Corrie weekly update - Happy New Year's Eva

I've been writing Coronation Street weekly updates since 1995 and this week's Coronation Street update has just gone live here.

This week in Corrie, it's New Year.

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Corrie weekly update - Three Wise Men and Mary

I've been writing Coronation Street weekly updates since 1995 and this week's Coronation Street update has just gone live here.

This week in Corrie, it's Christmas.

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Hot Christmas

I have two Christmas short stories in this week's double issue of The People's Friend magazine. The stories are "Grace's Wish" and "A Mistletoe kiss".

As women's magazines work so far ahead for publication, I remember sitting down to write both of these stories in the middle of summer on one of the hottest days of the year.

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Corrie weekly update - Tracy's tapes, sisters and Bros

I've been writing Coronation Street weekly updates since 1995 and this week's Coronation Street update has just gone live here.

This week in Corrie, Tracy's tapes turned up.

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NEW! Coronation Street Blog: The Book

This week, the Coronation Street Blog will celebrate its 9th birthday online and is celebrating by launching Coronation Street Blog - The Book!

This unofficial Coronation Street companion book is an exciting mix of some of the best writing from our team of writers posted to our blog.

Each member of our team (even Fat Brenda!) has picked their favourite pieces of work and we've put them all together in a great little book. The book contains exclusive interviews and opinion pieces too.

Written by fans for fans, this book presents some of the most incisive, funny and engaging, writing about Coronation Street from fans that you’ll ever read.

We pay homage to current characters and say goodbye to older ones. We rave about things we love about the show and rant about some of the things that we don’t.

 In short, it’s a love letter to Coronation Street.

We hope you enjoy reading it as much as we’ve all enjoyed writing it!

The book is available in paperback and as an ebook from Amazon.

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The award what I won

To my first ever awards bash today where I had my best frock on to receive an award.

The ceremony was the North East Museum Volunteer Awards 2016 and was held at the Great North Museum Hancock in Newcastle.

Unknown to me, I had been nominated for my voluntary work at Sunderland Museum and Winter Gardens and Monkwearmouth Station Museum.  I work behind the scenes so I'd been nominated for the Hidden Treasure award - and I won it too. 

I can't tell you how proud I feel to have won the award, but also, to have been nominated.  I love my volunteering work at the museums and really feel passionate about it too. I do it because I love it a lot. Volunteering with Sunderland museums one of the most satisfying and rewarding things I have ever done in my life.

To have that passion rewarded with this nomination - and to actually win the award - feels amazing. Absolutely fantastic.

I am celebrating with tea and cake and I might just have a little beer later, too.

See also my blog post: The value of volunteering.

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Corrie weekly update - funeral, fraud and Phelan

I've been writing Coronation Street weekly updates since 1995 and this week's Coronation Street update has just gone live here.

This week in Corrie, Gail and Eileen called a truce.

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Corrie weekly update - Marriage, muck and mayhem

I've been writing Coronation Street weekly updates since 1995 and this week's Coronation Street update has just gone live here.

This week in Corrie, Tim dug himself into a hole.

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I've always wanted to tell my own stories

 

I'm not just in, but also on the cover of, this week's People's Friend magazine.  There's an interview with me about being asked to write the magazine's first ever soap opera, Riverside... 

 

And I have a short story in there too, all about a very special pair of shoes.

It's in the shops today.

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A paperback in the hand is worth its weight in gold

This lovely little book has just arrived in the post today.

It's my book of heartwarming, family stories, as previously published in The People's Friend magazine. 

I'm particularly chuffed about the cover of the book as it's a photo I took of some of the sea glass I've collected over the last few years.

The Sea Glass Collector and other short stories is available here in paperback and for Kindle.
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Corrie weekly update - phenomenal Pat Phelan

I've been writing Coronation Street weekly updates since 1995 and this week's Coronation Street update has just gone live here.

This week in Corrie, Pat Phelan proved phenomenal

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Corrie weekly update - the soap psycho soldiers on

I've been writing Coronation Street weekly updates since 1995 and this week's Coronation Street update has just gone live here.

This week in Corrie, the soap sterotype Mad Woman reappeared.

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My new book of short stories

I'm very proud to announce that a collection of my short stories is now available in one smashing little book.

The Sea Glass Collector and other short stories is a collection of heartwarming, family stories originally published in The People's Friend magazine.

