K.A. Richardson's Blog, page 3

Releases, excitement and happiness …

   

 

Words cannot explain my excitement at receiving these very limited hard copies of Escape – Caffeine Nights has done a fantastic job on them and they’re just brilliant! I’ve given a canny few away in competitions and what not and what’s left now will be held back for freebies at the launch party of With Deadly Intent when that comes out next month. 

I’m over the moon with the response – the fact people have clicked buy even though it’s chargeable on Amazon (it wasn’t meant to be but they don’t seem to want to price match the zero cost on kobo etc) – and of course I have to mention the fantastic 5* reviews – obviously as a writer I know how important reviews are – don’t know if a lot of readers do though – they help a book/story climb the Amazon charts and be more visible. Which in turn can result in more sales and so on. Also it gives the writer a little reassurance. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve doubted whether it’ll be any good, whether people will like it, whether I’m even cut out to be a writer. Getting these reviews gives me a boost – it reiterates that maybe I am doing the right thing, maybe it is something I can do! 

The photo of me above was taken by a journalist who writes for the internal police magazine – she did an interview also which is fab – for those who I work with it’ll be in the April edition. 

I just want to say a massive thank you to everyone who’s asked for a copy, clicked on Amazon or kobo etc, or even just been supportive in any way. Without you guys this adventure that is writing wouldn’t be possible. You’re all awesome. 

Have a fantastic Tuesday – and as always, keep smiling! 

Releases, events and smiles …

   

 

Can’t believe the releases of my short story, Escape, and my novel With Deadly Intent are finally looming! Makes me very proud to know my work is going to be out there – though I must admit to suffering from the normal writer jitters! 

It’s been a hard slog getting here – I’m not going to lie. There were points along the way when I wondered why I was writing, whether it would be worth it, heck even whether I’d even get published. I’ve laughed with my characters, cried with them and cut some completely. I feel like I know them like real people – they’ve been a part of my life now for nearly 5 years. Still can’t believe With Deadly Intent was started 5 years ago! Seems like eons have passed. And to think I’m almost finished book 4 is just bizarre. 

I’ve got lots planned over the next couple of months – the launch obviously! I’m planning a few giveaways and what not and am so excited. And proud. Proud that I actually wrote a novel and managed to land a publishing contract with the fantastic Caffeine Nights. After the launch there will be signings though these are to be confirmed. 

I’ve also got Newcastle noir to go to at end of March – am not on a panel but will be there supporting the lovely authors that are! Then in May I’m heading down to crimefest in Bristol – and I’m on a panel at this one on the Sunday! David Mark is chairing, and I’ll be appearing with Luca Veste, Paul Finch and Sarah Hilary – nerve wracking much! Those fantastic authors then little old me. They’re all experts in the field – I’m very nervous already but know it’ll be an awesome panel. 

Then in July I’ll be at Harrogate Crime Festival – no panel but 3 whole days of socialising and chatting and hopefully selling and signing a few books! 

My goals have changed through my life – years ago I was determined to learn to ride horses and I did – I did lessons until I was comfortable doing everything from hacking to jumping and dressage. Later I wanted to be a decent DJ and did this for several years. I kept getting gigs so must have been ok. Then I wanted to pass my degree and work as a CSI – those dreams were hard – uni was hard! But I loved learning and landed a job relatively quickly. When I was a CSI my dream became to work towards my masters – but I wanted it to be for me. Not work. So after a little kick up the bum by a psychic, I enrolled and did my masters while working full time. I chose creative writing because I’d always written. Incidentally, the psychic I mentioned told me in the reading id be signing books in waterstones in 5 years. When the book comes out it’ll be 5 years and around 6 months since that reading so he was pretty spot on! 

My Ma was hard – I had moments of tears – many moments in fact. Mostly due to one guy who I won’t name but he basically told me I was crap and wouldn’t be able to do anything in writing. But do you know – that sounds bad doesn’t it – he was a lecturer too – but despite that negativity I used the first 15000 words of this novel for my dissertation and I passed! And passing gave me the nudge I needed to get it finished. Even when I signed the contract with Caffeine Nights that person’s voice was in the back of my head telling me I was crap. But I pushed on and ignored it. I like to think in some ways it made me more determined. It worked obviously though cos my book is finally due out! 

