things that got me through the bad patches and the days of self doubt: my daughter in Germany demanding to read the rest after I'd sent her the first half (even though she already knew the story); my husband ignoring my calls of 'dinner's ready' (unheard of) as he was so engrossed in it; the editor at the RNA conference who asked to see the whole thing once I'd finished; the need to send something to my New Writers' Scheme reader; the three agents who 'favourited' my pitch in a #PitchCB Twitter event and last but not least, a good talking to every once in a while from writing buddy, Tracy Fells!

These were all real boosts but what ultimately kept me going was the fact that I really loved writing the story and had faith in it even when the going got tough. 

The novel is a contemporary romantic mystery/suspense and from the photos you'll see that it's set on a Greek island. The small island in my story is fictitious but loosely based on Alonissos in the Aegean. 

The novel started life as one of my published magazine stories but soon evolved into something very different - only the central theme, main characters and setting have remained the same. I've been on many Greek holidays (several mentioned on this blog) and used my memory of the places I'd visited, along with online research, to write the novel. I scoured the internet for pictures an island that best fitted my idea of the harbour and old town where my story is set and when I came across Alonissos I knew I'd found what I was looking for.

With this in mind, last week (with the novel in its final stages) my husband and I went to visit the island so that I could check details, take photos of the trees, flowers, beaches etc and ask questions. We had a fabulous holiday - staying in the small village of Agnondas on the island of Skopelos (next to Alonissos). We stayed in the lovely Lithanomon Apartments, 20 metres from the beautiful pebble beach with its three tavernas, and as it was out of season we had the place and the pool to ourselves. Lucky us! 

We swam, we walked, we looked in churches, we hired a small boat to visit deserted beaches and we took a boat trip to Alonissos to visit the old town on the hill which features in several of my chapters.

We even climbed the vertiginous 100 steps to the chapel of Agios Ioannis (the one featured in Mama Mia) on the North of the island. We expected there to be hundreds of tourists - but there was just us! I was fine until I got to the final steep part and then I looked down and froze. It took great willpower to climb the last part, but I really wanted to ring that bell to tell the world I was up there. 

All that was left was to come home and finish the novel. Luckily with my head full of sights, sounds and smells of the islands it didn't take long.

#PitchCB - Go On Have a Go!

Two weeks ago, on Friday 24^th July, I was sitting at my computer writing a magazine story when I decided I could do with a break. A cup of coffee and a few minutes on social media would be just what I needed to recharge my writing batteries, so I clicked onto Twitter to have a look at what was going on in the writing world outside my living room.

It wasn’t long before something caught my eye. Someone had shared a tweet from literary agents, Conville and Walsh, advertising a new initiative called #PitchCB. I had read about it before but hadn’t looked into it further for reasons I will go into later.

I expect you’re wondering what #PitchCB is.

It’s quite simple really. It’s an event for unpublished novelists, hosted by agents Rebecca Ritchie and Richard Pike, which is held on the fourth Friday of every month. You have 24 hours to pitch your novel idea in 140 characters or less, using the hashtag #PitchCB and during that time, agents from both literary agencies will be online to read each pitch. If they like yours, they will ‘favourite’ it, allowing you to submit the first three chapters of your novel in the usual way to that particular agent.

Sounds great – so why had I left it so late to consider submitting my pitch? Basically, it was because my novel wasn’t finished and I hadn’t planned to submit to agents until it was. So what changed my mind that Friday morning? It was the fact that I’d been thinking about a one-to-one meeting I'd had recently with a publisher while I was at the RNA conference. She'd told me she loved my novel idea and first chapter, and thought it very marketable - the only problem was they only accepted agented submissions. I needed an agent, and I knew I would be silly to miss this opportunity, so I sat down and wrote my 140 character pitch and tweeted it.

Once I'd done that, I tried to distract myself. Oh, how hard that was! Luckily, I only had a short while to wait, for within ten minutes I had received two ‘favourites’ – one from each agency. I can’t tell you how excited I was but, once I’d calmed down, I realised that the pitch was only the start of the journey… I would need to perfect my first three chapters, re-write my synopsis (based on advice given at the RNA conference) and write a covering letter that would hopefully make me look like a professional, enthusiastic, creative, and fairly normal person.

The next day, I emailed everything to the two agents and then set to work getting my novel finished. If the agents liked my first three chapters, and wanted to see more, I didn’t want to have to make them wait for months.

So here I am, two weeks latet, feeling very proud of myself for taking that big step. Not because I have heard anything yet but because the whole experience has focused me and given me confidence. It’s proved that I can write a catchy tag line and that my novel idea is interesting enough for agents to want to see the first three chapters at least (apparently the agents chose 100 out of 2,000 pitches). It’s also got me well on the way to getting the novel finished (I have only about another 15,000 words to write) and it's now with my RNA New Writing Scheme reader awaiting its critique.

