Last year was ‘a bit of a year’ so I haven’t blogged for a long time. As well as moving house, there was a lot of good stuff and a pile of sad stuff. But I survived and although I didn’t make the writing progress that I had hoped for the stories didn’t leave. I went a bit quiet on social media as my family needed me. If anything I am now stronger. This year I have revised my plans and set to work. This is a year of finishing things, the project of the month (January) was Tri

The final quarter of the 10 minute novelists 365 club didn’t go to plan (which is why this is such a short update) but I did earn a few badges. There was some good news as in October I finally reached the three-quarter mark of the yearly word count target. Throughout the year there were mini challenges within the 365 club, I won an extra badge. There was lots of work on an unexpected project that is currently nearing completion, sometimes a change in direction is worth it. I

April saw the arrival of Camp NaNoWriMo, a month of writing or editing where you set your own target. As I’ve already written about that I won’t add anymore here, other then saying that it was successful. By the end of April I managed to hit the minimum new words written target, not the 10k self imposed target but hitting any target is good enough for me. I also did a first and managed to write every single day. This is something that I have been trying to achieve since th

I like a challenge so I signed up to Camp NaNoWriMo. As I didn't want to use the month to write more words, my existing monthly target is manageable and must not be messed with, I decided to use it for editing as 1 hour equals 1,000 words. To add to the fun I doubled my normal goal of 10 hours editing per month and to make it really interesting added a bit, I ended up with an editing goal of 25 hours (25,000 words). This is the third time I have taken part in Camp NanoWriMo

This year I have a plan. Yes you read those words correctly, this year while writing I am also dedicating time to completing the projects that are begging to be set free. I have created a spreadsheet with all of my existing projects. There is a colour coded system so that I can glance at it and know what I am meant to be working on. There is one particularly important column, it contains a month for publication. At this moment in time the column takes me beyond July 2019

Back in the mists of time (last year) I was nominated to reveal 7 Facts About Me, I accepted the challenge with the words ‘I’ll do this by Christmas’, I just didn’t specify which Christmas. I’m going to break the rules as I won’t be nominating anyone but to make up for it I’m suggesting that after reading this you pop over Joanna Melfka Maciejewska‘s site where you can find lots to read, it’s worth the click so go for it. I must also say thank you to Joanna for the nominati

2015 contained plenty of ups and several downs. I have fought many battles on behalf of my children, in particular for my daughter and some of these will continue into 2016. I met up with new friends and plans are in the pipeline to meet up with more, I still enjoy every moment of writing, I love my local writing group and we were fortunate enough to have an article about us in the Wiltshire Life magazine, I have got several projects nearing completion and plenty of new ide

I don’t refer to my children’s names publicly but many of you will be aware that I have two, a son and a daughter. One is hearing the other is deaf and both of them amaze me with their fun-filled personalities. Deafness is not always an easy thing to deal with when you’re a hearing parent of a deaf child and had never encountered it until the day of diagnosis. The equipment (if available through the postcode lottery that exists in the UK) is unfamiliar, it can also be too e

Ages ago, in fact so long that I can’t remember when, I was tagged in the Liebster Award Blog Hop. I have been soooooo busy I nearly forgot about it. I’m breaking the rules as I won’t be tagging anyone and asking questions due to a major lack of time and not being sure who to tag but I did agree to answer the questions so here we go. Before I forget it was the lovely Myk Pilgrim who tagged me, why don’t you pop over to his blog after reading this, you know you want to as t

So here we are within touching distance of the end of April 2015. I will be sad to say goodbye to April; it has been a month of personal achievement as I have completed the skeleton of a new novel. Later this year I will add the flesh and hopefully fill in any major plot holes. I will also draw a proper version of the map that currently exists on two sheets of A4 paper that are held together with sticky tape. Maybe add some proper features onto it instead of the random no

I have been challenged over on this wonderful blog http://www.littleplasticcastle.com/artificial-blog/book-tag-february-2015 to reveal ten formative books. First reaction uh oh, a blog I'm going to have to work out how to write a proper blog. My second reaction, challenge accepted. I wrote some book titles down then got thinking and walked around the house in a quandary - Can I count a trilogy as one? Don’t answer that! My husband gave me a quizzical look, before giving in