It just goes to show if you believe enough then you can achieve anything. Dreams are made to come true with hard work and dedication. And everyone is capable of achieving those dreams. So go out there and do it. Ignore the haters and let that hate make you more focussed. And while you’re doing it – keep smiling. ☺️

Birds, buds and good times …

  

Somehow January managed to pass me by – I’m not entirely sure but I think I may have slept through most of it without even realising. 

It feels like it’s been a busy time since my last blog in December. Then I was getting ready for chrimbo the same as everyone else. January literally passed in the blink of an eye. Yet I didn’t really have a lot to show for it. I must have been busy – but I don’t recall doing what! Which is actually quite disconcerting. 

I spent the first few days of February in the lakes having a few days away with my lovely hubby – the pic is one taken near Windermere and i love it! It’s full of atmosphere. We spent a lovely few days driving around and seeing the sights. Acted like proper tourists except for the driving the windy roads which admittedly I enjoy and tend to drive like a local. It was great just spending some time with Pete and relaxing. The buds are starting to come out on the trees and the birds were singing constantly – even heard the wood pecker having a grand old time knocking on the tree next to the hotel. 

I’ve managed to find my writing mojo again which is fantastic – book 4 is very nearly finished (finally!! This ones been a slog) and I’ve started some tentative research for book 5. It’s hard to believe my novel should be out next month – after all the waiting and working it’s just round the corner. I’m both ecstatic, and a little apprehensive at the same time. Will people like it? Will they want to read the next one? Will they hate it? Do I even like it? I can tell you after doing the editing I’m not sure I do! I love the whole writing process – the research, the creating the story and the characters. I love challenging my characters and thinking about how they would deal with the situations I throw them into. But I really dislike the editing process! It’s monotonous and there’s no free reign over what I want to say. It needs doing and I do it but I’d definitely love someone to do it for me! 

I’m already looking forward to the events planned this year – Newcastle noir, crime fest where I’m appearing on a panel! On stage. In front of people. (Yikes!) I admit to being nervous but the other panel members and moderator are all awesome so hopefully they’ll keep me right! It’s a fab subject too which I’ll look forward to thinking about. Then Harrogate in July which is always the social place to be. I look forward to it all year. I can’t wait to be able to show you all the awesome cover for my novel. As soon as I’m allowed to it’ll be all over the place! 

I’m in a really good place at the minute – everything’s falling into place and I’m loving the whole organising malarkey. I’m loving chatting to so many fab authors and readers too. Those who know me know I love being organised! I even did my spreadsheet for my taxes today – the self assessment won’t be scaring me this year! 

For Christmas last year I was given a calendar that gives a word a day for the whole year. Odd words with cool meanings. I’ve been thinking how to show these off cos they’re so fab and I’ve decided that I’m going to put the daily word and meaning on Twitter or Facebook. Might as well share the fabulousness that is words! 

I made a conscious decision in January to make sure I read more this year too. Too often I get caught up in writing and forget there’s other worlds that I can escape to. I read Tuesday Falling by S Williams last week while I was away. It was a fab read, pacey with an unusual but well researched content. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Moved on to The Theseous Paradox by David Videcette which is also shaping up to be a fab read. I’m intending to read the work of the other panel members at crime fest too (have read 2 out of the other 4 authors so it’s not a bad start!). 

I’ve tried to make sure I dedicate more time to writing too – since being diagnosed with the autoimmune disease last year, it’s been too easy to let the fatigue and pain rule. Don’t get me wrong – I’m still shattered all the time but resolving to write in small bursts has been really beneficial. It’s refocused my passion and forced me to realise that part of why I felt low was because I wasn’t writing as much. And it’s shaped the book so much so that it’s really very nearly finished now! I’m excited to get it done and get started on book 5. 

I think February and March are going to be awesome months. The Spring is coming, the days are getting longer, and so much is happening! Hope yours will be as awesome as mine – thanks for reading folks and as always, keep smiling.

Reflections, smiles and hope …

  

Wow last blog of 2015 – already? End of year has come about very quickly hasn’t it. It’s sped by as time tends to do. 

It’s been a jam packed one too! Feels like I’ve had a lot thrown at me this year. Among others I’ve been diagnosed with an autoimmune disease, had to have our beloved pooch put to sleep, been to Harrogate and Newcastle for the crime festivals, been accepted for an author panel at crime fest in 2016, had my 6th wedding anniversary, 38th birthday, had the cover design through for my first novel (which will be revealed soon!!) and almost finished my 4th novel. Busy, heart wrenching at times, sad at times, and amazingly happy at other times. It’s been a year of ups and downs, and not just for me. The country has been rocked by government funding cuts, influx of refugees fleeing the most awful of circumstances, and more recently insane flooding that has left many people without homes. Tolkien said it best – ‘the world is changed’. 

