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The lovely Talli Roland, who always seems to have a smile, was talking about social networking. The crux of her talk was that she believes that your blog, Facebook, Twitter, etc., should be viewed as a way of building relationships with people who may buy or recommend your books, rather than as a direct sales… Continue reading RNA Conference 2012 – Talli Roland

I attended the 2012 RNA conference at Penrith on the weekend of 13-15 July. It was a full, exciting and exhilarating weekend which has taken a full fortnight to recover from (and I hardly drank anything). I have been in a strange contemplative mood, have hardly used social media and haven’t blogged. It is time… Continue reading Conference News

Ellie Swoop and I went to Birmingham yesterday to see Jodi Picoult. She is on a promotional tour for a new book for young adults written in collaboration with her daughter. We braved the rain. There were only fifty places for adults and the rest were for school children. It was a free event. Jodi… Continue reading Jodi Picoult Talk

My spirits are in need of revival! Weeks of editing, friends with health and parent problems, the hamster wheel of life and hubbie being away intensively have combined to make me feel flat. I’m usually bubbly and full of life, so it doesn’t feel good – I need a holiday. I took time out last… Continue reading Spiritual Revival

Haven’t blogged for a while as I’ve been deep into my edits, to the extent I now have eye strain! I can visualise the end, but a little while to go yet. Meanwhile patriotic fever has overtaken the country. We have a “Last Night of the Proms” event at school this afternoon and the children… Continue reading Union Jack

Thirty poems written! My poem a day in April challenge is complete. Admittedly, some of the poems are a little rough round the edges, but some I am really pleased with. Now I need to polish a few and send them off to competitions, etc. The challenge taught me a lot about my writing and… Continue reading Poetic Diarrhoea

Day 21 of my ‘Poem a Day’ challenge and yes I have 21 poems written, plus a few extras that didn’t quite get finished. I am not normally one to praise myself, but feel pretty pleased with myself over this. I just need to find some way of challenging myself to finish my novels. I… Continue reading Wow!

As if I didn’t have enough to do, I’ve agreed to take part in a version of NaPoWriMo. I am writing a poem a day for the month of April. It is going very well so far and I’m enjoying the light relief from editing. The poems are by no means masterpieces, but they are… Continue reading My Poetry Muscle

Faye Robertson tagged me in this fun little thing making the rounds on the writing circuit. Here are the rules: 1. Go to page 77 of your current MS 2. Go to line 7 3. Copy down the next 7 lines – sentences or paragraphs – and post them as they’re written. No cheating. 4.… Continue reading Lucky Seven

The winners of my blog picture competition are….pause for drum roll… Caption: When Eskimos watch ‘The Wizard of Oz’ by Sarah Pearson. Book Title: Bound by Laces by Gwen It was a difficult choice as Ellie and I loved them all. Sarah and Gwen – please direct message me on morton.s.gray@btinternet.com with your addresses and… Continue reading And the winners are.