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
How fitting that for part four of my serial, Charlotte's War, illustrator David Young chose the scene with Charlotte and Denise doing the jitterbug at a dance. Why is that fitting? Well, because that's what I've been doing this weekend - not jitterbugging exactly but close, as my husband and I have just got back from our annual jive weekend at Warner, Hayling Island.
Those of you who have followed my blog since it started in 2012 will know that we are very keen dancers - in fact I've been dancing modern jive for over twenty years now! When I was younger, it used to be classes twice a week and a dance every weekend but over the years salsa, and more recently ballroom and Latin, have taken over as our dances of choice and, apart from the occasional local local dance, we tend to only jive now at this event. This is probably why we enjoy the weekend so much as it is like getting to know an old friend again.
If I show you the timetable, you'll see why I feel ready to sleep for a week.
Anything circled or underlined is a class we did... and that's just the Saturday classes. Sunday was just as full and, on top of that, there were dances each evening until the small hours to practise what we'd learned. The only problem was that each time we did a new class, we'd forget what we'd done in the class before!
The weekend wasn't all about jive, though. There was the opportunity to learn Social Foxtrot, West Coast Swing, Bollywood or Rumba if you wanted. Here's a picture of our lovely Milonga teachers, Andy and Samantha. Milonga is a bit like a fast tango and we've added some of their moves to our own repertoire.
I have to say, it was quite nice to have a proper break from writing, social media etc and be able to do nothing but dance and eat... did I mention the food? I'd better not as you might be jealous. What I will say, is that I'm not sure the dancing burnt off all the calories from the evening carvery!
Two, three rest... two, three rest... that's the rhythm of the Rumba class we took and in some ways it reminds me of my writing. I need those rest phases to get the energy back for the next spell of writing. It's also a bit like my publications. Last week, as well as my serial, I was lucky to have two stories in the People's Friend Special. It often happens that way and then there'll be a break. Here's the one I wrote called The Midnight Sun, which is set in Antarctica.
I hope you all have a good week. I'd planned to do some writing... but I think I'm off for a sleep!
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.