But even despite all of this I’ve made time to smile – granted at times it’s been harder than at other times. But I’ve done it. As often and widely as I could. I’ve been told several times off different people this year that they find my blog inspiring, and I hope this is still the case. I thoroughly enjoy letting you lovely readers see into a little of my life – and I look forward to interacting and building friendships with each and every one of you in 2016. If I thought this year was a busy one, next year will be even more so. 

Writing is the strangest thing – there’s a little known story about how I came to be so focussed on writing. As a child I wrote constantly – little books that I stapled together and gave to my favourite teacher. I’ve always loved writing poetry and have all the poems I’ve ever written in notebooks hidden away at home. When I was 17 I wrote my first novel – the one that will never see the light of day as it was a complete rip off of an old tv show, Airwolf, though to be fair I had no idea about copyright back then. It has pride of place in its handwritten form on my notebook shelf. Then, as I got older and life got in the way, I found I focussed more on poetry again – usually as a means of therapy for when I was feeling low or stressed. More notebooks were filled with poems no one would ever read. About 5 years ago I went to see a psychic – I take everything with a pinch of salt but am of the opinion that some are real and can tell an awful lot about a person. I’ll not go into pros and cons – it’s up to you if you believe or not. Anyway this particular psychic who I’ve seen a couple of times since, asked me in the most astounded tone ‘why aren’t you writing? You were born to write and you’re not doing it. Why not?’ He actually inserted several swear words which I’ve purposefully left out but you get the gist. His absolute horror got me thinking – why wasn’t I writing? I had always loved it. I’d always written a journal and poems and enjoyed writing the stories and finding ways into other worlds and lives with a pen and paper. And what was stopping me anyway? Well the answer to that one, after a month or two of careful thinking, was obvious. The only thing stopping me was me. 

Once I realised this I decided to go to Uni and do my masters – not in crime scene science which is the subject I hold my Bsc in, but in creative writing. Even when I started I think I knew I’d end up being a crime writer. The old adage of write what you know. But I attended all the modules – some I did better than others in – my screenwriting module turned out to be the one I got my highest grades in, and funnily enough my poetry module was awful! Granted the tutor essentially said I was crap and would never write anything let alone poetry, but it was my worst module for so many other reasons too. Have to say though – he knocked my confidence so much I wondered for a long time whether I had what it takes to be a writer. It took months for me to realise that I could do anything I wanted. I guess since my novel comes out next year that I was right to believe in myself even when he clearly didn’t. 

Anyway suffice to say, a psychic believed in me hence why I started the course, my thesis supervisor believed in me enough that I got great grades for the first 15000 words of my first novel, and finally I believed in me enough to continue with it. I still have some doubt there – I wonder if people will like it, whether I’ll ever be able to speak about writing and inspire other people to follow their dreams, and sometimes I wonder if it’s actually any good, the same as many writers. But it feels amazing to know I’ve achieved my goals for 2015, and can rest knowing I’ll hopefully continue on my journey into 2016. 

My hopes for 2016 are simple – to be happy, to make my friends and family as happy as I can, and to keep smiling. I hope it’ll be an easier year for those who’ve had a tough one, I hope to attract even more readers and friends. And I hope you all keep smiling too. Take care friends. I’ll see you in the new year. X

Lights, smiles and greetings…

   

   

Where to start! It’s been an awesome month – it really has. One of those where you just don’t stop smiling for various reasons. 

My holiday with my ever patient hubby Peter in October was fab – we were in Egypt, though hurghada not sharm so we didn’t experience any of the issues relating to the Russian plane going down though I had friends there who were. As always am thankful that we were safe and had no issues, though my thoughts are and were with those affected. 

My birthday at the start of November was great. I got spoilt rotten with gifts and good wishes off my wonderful family and friends – I consider myself extremely lucky to be honest. Even without the gifts etc I have so many amazing people in my life. They keep me up when am down, sane when I feel like I’m cracking up and are always there with a smile. 

