I've Won a prize!!

Yes, folks I've won a prize. I'm the runner up in a Writer's News Short Story Competition. My entry was called 'WarBaby' and when I was in Spain I got an email from the editor to congratulate me on winning second prize. Now, I've read a few winning entries for this comoetiton (a monthly one) in the past and I can say that the standard is high so I was over the moon to get second prize. It is a real confidence booster. Needless to say, since then I have been busy entering some more compeitions. I have just finished a short story for another 'Writer's News' comp where the subject is a workaholic. I am quite pleased with how this story is shaping up so far and can't wait to send it off when I am fully satisfied with it.

What else? The novel is finished and printed off. I decided, after reading lots of articles on editing, that it would be best to edit a hard copy. The mss fits snugly into a green box file.

After reading a blog called 'Magazine Madness' I have decided to follow Helen Yedall's advice and start penning letters to magazines. I've only sent one so far but I have only just discovered this encouraging website.

What else? Oh yes, I'm learning to ballroom dance. Perhaps there are articles awaiting from this new hobby?

Writing Competitions

I've now submitted a short story to 'Writing' magazine. I am working through the list I made last week of suitable competions and they all have one thing in common - there is no entry fee! I will only enter if they are free otherwise I could end up being seriously out of pocket if I don't win anything.

I'm working on my next entry at the moment and this one is going very well. I'm happy with the story and the characters so far. It's nowhere near ready to submit but I'll keep working at it.

I'm Back!!

Yes, folks. I'm back on my blog. I can't believe it's been such a long time since I wrote anything. So where have I been? Well, to some pretty interesting places actually. I've been to Holland, Germany, Austria, Serbia, Romania and Bulgaria. This was all in the space of three weeks on a wonderful river cruise with a company called Noble Caledonia on boat called the Johann Strauss. My trip has given me lots of ideas for travel articles and travel related competitions.

What else has happened in my long absence? Finally the NOVEL is finished!! The first draft is completed after months of hard work and I am about to embark on the first rewrite.

Anything else? Two long visits to our house in Spain and a trip to Toledo and Madrid.

Where am I going with my writing at the moment? Firstly the manuscript needs serous attention. I've made a list of plenty of competitions to enter and posted off my first entry this morning. I've also started to simplify my writing life by sorting through cuttings files and my ideas bank to get rid of anything that no longer applies.

I've also taken out a subscription to 'Writing Magazine' and this is the best thing I have done to help me with my writing since finishing the Writer's Bureau Course. There is so much good advice in this magazine and I can't wait for the next issue to drop on the doormat. I am going to buy a couple of box files tomorrow to keep back issues in for future reference. For anyone out there who isn't familiar with this gem of a publication then check it out at WH Smith or go on-line.

50,000 WORDS SO FAR

I have now written 50,000 words towards THE NOVEL. I am very pleased with progress and have been able to devote several days on the trot to uninterrpted writing. I have also done the first edit of the first 40,000 words and made several changes. It's quite easy to have continuity errors if you are not careful and I spotted several that I was able to rectify.

I am off to Spain for a month and I don't expect the weather to be up to much so I am aiming to continue with the first draft and hopefully, by the time I come home I will be almost finished.

Resolutions - What Resolutions?

Do I make resolutions at New Year? Mmm, good question. I used to make a whole list, writing them down in a pretty notebook. I don't make them anymore. I think it's because I always set myself goals throughout the year. For example, I set a goal to finish my Writer's Bureau Course by the end of 2010 and to have my last assignment sent off. This was achieved. I said I would have the first draft of the NOVEL written by the end of the year. This wasn't achieved but I did manage around 30,000 words - not much, really but a good start.

I think it's better to have continuous goals to work towards rather than make a long list on New Year's Eve to see most of them broken by the end of January. You have to be realistic too. It's pointless saying you will shed two stone by February when you know that would be nigh on impossible unless you starved yourself. It's daft to say you'll finish your book, edited as well, by Easter when you haven't even started it. Unless you want to spend 24/7 at the computer, you aint gonna get it done!

