Flaming Nora: Competitions, Cooking and a Library Talk

Friday, November 28, 2025

Competitions, Cooking and a Library Talk - My Writing Week

The weeks leading to Christmas always feel like the calm before the storm. And what a storm it will be, because when the New Year turns I'll be knee deep in research for a couple of months then writing my next historical saga. More on that later on, down the page!

First off this week, I'm very proud to announce that I'm sponsoring a creative writing course at Sunderland Women's Centre. It begins in January and if you're interested in joining, follow them for the announcement via their Facebook page.

This week there's a new competition to win a signed copy of Deadly Dancing at the Seaview Hotel. Enter here.

And the winner of last month's competition was announced. Was it you? Find out here!

And so to the quiet before the storm I mentioned earlier. I'm planning my synopsis and research schedule, with the help of the Mackem Cewk Bewk. (That's the Sunderland Cook Book!). Intriguing, yes!

I gave a talk at Birtley Library on my Toffee Factory Girls books. It was a really lovely, very friendly event. Thank you to everyone who came.

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.