Blog

My son’s school hosted a performance by The Pearl of Africa choir on Friday night. The choir are on a fund raising tour to support 3,000 Ugandan orphans and destitute children in eight schools and nine orphanages. Each choir member comes from a background that we can’t even imagine. Many are orphans to AIDS and… Continue reading Humbling Experience

What if I were confident the way I used to be? Wearing red and jade suits in a grey-clad sea of men. Leading teams, deciding goals, speaking out with steel. How did she become this little mouse? Please tell me this isn’t real. Let me wake tomorrow sure and set on a new course with… Continue reading Poetic Plea

Or should that say – A history of MY reading part 1 – 2008? During my writing course I have made a conscious effort to read as widely as possible and to include books that I would not normally consider. This strategy has enabled me to gain a lot of insight into how the writers… Continue reading A History of Reading – Part 1

Looking forward to life beyond New Voices! I can’t believe how much time and energy it took up – where did September go? I’ve already sorted out a poem for a competition, read the next section of my distance learning course and examined several scenarios for writing projects I have on the go. Rosie and… Continue reading Life beyond

Oh well, not only did I not make the top ten in the Mills and Boon New Voices competition, but I wasn’t on the list of writers they want to hear more from either. I’ve allowed myself a few moments to feel despondent and now I’m taking stock. The fact is I learned a great… Continue reading Thoughts on New Voices

Listening to Radio 4 on the way to writing group on Friday I heard the statistic that the average person reads 4-5 books a year! My husband, who travels widely with his job, gets through at least a book a fortnight (and those are some weighty tomes like Dickens interspersed with lighter Clive Cussler), so… Continue reading Reading Statistic

Research opportunities are everywhere. I find when I am writing about a particular subject or era references to it flood into my life. This is what I call “red car theory” (I’ll write that book one day!). In other words, if you buy a red car you will see many like it on the road… Continue reading Research Opportunities

Is it me? Am I just getting old? I find the increasing pace of technological change a little bewildering. Yet I was using technological devices almost as soon as they appeared. My first mobile phone was shaped like a brick and weighed a ton, but at least it was relatively simple. I’ve had quite a… Continue reading The Perils of New Technology

I had a lovely time at writing group on Friday. I made a new friend, Susan Watson, who is having a book published next year with a fantastic title “Fat Girls and Fairy Cakes – A Recipe for Success!” by Rickshaw Publishing. We had a talk by D.M. Harrison who writes westerns for Robert Hale.… Continue reading Active Imagination

To other writers I am sure this is a common experience, I have characters that won’t go away. They invade my day, no matter what I am doing and wake me up to make me see scenes from their lives played out like a film. Great I hear you say. Well it would be if… Continue reading Characters That Won’t Go Away