At the end of November, me and my mum drove the long drive up to see my aunt in Scotland. It was lovely to see her and my uncle – and I spent 3 enjoyable nights sleeping in the conservatory under the stars. We then drove back down the icy single track for 26 miles, marvelling at the amount of deer that were down from the hills despite it being past 9am, and started the drive to Edinburgh. On reaching Inverness, the snow was coming down relatively hard so it ended up being a journey of about 10 hours (though we did stop for an hour or so along the way) and finally booked into our hotel. We went into edinburgh centre the next day and leisurely wandered round the Christmas markets near Waverley station, over the bridge to the old town and visited the underground Mary King Street. We stayed to watch the switch on of the Street of Light – virgin and underbelly had constructed massive displays which moved in time to Christmas songs provided by various choirs! It was absolutely fantastic. 

Am now back home and in full Christmas spirit and ready to tackle the Christmas decs! The tree and lights will be going up in the very near future! 

The pain I was in from the autoimmune disease has eased a little now I’m on the correct medication – I have my painkillers and am now on a good sized dose of sulfasalazine. I’ll be honest here and say I didn’t think it would work like it does – the pain compared to what I felt prior to the meds is much more manageable. Yes I still have pain and issues but I feel better equipped to get through the day. 

I’ve managed to get some writing done on book 4 – it’s been a hard slog this one. With my hands being so sore I’ve avoided writing for much of this year. I started book 4 in November last year and am only now nearing the end point. Normally I write over a 6-7 month period then focus on editing the novel before. I’ve had moments when I’ve wondered if I should stop, and other moments when I’ve fought tooth and nail to keep going. I accept now that there will be times I physically can’t do it – and am more determined than ever to crack on when I can! And if that involves voice recognition software then so be it! 

So I have a lot to smile about! I’m in the process of doing a 2015 blogpost which will feature on the lovely Vic Watson’s website – www.elementaryvwatson.com – so feel free to check that out if you like. Next blogpost off me will be after chrimbo! Goodness I adore Christmas! Have a good one folks – and as always, keep smiling!! 

Holidays, rest and productivity …

  

It’s sometimes hard to force ourselves to rest – I know I find it really hard. There’s always something to do at home, or you’re at work, or cooking tea and doing housework etc. For me, stopping for a bit of me time has never been easy – and even in the last 10 months of illness I’ve suffered, I still find it hard to admit I need to stop and breathe for a moment.

It kind of came to a head a month ago – I had a hospital appointment and was told by the nurse that my body needed to rest, that I was making myself worse by forcing myself to keep doing everything and feeling that I had to. I’d already had a day in hospital at this point after some chest pains pointed at a potential blood clot – luckily it wasn’t – but that combined with the nurse telling me and a subsequent visit to the GP meant I ended up with 2 weeks off sick. 

Normally any down time is spent writing, researching etc – but for those 2 weeks I genuinely stopped and let my body rest. It was hard – my joints were so sore anyway and I’d been given higher dose pain meds from the docs. It was strange sleeping if I felt tired and also learning to use meditation to rest my mind as well as my body. But I did it – some might say it was laziness, but the truth is my autoimmune disease had genuinely knocked me on my backside. I’ve mentioned before I have been recently diagnosed as having rheumatoid arthritis – most people just think it’s something old people get and that it’s just ‘aches and pains’ – they don’t understand the horrendous fatigue – so bad you can get out of bed on a morning and need to sleep again an hour later. The aches and pains are more like screaming agony in every joint – often accompanied by massive swelling as is the case with me. It hurts to lift a kettle, put a bra on (I generally can’t do this without help), lift a pan of food (again can’t do this – my lovely hubby has to assist with the cooking much more now). Then there’s the fact having it suppresses your immune system – your body essentially fights itself so if you get even a sniffle, it takes longer to shift and can often develop into much more serious things. This isn’t intended as a whinge in any way – more an attempt to help people understand a little. If you’d like further information there’s this abound on the NRAS website. 

So after my 2 weeks of resting, it was time for my holiday to Egypt with my lovely, patient hubby. I was dreading the airport – had heard rumours of how bad it was – but I was pleasantly surprised – hurghada was just like most international airports. Clean, straightforward apart from the touts trying to sell visas with handling fees – if ever you go, head straight for the bank. The resort was lovely – security on the doors, gated community – I felt very safe. For the next 2 weeks, I sunbathed, read (10 books and started the 11th) and wrote over 12000 words on book 4! Was nice to enjoy the holiday and not worry too much about the pain (the rest helped, and the sun is a wonderful healer and there was always the painkillers when all else failed). 