My current goals (that have nothing to do with it being a new year) are to have the first draft of my book completed by Easter. I think this is very reasonable because Easter is later this year so that gives me a few extra weeks and so far I have now written 43,000 words to date.

My other goals are ongoing personal ones that I am giving 6 months to achieve or be well on the road to achieving.

I will keep you posted on progress.

It's That Time Again

I've had a Christmas and New Year break from everything! I've had a happy two weeks of over indulging, socialising and just generally getting away from the bump and grind of daily routine. It's now 4th January and today is the first day I am now 'back to normal.' That means back to writing for a start. I last used this computer on 23rd December when I added to THE NOVEL. I was going to start again yesterday but I was still busy getting organised after Christmas. I've spent the New Year getting the decorations down, putting away my christmas presents and generally having a good sort out and tidy up. A sort of new year spring clean if you like. Today it's back to business and I'm really hoping that this year will see me doing some serious writing.

I'm also planning at least three trips to Spain (two are already booked), a river cruise holiday in August and some theatre excursions.

What else? You'll just have to keep reading to find out!

Marrakech

I've just come back from five days in Marrakech. Hmm, not quite what I expected, to be honest. We stayed in the Kasbah (sounds exotic but wasn't) and the streets were crowded and narrow, full of shops selling everything from soap powder to live chickens. There were motor cycles everywhere and it was difficult to walk through the streets without running the risk of being mown down.

The accommodation was very nice. We stayed in a Riad, which is the name for the many courtyard hotels you find in the old parts of the city. It was strange when we first arrived. The streets were too narrow for the taxi to negotiate so we had to get out and pull our cases the rest of the way until we arrived at a smart door that was the entrance to the Riad. Honestly, you wouldn't know it was there unless you spotted the tiny gold plaque on the wall.

Our room was comfortable and nicely furnished. We had a large bathroom and a balcony to sit on. The Riad became our retreat from the noise, dirt, crowds and general mayhem of the city. We ate in one night and the cook made a couple of tagines for us to try.

Our saving grace was a trip to the coastal resort of Essaoira, a three hour drive away but well worth it. We had a pleasant wander through the streets and stopped for a seafood lunch.

The shopping in Marrakech is good. I particularly love the coloured lanterns you can buy nearly everywhere and the silver jewellery. If it wasn't for the paltry luggage allowance of EasyJet, I would have bought much more.

However, the experience has given me a few writing ideas to develop now I'm back home.

LET IT SNOW

Well, actually,only let it snow at Christmas time. We went out this morning to the local shops, trudging through great drifts of snow as we went. There were a lot of jolly people about, mainly children off school for the day and pulling sledges. The shops were busy with people 'panic buying' as usual. We just got a normal shop with food to last us over the weekend. We were supposed to be going to Essex today but have obviously decided not to travel. If it's not essential, you have to follow advice and stay at home. Nobody in our road went to work this morning and the milkman got stuck for four hours!

What better way to spend the afternoons when you can't go out but get on with THE NOVEL. It now stands at over 30,000 words of mainly serious re-editing but I'm just getting the basics down on paper (or on screen). This might form part of my last assignment for the WB too.

I am now stiif from another afternoon typing away and it's ten past five and time to call it a day, press SAVE and put the laptop to bed. We're having curry tonight - we make ours from scratch - no takeways in this house! We buy all our spices from an Indian supermarket in Southsea because you can't get them anywhere else. The house will smell like an Indian restaurant for days. Delicious.

A Mid Week Break

We've been on a mid-week break to a favourite restaurant of ours with rooms. It's called, "36 on the Quay" at Emsworth. A wine tasting evening was held on the first night and the restaurant was completely full. We drank New Zealand's Cloudy Bay wine with a gourmet dinner - each course was paired with a different wine. I'm a huge fan of New Zealand white wines, particularly their sauvignon blancs.

