Flaming Nora: Hot flushes igniting a writing fire in my belly

Friday, February 21, 2025

Hot flushes igniting a writing fire in my belly - my writing week

This week has been another busy week and I wouldn't have it any other way! I've finished writing the third book in The Toffee Factory Girls trilogy and have sent this to the publisher. There's still a lot of work ahead but for now I can take a well-deserved break. However, I haven't been sitting back!

In March it'll be 10 years since I left my day job to begin my writing life and so much has happened since. There's a wonderful celebration of the last 10 years in the Sunderland Echo and you can read it all here.

Also this week I was invited to take part in the Festival of Local Authors organised by Durham County Libraries. I gave a talk at a library outside of Crook in County Durham and it was wonderful. Without libraries, I wouldn't be the writer I am and I owe them everything. Thank you to everyone who came along.

And so, in celebration of 10 years of writing, I've been looking back at awards, achievements, memories. Here we go with this week's glance over the last decade of my writing life.

My debut novel Belle of the Back Streets in WHSmith in South Shields. One of my favourite pictures. it's hard to know who was most excited, me or the lady in the shop! I popped in to sign stock, by the way, in my cycling gear.

A very special mention of my books from TV's soap queen Sharon Marshall.

And here I am on the site of the old Hendon paper mill with my novel The Paper Mill Girl. It's my bestselling book, cracked the UK top 50 book charts and I received a commendation from the British Association of Paper Historians.

And back to my debut novel Belle of the Back Streets, here is the first ever box of books I received from my publisher Headline. And let me tell you, opening boxes of books from your publisher NEVER gets stale! What a thrill to see this memory from February 2019. And so much has happened since... but what will happen next? It's going to be an exciting time ahead.

I crafted another episode of my weekly soap opera Riverside for The People's Friend magazine. I've been writing Riverside weekly since 2016 and you can find out all about it here.