Despite the awful plane crash outside sharm, we had no problems coming home – extra security which is understandable and a slight delay, but all in all nothing else. Was glad to hear my friends who were in sharm made it home safely too – albeit 3 days after they were supposed to leave. 

I still have a few more days off work – had planned to do some writing today but my thumbs and wrists are swelling and sore again so a chill day it is. I’m starting to understand I need to listen to my body and rest when I need to. I’ve started on the RA meds now so am hopeful these will kick in soon and potentially reduce my symptoms. Until then, I’ll rest when I need, be productive when I can and focus on all the good things that are gunna happen next year! I can’t believe in 4 months my novel will be on the shelves in smiths and waterstones! I have so much to be thankful for – Caffeine Nights Publishing is fantastic – couldn’t ask for a better publisher. Had some mega exciting news yesterday – news I will share as soon as am able! Suffice to say I haven’t stopped smiling since. 

I’ve mentioned about a gazillion times now how much I love this time of year – the colours are just breathtaking. Out with the old to make way for the new. I’ve just had my birthday and was thoroughly spoilt rotten – flowers, pennies, a top, some smellies, a gorgeous handbag, sweeties and a hedgehog ornament called Bert who is just the cutest thing. The Christmas shopping is finished – and I’m off work Xmas day which is awesome. Am already looking forward to spending time with family and friends. Am honestly blessed to have everything and everyone in my life. RA or not – I live to live. And hopefully you all do the same. So take care, take some time for you, and as always, keep smiling. 

Smiles, rain and things to do….

  

 It’s been a bit of a hectic month for me – don’t know about you guys but September always seems to be one of the main months that just flies by! 

I feel like I haven’t stopped this month but have little to show for it really. I’m almost done with the edit on With Deadly Intent – a whole 4-5 weeks ahead of schedule! And have done a bit of reading, as well as a short poetry piece in collaboration with Si Mulgrave who is a fab photographer. You can read it here if you want to: 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/1271974... 

I’ve not been too well – being as yet untreated for Rheumatoid Arthritis (yes it’s confirmed now) has meant an awful lot of swelling and pain. My appointment to start treatment is in a few weeks. Had to take a couple of days off work due to the swelling then my brother, Michael, ended up having a bad reaction to a urine infection which I had to deal with as my lovely mum was away on her well deserved holiday. He ended up having to go into hospital for a few days and was somewhat violent and aggressive during the process of getting him in hospital and hooked up to IV. The police officers who had to assist were fantastic as they always are – I’ve obviously sent a huge thank you to them. 

I’m looking forward to my time off next month – a whole 3.5 weeks off work. Kindle is already loaded with a ton of reading material and the plan is to get book 4 finished completely. And hopefully get a good chunk written on the supernatural novel I’ve started. Also looking forward to working closely with the cover designers and editors at Caffeine Nights over the coming month or two. It’s exciting knowing my novel will be ready to go in a couple of months – exciting and scary! Am looking forward to it all but it still feels a little surreal! Four years ago when I passed my degree, despite knowing I wanted to write, and having the determination and belief I’d make it, I guess I didn’t really believe it would happen so fast! Am a little in awe, and so thankful to Darren Laws for believing in me enough to want to publish me. 

I’ve signed up already for Harrogate Crime Festival and also Crimefest for next year. As well as these I will be attending Newcastle Noir and depending on money, possibly Bloody Scotland! It’s gunna be a busy but fantastic year. If anyone wants to catch up with me just give me a shout

Tiredness, tears and truth …

  

Wow it’s been so long since my last blog – I know I say this virtually every month but time really does fly. My last blog was focussed around Harrogate and all that entailed. 

When I think of what I’ve achieved this month my initial train of thought tells me that really, the list is quite short. But then when I look more in depth, I’ve achieved quite a lot really. I’ve processed a brief outline for book 5, a very basic plot for a stand alone novel, and an equally basic plot for the supernatural trilogy I’m working on. I’ve done some basic research in relation to book 5, and done some editing on book 1. Can’t believe we are nearing the end of August already! Somebody needs to stop time! I’ve submitted my short story to my publisher who intends to publish this around October / November time this year – yikes exciting! My first novel has to be with him in October too, and then work will begin on cover designs and in-house edits. 