We stayed two nights in Emsworth and took the train to Brighton for the day and had a wander around the Lanes. We also went to Arundel and had a pub lunch and a stroll through the town browsing in all the different shops. I found a very good second-hand bookshop that I could easily have spent hours in and have made a note to return to Arundel to do just that. I have a list of books I'm looking for from travel books to classical novels.

We got home on Friday morning in time for me to go to Writing Buddies in the afternoon.

Yesterday and today has been spent on THE NOVEL. I have now written 24,000 words approximately. I'm not editing it until I've got 50,000 words written and then I'm going to start, I don't know if this is the right thing to do or not but I think you can spend too much time rewriting at the start of the project and not getting on with the plot. Comments please!

Gathering more ideas

I spent yesterday going through my issues of Frelance Market News to check I hadn't missed any opportunities for writing possibilities. I made a list to check out on the internet and narrowed it down to only two! These are for short story and articles. I already have another list of ideas for fillers to follow up.

I then looked at the Prizemagic website for any suitable competitions to enter. I always look for the free to enter ones first. I found about six possibilities and will now have to come up with some ideas for submissions.

I was going through an external hard drive for my computer to see what was on it and found a novel I had started a good few years ago about a cruise ship. I read through what I had written and was amazed at myself for not having carried on with it and let it fester away, forgotten about. I have copied it back onto my computer and I am determined to carry on with the story. This can happen very easily, I suppose. You start something, work at it for a couple of weeks or more constantly and then put it away, disillusioned or you've simply run out of steam. I don't think there's anything wrong with doing that but you must remember not to put it away for 8 years or more! May be a few weeks or even months but you must return to it quickly.

I also found a file full of character descriptions for this story and plot ideas so I will most certainly be taking up with the project again.

A Night at the Theatre

We went to the Mayflower theatre in Southampton to see 'Calendar Girls'. It was quite good but I had trouble hearing some of the actresses speak. I don't know if it was the accoustics in the theatre but it did spoil things a little. When we had a drink in the bar during the interval I overheard a couple of ladies saying the same thing so it wasn't just me, thankfully.

We went to 'Buon Gusto' on the corner of Commercial Road after the show had finished and had a really nice meal although it was late. We hadn't been to this restaurant for a number of years so it was good to try it again.

I'm having a frustrating time with computers this week. We now have an I.Mac as our main computer but I do all my writing work on my laptop. To print things off I transfer to disk and then put the disk in the main computer and print from there. This isn't happening so easily now and when I insert a disk into the I.Mac I can't open the document, let alone print it. I will be heading for the Apple Store to try to find out why this is proving so difficult. I have tried connecting the printer to my laptop instead but I keep getting various error messages and being told the driver isn't compatible. I have now wasted nearly two afternoons trying to solve the problem but have given up because it's making me bad tempered and not in any position to produce good writing work.

Weekend Workload.

Assignment 7 is finished and ready to be printed and then sent off. I have spent the weekend going over the first 3000 words of THE NOVEL that is going towards this assignment. I was quite horrified to see many glaring continuity errors already but have gone through it all word for word until I am quite sure it is reading as well as it could. I can't wait to receive some feedback on my efforts.

We went out for dinner on Friday to a place in Wickham. Now I'm not going to name the establishment but we were very disappointed with the service received. This restaurant isn't cheap and we've been there a couple of times before and each time came away satisfied. I really resent going out for dinner to a good quality restaurant and then getting sloppy service. I'd rather go to the Harvester or a Beefeater. Well, we shan't hurry back and I did post my thoughts on 'Trip Advisor'.

Must sign off now as it's time to prepare our Sunday roast (a tradition in this household) and then I'm afraid it's a TV viewing night - Strictly, X-Factor and the marvellous 'Downton Abbey.'

13,923 words.