So, if anyone out there is looking for an agent from a quality literary agency, I would highly recommend you have a go. The next #PitchCB is on August 28^th.

Go on… be brave!

You can find out more about #PitchCB  here

*UPDATE*

Since writing this post, I have heard from one of the agents from Curtis Brown. Unfortunately, the book wasn't their taste so it was a no but they said my writing was engaging, the idea appealing and that I write with real energy and enthusiasm. They also said it was a difficult decision to make as they were impressed with my submission. 

I can only be happy with that!

To Read or Not to Read

An interesting question was posed on a Facebook group recently. How many writers read the magazines they write for?

This was my response:  'Shh... no.' 

As you can imagine, it raised a few eyebrows - so I thought that I would write a blog post to clarify my response.

There seemed to be two threads to the question and I shall address each in turn.

Firstly - Should writers buy the magazines to support the publication that buys their work?

Obviously writers will have their own opinions on this but here is my stance: I do buy any magazine I have a story in but this is so that a) I can keep a copy for myself and b) I have one to show my friends without them feeling obliged to buy one themselves. Funnily enough, this has indirectly helped to support The People's Friend (for whom I write regularly) as one of them liked reading it so much that she has now started to buy the magazine herself on occasion.

At the end of the day, writing stories is my only income (apart from my story collections) and if I bought all the weeklies I write for and all the specials, it would make quite a dent in it.

I feel I support the magazines in a different way - by writing good quality stories which I hope the readers will enjoy and which will, in turn, help to sell the magazine. I also give my support by helping to advertise the magazines on Twitter and Facebook and my blog and a few months ago had an article published in Writing Magazine about writing serials for The People's Friend for Writing Magazine and have contributed to a similar one soon to be published in Writer's Forum.

Secondly - should writers buy the magazines to use as research?

Obviously I wouldn't dream of telling writers trying to break into the magazine market that they shouldn't - but on the other hand (I know my People's Friend editor Alan reads my blog so he will have to put his hands over his ears now!) I have never made a secret of the fact that I never have.

To explain this, I need to give a little background to my writing career. While I was doing an online writing course, we wrote short pieces and stories and when the course finished, my lovely tutor suggested I try sending some of my work to magazines. I chose my favourites, and wrote a few more, then after reading the guidelines for each magazine (very important) I sent them out. I'd never bought any of the magazines and I hadn't ever read any of the stories. The reason for this is I love reading novels too much - I have a whole pile by my bed waiting to be read. I was lucky to sell a story quite quickly, first to The People's Friend and then to Take a Break Fiction Feast, followed a little while later by one to Woman's Weekly. What this did was give me a benchmark to work from for the next story.

What if I had read the magazines first? Well, I think that if you study the magazines too hard there is always a danger that you look at a successful writer's work and think, "I'll write a story like that." But what if you do? It's important to remember that the magazine you are studying already has that writer writing those types of stories in that type of style, so why would they need another writer doing the same?

Recently, I attended the RNA writing conference where an editor said that the problem with suggesting your novel was like someone else's was that the agent/publishers were looking for unique voices - not a clone of someone already on their books. I believe the same can be said for magazines. My style is unlikely to be the same as that of x, y or z because I haven't read their stories. My stories are unique to me... and that's how I want it to remain.

When I was a new teacher, working in an open-plan school, there was a teacher in the class next door who I greatly admired. I loved her teaching style and tried to copy it, hoping it might help me with my classroom management. It was a disaster! It wasn't until I had found my own style of teaching that I knew I was becoming a halfway decent teacher. I think I learnt a lesson from that.

I'd love to have my novel published by one of the top publishers (wouldn't we all!) or be represented by a top agent but does that mean I will read all of the books published/represented by them in the hope of emulating them? Of course not! What I will do, when the time comes, is read the biographies of the agents I'm thinking of sending a submission to, to find out what they are looking for and I will read the submission guidelines over and over to make sure I am doing it in the right way. And my novel? Well, I will allow it to speak for itself... in the same way my stories do.

So there you have it - the reason I don't buy magazines! Please feel free to add your own thoughts.

Ten Things I've Learnt from my First RNA Writers' Conference

From my previous post, you will know that at the weekend, I went to my first RNA Writers' Conference held at St Mary's College, Mile End. I've thought long and hard about how to present my findings and have decided to make a nice list (I like lists).

So here they are - the ten things I have learnt from my first RNA conference.