I’ve also done a read through of a children’s book for the lovely Susan Wilkinson which is a great story set in war times – am sure she’ll do fantastic with it. It’s very well written. 

I’ve had a meet up with the fab Sheila Quigley who’s been so supportive about my writing – her new book will be out in the next month or so so it’s definitely worth keeping an eye out for. 

All of this has been around me learning to face some rather harsh truths. It hit me quite suddenly that the auto-immune disease I mentioned having in the last blog will be with me forever. It’s not something I’ve ever considered and so far have just kind of put up with. I could sit here and tell you all about the massive swelling to my feet, knees, shoulders and hands, I could tell you how much it hurts and how the tiredness knocks me on my backside like nothing I’ve felt before. I could tell you I’ve cried more tears in the last few weeks than I have in ages – but do you know what, none of that matters. Pain is pain – it will eventually be managed with the medications when I’m finally put on them. They will also assist with the fatigue and the swelling. People with rheumatoid arthritis can and do go into a sort of remission for long periods. Having this isn’t the worst thing in the world by any means. There are people with a lot worse, people going through a lot worse, and after the month I’ve had thinking about not wanting this, I’ve finally started accepting it. 

This acceptance is what has allowed me to start focussing on my writing again. It’s been a tough few months trying to get a balance between the pain I feel using my hands and having to continue working etc. in some ways my writing had to take a back seat so that my energy was focussed on my employment, and that was hard. Writing had become so much a part of me and my life that it was hard not doing it for a while even though I really didn’t have a choice. Now that focus is back though – and I’m more determined than ever – book 4 will be finished by the end of the year, the first book in my demon trilogy will also have many more words added. Book 1 will be edited and sent in in time for my deadlines. These targets won’t be missed just because I have an auto-immune disease – I’ll adapt. Cos that’s what I do. I refuse to let it get to me and pull me down. It is how it is after all.  All I can do is look forward with a smile on my face. Yes there will be bad days, but there will also be good days and even better, there’ll be fantastic ones! So I’m taking a leaf out of my own blog advice. I’m going to keep smiling. As I hope you all will too!

Sunshine, Socialising and Friendship …

I’ve just returned from the legendary Harrogate Crime Festival – and I can honestly say that for me, this was the best year yet. I’d bought a weekend rover ticket which allows access to all the events but I was far too busy to go into the majority of them. I met lots of the amazing authors from my publisher, Caffeine Nights (www.caffeine-nights.com), who are pictured above (Col Bury, Mike Craven, Nick Quantrill, Michael Fowler, Graham Smith, little old me hiding at the back and Darren Laws who is the publisher himself!) I feel very happy to be part of such an amazing team and can’t wait to work with everyone else and meet the people I haven’t yet met!

As well as catching up with those named above, I spent lots of time with the lovely Eileen Wharton, pictured above with Col and Graham (left) and also pictured with David Mark (centre). Had a good natter with Sheila Quigley (right) who is so amazingly supportive – in fact everyone is so supportive but Sheila is wonderful. Writing gives the rare opportunity to become part of a community. A family of sorts. And it feels like a huge family party going back to Harrogate.

Me, Eileen and Sheila plan on meeting up very soon for a writing day. It’s so lovely to catch up with friends who I haven’t seen for a long time – Sue and Terry Wilkinson who are just two of the nicest people I could ever wish to meet, also nattered with Steve Mosby, Pete Sortwell, Caitlin Warrior, Leigh Russell (though we have agreed to arrange to meet next year because we were like ships in the night other than a brief hello) and lots of the lovely folk named above from Caffeine Nights.

The weather’s been pretty good overall – relatively warm sunny days followed by slightly chillier nights. The odd shower but nothing too bad and we all know I adore the rain anyway. The hotel was fab as always, and it was great to be in the venue hotel this year.

I met some wonderful people for the first time too – Scottish Rob who’s surname I didn’t catch, the quirky Kurt from Liechtenstien who smokes the biggest cigars I’ve ever seen! Michael Fowler who is published by Caffeine Nights, Anthony Schumacher, and even the fabtastic Tracy Fenton, Helen Boyce and Sumaira Wilson – Tracy runs the best book club on Facebook – it offers a place for writers and readers to interact and she does an awesome job! I look forward to seeing them all again next year. So many more I can’t mention or I’d be here all night!