That's how many words I've written on THE NOVEL so far. I've been really industrious today and have spent all afternoon typing. I'm quite pleased at the way the story is evolving because I am writing what I know about rather than what I don't really know about and need to do a good bit of research on. I think this is the right way to go when you right your first novel. Just after 4 O'clock I decided to call it a day and do an entry for my blog.

I'm a member of 'Flair For Words' and the latest copy of 'Flair News' dropped on the mat at lunchtime. I can now get a coffee and read it from cover to cover. This little gem is full of interesting articles and lots of inspiration from Cass and Janey who are joint editors and run 'Flair For Words.'

This morning we went for a long walk. We didn't even need coats as it was so warm. We stopped for coffee and a lovely deli called 'Cork and Cheese' and bought a tub of huge olives and a wholegrain loaf, locally baked.

The walk enabled me not to feel selfish when I shut myself in the study all afternoon and banned my husband from any interruptions.

I don't think I'm cut out for this!

That is, I don't think I'm cut out to write short stories for magazines. I find the guidelines too restrictive for a start. Perhaps I should concentrate on short stories for competitions. I have written a short story for my latest WB assignment and am quite pleased with it although it took several almost complete rewrites and lots of editing. That means each story I tackle takes me a very long time to complete. I certainly can't dash them off every few days (if only it were that simple).

I'm going to see what happens with my latest effort and then decide if I'm going to do any more for a while. I really want to concetrate on THE NOVEL and I also have a number of ideas for magazine articles.

Last week I had another break from writing because I went to see my cousin in Southport who is recovering from a serious stroke. He is now at home so that's good. He has a wheelchair which he is determined not to use and also a stick and he is managing to walk quite well with it. He has been approached to be a sort of 'mentor' to other stroke victims in his health authority area and he is very keen to do this. This should be giving me some ideas for short stories and articles but so far I haven't come up with anything worth putting to paper.

The shops on Lord Street in Southport are looking very christmassy already and it was fun walking up and down this famous street window shopping and stopping for coffee. Now I'm back home and busy in the study in front of my laptop.

Nice to See You All Again

On Friday 22nd October, I went to the Writing Buddies meeting. Hadn't been for a while because of Spain and it was nice to catch up with everyone and hear what they are up to. Some new faces appeared and I hope they will continue to come along. The new website looks very good and there is a link to this blog! A real incentive now to keep it up to date.

The assignments for the Writers Bureau are coming along very well. I'm just editing number 6 out of 8 and have got number 7 in hand.

I'm off to Southport this week to see my cousin who is still in hospital after suffering a stroke. I hope he will make a full recovery but it's still too early to tell.

My First Success

I submitted a 'blog' to Woman's Own magazine a few weeks ago and it was published a couple of weeks ago plus photo of me! I was browsing through the magazine section of our local shopin Spain, that sells a few UK publications and picked up Woman's Own just to see if I'd been lucky as I have been checking the mag each week and lo and behold there it was!! This has really spurred me on to submit more articles and has been a much needed confidence boost.

I hope to tell you about more successes in the future.

Back from Spain (again)

Arrived back in the UK on Monday evening having driven through France to St. Malo (my favourite place in France) and then the ferry home.

I haven't been writing very much, I'm afraid. I've done quite a bit of work towards THE NOVEL but not even thought about the next assignment with the Writers Bureau. There was so much happening at the house in Spain. Lots of work had been done and we had a major refit of the house to cope with and as we had added lots of new space I spent several days re-organising everything. We had people to stay and went to Granada for a couple of days (wonderful;) and then there were other friends to catch up with that live near us in Spain.

I find it very hard to stick to a routine in Spain that's conducive to writing. The ideal time is the afternoons because they are long and you can sit outside with a laptop so it sounds ideal doesn't it? However, it's easy to get distracted and I prefer to lock myself away when I'm trying to be creative and the house in Spain isn't big enough for that.

Now I'm back at home and ready to get the ball rolling again.