1. I am as bad at facial recognition as I thought I was. I sat next to a lovely lady called Tracy at the gala dinner and chatted about all sorts of things, including pocket novels. It wasn't until the following day when I attended a talk by Sally Quilford (someone I really wanted to meet) on characterisation, that I realised it was the same person. I hadn't recognised her from her photo and she writes under a pen name.
2. Luckily nobody else seems to have facial recognition problems - otherwise I might have been Billy No Mates..
3. If anyone seems lovely, friendly or funny online...they generally are. I met some great people including fellow People's Friend writer, Kate Jackson who's in the photo with me.
4.  If my stomach rumbles during a pre-lunch lecture, when the room is hushed for question time, there will be someone to offer a bite of their breakfast bar (thanks Heidi).
5. It really is worth going to any lecture given by Julie Cohen (I'd listen to her talk about motorways in the 1970s and think it was entertaining).
6. The industry one to ones are invaluable... they really, really are. I've been given masses of valuable advice (and even been asked to submit a full manuscript to a publisher). Better get it finished!
7. It's impossible to sleep the first night. It will either be too hot, too noisy, your head will be spinning from all the talks you've attended - or your head will be spinning from all the wine!
8. Despite the above, it is possible to manage to repeat the whole experience again the next day, with the help of adrenaline, chocolate and many cups of coffee.
9. My sense of direction is as bad as my facial recognition. I had to be given directions to the ladies loo twice at the gala meal and gave out strict instructions to send out a search party if I didn't return.
10. You will come home exhausted, elated, enthused... and then you'll sleep for ten hours.

Thanks to John Jackson for the photograph.

Go with the Flow

I've just been reading an interesting post by Helen Pollard (you can read it here) about summer being a bad time for writers. It certainly struck a chord. Since I started writing, I have definitely found that I am more productive in the winter when I can squirrel myself away in my cave with little or no distractions. 

Unable to stay inside and write in the summer, I find that like Helen I have to contend with sunlight on the screen, bad internet connection as well as bugs dropping on me from the pear tree. This is not all though...  I also have an overwhelming desire to be doing something other than writing.

It bothered me at first but now I just accept that this is the way things are and no longer get het up about it. Instead of fretting that I should be writing another story, editing my novel or writing a blog post, I take Bonnie for a walk or potter in the garden. I've learnt to go with the flow, as they say.

Which leads me very nicely to the canal boat holiday I've just been on with my husband, step-boy and step-dog. Its the third we've been on and this time we spent five days on the Kennet and Avon starting at Aldermaston. As always,we had a fantastic time but, when we booked it, none of us could have predicted the heatwave! Opening eight locks in 32 degrees, when there is no shade, is no joke I can tell you. No wonder I slept like a baby, even though the double bed was the tiniest you could imagine.

While we were travelling, we saw the lovely horse-drawn barge in the photo above. It was pulled by Joey who apparently one day had fallen into the canal and had to be rescued. Luckily, he looked fine when we saw him, so it couldn't have been too serious. 

Evenings were gentle, warm and peaceful. Husband and step-boy fished and I sat at the prow, with a glass of wine, and managed to write a story, I hadn't gone with the intention of doing so but one just popped into my head - see this is what sometimes happens when you don't force it in the summer.


While I was in Newbury, I managed to get a copy of The People's Friend as I wanted to see the illustration to go with my story, You'll Never Walk Alone.

Now I'm back, all I need to do is think about what I'm taking to the RNA conference on Friday. My clever husband has made me some business cards (though I'm not sure who I'll be giving them to) and I've bought the chocolate and wine... I'm told that's probably all I shall need!  

Finally, if there are any other newbies attending, this post on the RNA blog is a must-read.

Writing Targets 2015

It's that time of year again. Two weeks ago, I looked at my 2014 writing goals and discussed whether or not I had achieved them. This week I shall be setting in stone (or on screen) the goals I talked through with Tracy at our teacake session... were we really in the tearoom three hours! You can read Tracy's own goals here.

So (deep breath) here are my 2015 writing targets:

1. Continue to write one short story a week.

2. Write at least 40,000 words of my novel by August to enable me to submit something for the RNA New Writers' Scheme critique (I could say write the whole novel but I'm being realistic here). I intend to try to write at least 500 words of it on at least four days a week - this way, it won't seem a chore. I'm hoping I'll write more but we'll see. Can I say I'll start next week, Tracy? *hangs head in shame*

3. Go to the RNA conference. Although it may seem a small goal, it is a big one for me - for reasons I have given in this post. I've already printed out the form and it should be in the post tomorrow.

4. My final goal is to publish at least one more collection of my published magazine stories. I've been thrilled with how well Room in Your Heart has been received and have been asked many times whether I'll be doing another collection. This is already in progress and my second collection will be available soon... so watch this space.

I hope my 2015 goals are manageable but I've learnt from last year that I need to be flexible. If there's something that's not working then I'll change it. After all, targets are just that... something to aim for.

In other news I have a story in the People's Friend Special. It's a historical story about a quarryman's family and is once again set against the backdrop of the Lake District's beautiful pikes. The illustration is by Michael Thomas.

Also, I've just heard that my first People's Friend serial (written a year ago) is in the process of being illustrated by the very talented David Young, which might mean that it may be published soon. Can't wait!