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!

Life at Babcock Manor - My Second Serial for The People's Friend

It's been a busy time publication-wise over the last couple of weeks but by far the most exciting has been the first episode of my serial 'Life at Babcock Manor' in The People's friend.

This is my second serial and is an 'upstairs-downstairs' style family saga set in the 1850s. It starts when governess Emily arrives at the house owned by Doctor Craven and his wife to tutor their daughter, Elizabeth. Why is beautiful Mrs Craven so strange and distant? What trouble will her brother Lewis cause for the family? Will new maid Elsa come between kitchen maid Jenny and young footman Robert? I can't tell you the fun I had trying to answer these questions and more.

The inspiration behind Life at Babcock Manor was a Christmas story I wrote for The Friend a couple of years ago called, The Last Candle. Even as I was writing it, I knew there were more stories to be told about my characters. Eagle-eyed readers might remember some of the characters: gruff Mrs Banbury, the cook; serious housekeeper, Mrs Peters; Jenny's little brother, Jed. All of them return - along with new characters, flighty ward Belinda, dashing Lewis and kind new doctor James Upton. Governess, Emily, was the heroine in my People's Friend canal-side story, Workshop of the World. I love re-using characters, moving them to different locations and seeing what happens to them.

As I've mentioned before, the People's Friend is holding a serial writing competition. To help promote it, I was asked by Writers' Forum columnist, Doug McPherson, to give a few words about serial writing to go alongside those of fiction editor, Shirley Blair. Seeing this photo had made me realise I really must get a new one done - it's been around too long.

Alongside Life at Babcock Manor is my short story, The Iron Man. It opens the magazine. Did you know that this is the name given to the wind pumps on American farms? No, nor did I until I started to write the story for the great illustration my editor sent me, and did some research. Every now and again I'll write a story set in another country just for a change. I find writing about a different place (especially one I've never been to) challenging but also refreshing.

I also have a story called The Grapes of Love in Take a Break Fiction Feast, but as it relates to something I shall be doing in a couple of weeks time, I shall leave the inspiration behind this story until then.

Finally, for the first time, writing chum, Tracy Fells, and I have joined forces for a feature! We are talking to Lynne Hackles in her Novel Ideas column about the importance of writing buddies and teacakes -what else! Without Tracy's support I wouldn't have achieved half of my goals... honestly.

You can find Lynne's Column in Writing Magazine.

So that's it for this week. On Tuesday I am off to Skopelos for a week to soak up the sun and to add the final details to my Greek romantic suspense. It's all but finished and will hopefully be ready to send out to agents once I'm back. Exciting stuff. Can't wait!

An Interesting Couple of Weeks

Lots of nice things have happened since my last post - so I thought this one could be a lot of bits and pieces of news.

My most recent news is that I have a story in both the weekly People's Friend and the Special. The first, which is called A Gift of Hope, is one of my WW1 stories. It's written in first person from the male perspective (which I really like) and although short, is one of my favourite stories. I absolutely love Jim Dewar's illustration.

The second story, One More Step, was one I was asked to write for Andre Leonard's great illustration. It is semi-autobiographical and I will be sharing with you the inspiration behind the story in my next post.

My story, 'Holy Toast' is in this month's Take a Break Fiction Feast and is a humorous piece, which is unusual for me - but I though it might be fun to have a go at something new. I'm now trying to think up some other ideas that might work as a light-hearted story, so I can have another go.

Also, I am pleased to be featured in Phil Barrington's 8 Days a Week article in Writer's Forum - where I am giving the female perspective on multi-tasking.

In other news, I was very excited to go to the paperback book launch of Juliet West's fabulous 'Before the Fall'. She is a marvellous speaker and an inspiration to us all. While there, I met up with one of my favourite authors, Ann Weisgarber, author of 'The Promise' who had come over from America - fabulous to chat to her.
 

I also  drove two hours to Della Galton's course on 'How to Market Your Book'. Della was a guest on my blog a while back and you can find her post on the link at the side. It was lovely to meet her and also fellow womagwriter, Kath McGurl. It was a great course but I hope that Della's statement that 'short story collections don't sell', won't be true!

Last but by no means least, my new ear grommets work... I can now fly pain free - yippee!