Available in paperback and for Kindle here.


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Corrie weekly update - Gail Potter Tilsley Tilsley Platt Hillman McIntyre Rodwell Rodwell

I've been writing Coronation Street weekly updates since 1995 and this week's Coronation Street update has just gone live here.

This week in Corrie, Gail got proposed to - again.

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Sunderland LitWrit 2016

Sunderland Literature and Creative Writing Festival 2016 drew to a close last night.

I'm going to miss it, a lot.

This year is the first that there's been a Creative Writing side to the Sunderland Literature festival and I made the most of every single event that I could.  These were as follows:

I met and chatted to local author Amanda Revell-Walton. Under the name Nancy Revell she's been given a six book deal to write about women who worked in the Sunderland shipyards during WW2. I bought her book, which she was there to talk about and we had a long chat about the soap I'm writing for The People's Friend magazine.

Another local author and singer-songwriter Celia Bryce held a creative writing session. There were only three of us who turned up for this, so it was very intense, personal and we all learned a great deal.  I was really chuffed when Celia told me my writing had a poetic quality afer I read out a piece I'd written in the session. I walked out of that session with a smile on my face as wide as the River Wear itself.

Alan Parkinson, a local crime writer who has sold over 6,000 (yes, 6,000) of his self-published novels on Amazon held a session at Shiney Row library. Alan gave an insight into his work, the self-publishing process (which he covered more extensively in other sessions) and talked about his experiences in getting published. When I turned up for the talk at the library, I was amazed to see Alan had such a good following of fans, even if they were rather mature ladies. But it turned out the ladies were in the library for the knit and natter session instead. Again, only three of us turned up to hear Alan's talk. This was my second session with only a handful of attendees. Where was everyone? Why wasn't everyone else in Sunderland as fired up and excited about LitWrit as me?

On the afternoon when a London agent and publisher were giving their words of wisdom to aspiring authors in a session held at Pop Recs, I was lying on my sofa with a horrible cold. I had to miss the very session I'd been looking forward to the most. I would have benefitted most from this session and regret having to miss it. Those who were there tell me it was great.

Flash Fiction in a Flash was fantastic and fun. Sarah Dobbs ran a session that had a large group of us writing flash fiction and thinking about our choice and use of words in a way we'd never done before. In the session, Sarah asked us to write a piece about Sunderland for a new project she's involved in called Seagull City. I wrote a piece in the session, polished it at home and emailed it to Sarah, as requested. When she emailed back to ask if she could read my work at the launch of Seagull City on Friday 4 November, I wanted to shout with joy. As I was writing in Sunderland central library at the time, and could do neither of those things, all I could do was smile and email her back.

Mel Gibson (no, not that one) gave a great talk on British Comics for Girls. I met and interviewed Mel while I was doing my journalism degree and I know that she's the UK expert on research into girls comics. The room was full of women of a certain age (just like me!) reliving their past via the medium of Mandy and Bunty. If you ever get a chance to hear Mel speak, you must, she's very entertaining and really knows her stuff.

Ideas: From First Thought to Final Draft was a fantastic, busy and well attended session held at the National Glass Centre and run by Writers Block, Middlesbrough. My head was buzzing with crazy, creative thoughts within minutes of the session starting and I came away with so many ideas for stories, for projects, for writing, that after I finish writing this blog post I'm going to start to try to make sense of. 

Writing Crime Fiction was a chance to listen to crime writers Ann Cleeves and David Mark talk about their work. It was an inspiring and educational afternoon.

How not to be a Writer by Rob Young was a wonderful afternoon sesson at Sunderland University. Rob writes for TV and the stage as well as a myriad of other things including having spent this year as Sunderland University's writer in residence. He was helpful, informative, self-deprecating, honest and gave some of the best and most helpful information for writers I've ever heard. An inspiring session.

And finally, was the comedy writing workshop, a panel discussion on writing comedy for TV, sketch and stand up. There were four male comedians on the panel and although it was good, entertaining, and of course funny, I would have liked at least one woman to have been included on the panel. We can be funny too. The panel was followed by a comedy gig, a great end to the night and to the festival too.

Just two last things to mention are...

...the Sunderland University and Waterstones Short Story competition. The winner of this was announced as part of the LitWrit festival. Sadly, that winner wasn't me. I entered two stories, both of which were longlisted and one was highly commended.
...the Sunderland University Spectral Visions Press released a book called Wear'd Tales of supernatural stories about Sunderland. The launch date was October 31st 2016, during the LitWrit Festival.  I'm proud to say I have a short story included in the book. You can read more about that here.

