• 13th April 2012

    Buttercup Magic… OOOH! A FREEBIE! As some of you will know, I received a wee stash (HOORAY!) of my new book, Buttercup Magic: A Mystery for Megan, (HOORAY!) a couple of weeks ago, from my lovely Publisher, Piccadilly Press (HOORAY!) … okay, enough of that!  It IS exciting though, and I never quite know when my…

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  • 6th April 2012

    Heptonstall – a place to be inspired Some of you may know that I have been gadding about a bit in order to write my current novel WIP.  What I haven’t mentioned, I don’t think, is that this is a collaborative novel, which makes this whole project doubly exciting.  The need to be out and…

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  • 5th April 2012

    LUCKY 7: seven lines from new works I have been passed my Lucky 7 by the lovely Laura Wilkinson, fellow writer and Twitter buddy, author of novel, Blood Mining. Lucky 7 is  a bit of ‘blog fun’ for authors.  Like Laura, this is my first time being tagged (Yikes!)… why am I thinking school playgrounds and getting ready to jab the…

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  • 30th March

    It’s all a matter of perception… isn’t it? (Part 2) If you read last week’s blog post, you’ll be expecting this… if you didn’t, ‘SURPRISE!’  Last week me and fellow tweep, Angie Shawcroft, painted a scene at Chatsworth, with surprisingly different results.  This got me thinking about the whole idea of perception and style, and…

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  • 22nd March

    It’s all a matter of perception… isn’t it? (Part 1) Have you ever been writing a book, only to discover that another person has written a book with the same, or very similar, title? It’s a tad disconcerting.  It’s now happened to me twice.  It’s a scary moment as you race to find out the ‘blurb’…

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  • 16th March

    The Books that shape you I find it interesting that the things we like as children seem to really stick with us, and yet at times, in our grown up worlds, we can feel like we’ve lost touch with who we are, of the essence of who we were when we were young.  I only have to look back to those…

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  • 9th March

    Girl with red hair There’s a kind of dichotomy, I think, between writing that takes on a fantastical element, and writing that is gritty and very real.  Some writers will say they write to escape, submerged in their own world.  Others, that writing puts them in touch with themselves and helps them to realise who they…

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  • 2nd March

    How to get cream-crackered and a lump in the throat at same time Firstly, for non UK readers, cream-crackered is slang for… erm… very tired, exhausted, wrecked… that kind of thing.  School visits do that.  They are also decidedly lovely, for many reasons.  I’ve done a few now, but this week’s visit, in celebration of World Book…

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  • 24th February

    A new way of writing Writing has always been a solitary experience for me – part of my love for it in a way, even from being in my teens, sat gazing out of a window and scribbling down angst ridden words of unrequited love… that kind of nonsense… and until recently, I have continued to…

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  • 17th February

    Not THIS one… but the one after I think it’s fair to say that there’s a strong feeling for most writers of wanting to be published… but perhaps ‘strong feeling’ isn’t strong enough – maybe ‘desperation’ is closer to the truth.   That’s certainly how I have felt at times.  Mostly, for me, it’s that feeling that I need confirmation that the hours I spend in my head…

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