NaNoWriMo: remembering the first time!

Do you NaNo? I haven’t this year, but I can still remember the first time. That makes it sound as if it was decades ago. It was actually in 2015 – but that seems like a VERY long time ago now! I’ve written so much since then… If you’re reading this and saying ‘Hang on,

The parting of the ways

That title is much more dramatic than this post will be :-)! However, I decided this was something worth writing a little blog about, so here goes. Most of my books – by quite a long way – are books for adults. However, just before the pandemic, I published a picture book for children –

Here we are again: new year goals…

This year seems to have gone both quickly and slowly. Somehow, the whole family has managed to stay Covid-free (I ought to cross my fingers but it’s quite hard to type at the same time). The kids are back in school, I’m back tutoring (in just one school this time), but my husband is still

It’s my publiversary! 10 thoughts on 5 years of self-publishing

Time flies when you’re having fun! I only realised this morning that today is the fifth anniversary of the date I published my first book, The Secret Notebook of Sherlock Holmes. I’ve done publiversary posts before, which you can find by searching for ‘publiversary’, but I felt that I probably ought to mark a half-decade

It’s that time again: new year goals…

Well, 2020 has been interesting, to say the least. What’s that saying about ‘may you live in interesting times’?  I reread last year’s ‘life goals’ post, and either I was unusually prescient, or I may be partly responsible for the mess that has been 2020. If so, I apologise. That said, I’m conscious that I’m

A detour into poetry: procrastination

This year, one of my new year’s life goals was to try new things in writing. So when I saw that FutureLearn were offering a 3-week course called ‘How To Make A Poem’, I signed up. It’s free, and you can find it here. I enjoyed the course, and while it’s more of a taster

Have your say in my 2020 reader survey – and maybe win a paperback!

I did a reader survey last year and it was so helpful that I’m doing it again! I’ve put together a short (9-question) survey on SurveyMonkey. It’s mainly multiple-choice, and its purpose is to learn more about my readers and people who interact with me on my author social media. I’ll take the responses and use

New year, same goals…

At least I’m getting in with the new year’s goals post quicker than I did last year! I won’t get into whether it’s a new decade or not because people will start squabbling, so let’s move along. Here’s a recap of last year’s goals: Work smarter, not harder  Try some new things  Get fitter  2019

How do I measure success as a writer?

This is something which has been on my mind lately, probably as a sort of hangover from all those goal-setting New Year posts. What’s the best way to measure success as a writer? Or do I mean as a publisher? Ooh, now that’s a different question entirely. There are so many things you could focus

Going the other way round

I am currently on a walk, and dictating into my phone. (Well, not now, I’m at a computer turning my ramblings into something vaguely coherent, but anyway). What is special about this walk, you might ask. Nothing particular. It’s a walk I often take, which involves going down a back road onto a track between