Well done to everyone involved in Sunderland LitWrit 2016. There's talk of more next year and I keep my fingers crossed that this will be the case.  As Sunderland central library closes and moves into Sunderland Museum (where I am the communications and learning team volunteer), purse strings are tightened for all things art and creative around our city.

We need initiatives like LitWrit now more than ever before.

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Seagull City

Everything I know about writing flash fiction I have learned from one person, a lovely woman called Dr Sarah Dobbs. She's a lecturer in creative writing at Sunderland University and is a published writer. 

Sarah is launching a new writing project called Seagull City. The Seagull City project is part of events for the Sunderland City of Culture 2021 bid. It takes people on a journey, literally and metaphorically, exploring the literary and cultural heritage of Sunderland.

The launch takes place inside the Elephant Tea Rooms in Sunderland on Friday 4 November and all details are here.

And the reason I'm blogging this is because Sarah has asked to read out my flash fiction story, called The Seagull, at the event. It's a piece I wrote at Sarah's session on flash fiction, which was part of the Sunderland Literature and Creative Writing Festival 2016.

I couldn't be more chuffed.

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Halloween Horrors and Wear'd Tales

There's a new book published today, Monday October 31st.  It's a book called Wear'd Tales and it's a collection of supernatural stories about Sunderland based on myths and tales from the past.

I have a short story included in this book. My story is based on the myth of The Ghostly Solider of Ryhope Village Green.  As I was born and bred and Ryhope this seemed the best tale for me to take and make a story out of.

You can buy it from Amazon here.


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Corrie weekly update - pickle in the sandwich

I've been writing Coronation Street weekly updates since 1995 and this week's Coronation Street update has just gone live here.

This week in Corrie, a puppy arrived.

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Sweets for my sweet

I've a short story in The People's Friend fiction special No. 131 which is in the shops today. 

It's a story of treacle pudding and a cad of a man.

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Why I've entered my last writing competition

I'm done with writing competitions.
Done, I tell you.
Done.
Done-diddly-done-done.
Done.

I'm new to this writing lark. This is the first year of my (rather advanced) life that I've earned my living as a writer. I mean, as a serious writer. Yes, this is the first year of my life that I've Become Someone who gets up in the morning and walks ALL THE WAY along the landing to go to work.  I KNOW.

I've had success and I couldn't be more proud of myself for the way things have turned out this year.  The way I've engineered things to turn out. I'm well chuffed. I am, finally, A Writer. I earn my living through writing words. It's everything I wanted it to be. It's everything I dreamed it would be, ever since I was five. 

Mind you, in my dreams there were always meetings in that London with an agent or a publisher. The meetings would be lunch, always lunch and always held in a high-class bistro or cafe, and the agent or the publisher would pay for a slap-up meal, at least four courses, with wine and pudding and cheese. And people at the other tables would look at me, enviously, admiring my pudding and my cheese and my shoes and my style. And people's heads would turn and I would hear them whisper 'It's her... the writer'. 

But apart from the lack of lunches, it's turned out like I always dreamed it would. 

And so I thought I'd start entering some of my work into writing competitions to see if I could win a prize. I've entered a few, perhaps 15 or so this year but have entered my final one, now. I am entering no more.  And no, I haven't won. Not a thing.

I've been highly commended once and have been long-listed twice. But that's it. 

So why have I given up submitting to the competitions?  Why don't I keep trying to win something?

Because writing isn't a sport.
Because entering the competitions are (usually) expensive, averaging around £10 per entry.
Because writing isn't a sport.
Because even though you pay to enter the competitions you don't often hear back from the organiser as to whether you've been chucked in the bin or read with a smile.
Because writing isn't a sport.
Because writing isn't a sport.
Because writing isn't a sport.

Mind you, if I'd won something by now, I'd probably not be writing this blog post. I'd be entering another competition.

See also:

• My first foray into fiction
• The Bees Knees
• My new soap in The People's Friend magazine

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Corrie weekly update - David, Barney and the video of doom

I've been writing Coronation Street weekly updates since 1995 and this week's Coronation Street update has just gone live here.

This week in Corrie, Jack P Shepherd as David Platt playe a blinder.

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