News and Plans for 2018

This post is a little later than I intended owing to being away over Christmas, domestic interruptions (fridge delivery, Virgin cutting off our internet), other things needing attention (tax return) and time-management issues.

Writing news

[image error]In 2017 I started submitting short stories to competitions and devoted regular mornings to writing (and editing) them. Earlier this week I was encouraged to find that my story “The Gift”, about young girls trafficked from overseas, made the Top 40 for the Words And Women national prose competition.

I’ve also sent off my story “The Last Trip” to a few competitions. Inspired by a visit to Canada last year, it is about a couple with terminal conditions who encounter a grizzly while seeing the world together one last time. I’m still working on a more lighthearted story about a married woman who becomes infatuated with a famous author with an uncanny resemblance to a certain Norwegian literary sensation. This is threatening to become a novella, despite trying to keep it short. (Flash version on Sebnem Saunders’ blog.)

One thing I love about writing ‘short’ stories and flash fiction is how they can be perfected – or at least redrafted in days rather than months. They are good practice for learning what is and isn’t essential in a manuscript, and a great way to experiment with different genres and writing styles.

Blind Side news

There’s now over 100 reviews on Amazon UK and Amazon.com combined (109 at time of writing) {feeling faint emoji} plus a fair few lurking on other Amazon sites, Netgalley, Goodreads and other places. THANK YOU everyone reading this who has left a review anywhere for my book, whether you’re a dedicated blogger/reviewer or a ‘normal’ reader! That sounds wrong but you know what I mean