Flaming Nora: Wonderful start to the new year

Friday, January 09, 2026

Wonderful start to the new year - My Writing Week

Happy New Year and what a start to the year it's been. Since my last writing week post, I've signed a new contract with my publisher Headline to write three more Sunderland sagas.

One of the sagas will be called The Bakery Girls, which I'm now researching. It'll include the fictional birth of Sunderland's pink slice cake. News of this reached The Sunderland Echo, read it all here. I even made front page news!

Using the pink slice recipe from the Mackem CewkBook, I made my very first pink slice.

And it went down a treat. Shortbread, jam, shortbread and icing. What's not to love?

I've a new competition for the new year. Enter to win a signed book here.

I also sent out my author newsletter for January. You can sign up to receive my newsletters here and be first to know about new deals, competitions, and exciting news.

This month my saga The Toffee Factory Girls is on sale for just 99p. Download it here.

And there's a very special event coming up in March where I'm giving a talk at the prestigious Lumley Castle in the northeast. See all my events on my website at glendayoungbooks.com

Elsewhere this week, reviews are coming in for my next saga, Celebrations at the Toffee Factory. All 5 star reviews so far, which is wonderful. The book's published in hardback, ebook and audio on Feb 26 and paperback in May.

This week I've been working in Scarborough while I research The Bakery Girls. My books are for sale in Waterstones Scarborough where they're sold from piles by the till. They sell so quickly, they don't usually make it to the shelf! I signed them all while I was there.

Another event I'll be speaking at in May is at Sunderland's historic Donnison School. Hope you can join me. Again, see the events page on my website at glendayoungbooks.com

This week also included the wonderful Irish tradition of the Women's Christmas, or Nollaig na mBan. It was my Irish friend Emma who alerted me to this wonderful tradition and it inspired my novel A Mother's Christmas Wish.

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.