In between all this I even had time to hobnob with the stars don’t you know. Lee Child is one of the tallest, most charming gent’s ever – a rare breed. Everyone I know enjoys his REACHER books. And not to name drop, but you know – it’s Lee Child! (photo above with Sue Wilkinson and Lee Child).

And even found time for a chat with Paul Abbott who wrote things like Shameless and No Offence – such a nice man who’s had an amazing journey after a rough start in life. So encouraging to new writer’s too – he works very hard. And yes, there will be a second season of no offence for those wondering!

It still amazes me how friendly Harrogate Crime Festival is – you can literally turn up and everyone will speak to you. There is no snobbiness, and no clickiness. Even the fab Lee Child and Peter James were in the throngs of people willing to chat and sign books etc.

Writing wise, I had a fantastic meeting with my publisher this morning. I’ve got lots of work to do – there’ll be a short story available later this year that is the lead in to the novel, and I’ve got my schedule for editing and cover design etc. So exciting! Can’t wait to reread book 1 to familiarise myself with it again and get the trusty red pen out.

As you may have gathered from the long blog post, I’m very excited and very happy! I hope you all have a fantastic month, and as always, keep smiling.

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Flowers, time and dreams…

I know I mention this regularly but isn’t it amazing how fast time flies! It’s the end of June already which means Harrogate Crime Festival is rapidly coming upon those authors and readers who use it as a platform for meeting up, nattering and generally having a good time. If you’re going let me know via facebook and I’ll look out for you

Isn’t the picture beautiful? My lovely friend Eileen Wharton got them for me – I was having a particularly bad pain day – I don’t know how to describe it other than that. Some days are better – there’s always pain at the minute but some days it’s bearable and I don’t need many pain killers. Other days it’s like I’ve been hit by a train – my joints are stiff and swollen, hot to the touch and sore. This day was very bad – worst I’ve had in fact. I couldn’t bend my fingers, my wrists ached, my shoulders wouldn’t rotate without immense pain, I could barely walk as my knee and ankles/feet were also really sore. So Eileen came through to mine and brought me lovely flowers to cheer me up – which I needed trust me! I’ve been reading a lot of articles and what not about Rheumatoid Arthritis lately – it’s not a nice thing to have. Not that any disease is obviously. I don’t even know if I have that yet – that’s a presumption based on what the consultant said at my appointment. I had more bloods taken, xrays done of my hands and feet and have to go for an ultrasound on my hands and feet so he can see what’s happening with the soft tissue surrounding the joints. Until my next rheumy appointment though, it’s just painkillers. Which didn’t touch me that day. A friend who suffers described the pain very well – it’s like a permanent toothache in your joints then suddenly something cold hits the nerve and stays for a few days.

I’m still struggling writing as it hurts to type – this blog is actually the first writing I’ve done in about 2 weeks, not to say that I’m not thinking about it mind you. If anything it’s the thinking that takes up the most time for a writer! I have been doing some research, looking up points to include in my next murder scene, and also thinking ahead to which characters I want to use in book 5, which already has a basic plot outline. It’s going to be a busy few months – I’ve got the lovely Jo Rodgrigues working on my cover for the short story I’m releasing later this year, and the short story is currently with my wonderful editor Jenny Drewery. It’ll be so exciting getting it prepped and ready for release in October/November this year as a lead in to the first novel – I know I mentioned it last blog, but my release will be in March 2016 – just so you all don’t forget!! I’ve been contemplating getting the Dragon software which allows conversion of voice to text. Will see what happens with that.

I’ve also been dreaming about writing of late – odd dreams that sometimes match my novels or are like watching a plot unfold before me – I do wake and remember them so very often I quickly scribble them down on the notebook feature of my iphone – they don’t often make a lot of sense but they do provide a good insight into the dreamworld and may be used in future novels! I’ve also acquired a new app – which amazingly is free to download from itunes. It’s called moleskine – and you’ve guessed it – it’s a notebook app! That looks like my treasured moleskine notebooks! So impressed with this am I, that I decided I’ll keep a diary documenting my disease journey. It’ll probably never see the light of day, but it’s been really helpful for me both understanding what can set off the pain, and also helping me with the therapy that only journals provide.

Anyway, as I say, it does hurt a lot to type, so I’m going to leave this short blog post here, and wish you all the best for a warm July. Look me up at Harrogate if you’re going – I’m very excited to be meeting up with all the people I’m rapidly coming to know as friends. Take care, and as always, keep smiling