The Results are Now In

The Writing Buddies meeting came round again and quite a few of us gathered at the Art House Cafe to learn the results of the anthology competition. We had a guest, Simon Walley, who announced the winners and runners up. A very well done to all those who went home with certificates and an envelope - I was hoping for a "highly commended" mention but alas, my short story fell short I suppose. I can't wait to read the winning entries in the book when it's published.

The Writing Buddies meeting is always informative and I go home with lots of ideas to follow up and there's always plenty of encouragement. Eileen told me that I need to get more feedback on my work and not rely on my Writer's Bureau tutor. That's not to say my tutor gives the wrong adivce. Indeed, I value what she tells me and certainly take note. It may not always be what I want to hear but feedback should always be positive and constructive. Funnily enough she didn't like the story I submitted to the antholgy comp and said it was "confusing." It was a ghost story and I didn't think it was confusing but I wonder what other's might think.

I'm off to Spain and hope to spend the afternoons writing THE NOVEL. As it's partly set in Spain I should be inspired enough to produce some reasonable work plus I need to write two short stories for the Writers Bureau. I shall spend this afternoon gathering up all my writing materials.

It'll be an early night as we're up uber early to drive to Dover to take the P&O to Calais.

No Excuses

It's tuesday afternoon and since last thursday I haven't put pen to paper. Let me explain. Friday brought bad news that my cousin had suffered a serious stroke and was in hospital. The weekend saw me and my brother and his wife make a 260 mile round trip to Southport to visit him. I truly believe that in times like this you have to put certain things on hold and the family must come first. I am no stranger to driving up the M6. Southport is my birthplace and I am always happy to go back there. My cousin is paralysed down one side but has regained his speech very quickly with only a slight slurring. He expects to be in hospital for 3 months, may be more and I have promised to visit again. Sunday was spent recovering from the long drive and very late night.

Monday came and went and no writing. I don't know what was the matter with me but I could think of a thousand things to do and writing wasn't on the list. In fact, by the end of the day I asked myself did I really want to commit to it anymore? There's no excuse not to open your laptop for even half an hour and write gibberish if you have to. The point is, you are writing something. I have only submitted one article to Bukisa and am procrastinating on what to subm it next. I am dithering over assignment 6 for the WB and waiting for assignment 5 to come back. Not a good day for motivation.

Today is different. This morning I went to the hairdressers for a much needed restyle and colour. That was uplifting. This afternoon I have written for two hours non stop (THE NOVEL) and I am in the process of making a list of possible articles to submit to Bukisa.

I realise I have no excuses when it comes to writing. Yesterday I should have been back on track after a busy weekend doing other things. Today I am making up for lost time and really quite enjoying myself.

Beautiful Bath

Yesterday We went to Bath. I know I went there as a child but couldn't remember anything about it except I'm sure it was busy with tourists. Well yesterday was the same. Busy and lots of visitors. I had printed a map off of the main streets and decided that the Royal Crescent would be the sight I wanted to see most. It was just a short walk from the town centre through quieter streets. We made the Crescent the first stop on our tourist trail and arrived to find it deserted. It's a magnificent sweep of Georgian splendour and exactely like the photo in the guide book. We walked through small streets, lined with antique shops and posh hairdressers and quirky coffee shops back to the town centre and followed the signs for the Abbey and Pump room. We didn't venture into either and carried on to the picturesque Parade Grounds and watched people haul their blue and white striped deckchairs to a shady spot for a picnic lunch.

I like Bath because it looks so stately. The shops are different with 'one offs' as well as the usual high street chains. I wondered into Cath Kidson and couldn't resist buying a book of sticky labels. I'm not sure what I'll do with them all but I've got a mania for labelling things so I'm sure some of them at least will be used. We browsed charity shops, a Fairtrade shop and there was even a shop selling sausages and nothing else!

Lunch was at the excellent Loch Fyne (we have been to many now) and the £10 menu didn't disappoint - fresh sardines to start with followed by whole plaice in a herb butter.

Bath is just under two hours away. I think I'll be visiting more often from now.