Searching for seaglass

My regular reader will know by now that I enjoy finding and making things with sea glass.  If you'd like to know more about why I collect it, where, and what I do with it, I'm featured on the Skylight Rain blog - and you can read it here.


Deirdre: A Life on Coronation Street - official ITV tribute to a soap icon. Available here.


I'm on twitter @flaming_nora

Corrie weekly update - twerking out with a poundshop hairdo

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

This week on Corrie, biscuits were high on the agenda.


Deirdre: A Life on Coronation Street - official ITV tribute to a soap icon. Available here.


I'm on twitter @flaming_nora

Corrie weekly update - February 20th, 2016

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

This week on Corrie, real women are dolls.


Deirdre: A Life on Coronation Street - official ITV tribute to a soap icon. Available here.


I'm on twitter @flaming_nora

A visit inside Roker Lighthouse

Exterior of the lighthouse

As a volunteer with the Roker Pier Heritage Group, I was one of a small group allowed inside the lighthouse at the end of Roker Pier today.  It's the first time I've ever been inside this Sunderland landmark.  The lighthouse will be open to the public later this year. 

To get to the lighthouse at the end of the pier, visitors will be able to walk along the tunnel that runs underneath the pier.  This rules me out as I have a fear of confined spaces.  Fear is a word you may hear a lot in this blog post, so bear with.

The other way you can get to the lighthouse is by walking along the pier itself.  This I can do, no fear. I cycle along its length regularly and recently spotted a seal swimming alongside the pier.

Inside the renovated lighthouse (as recently featured on BBC Countryfile) there is space for small groups of visitors, lead by a tour guide.

Stairs from ground floor to first floor

There are various floors to visit, each one narrower than the last as the winding staircase takes you to the very top.  I'm afraid I couldn't manage the final floor which was to the room that housed the light itself. You guessed it, it's the fear.
 

My hands started sweating when I saw the open-tread stairs of the very narrow, steep, winding staircase leading to the final floor.  And so I stayed where I was, like a lighthouse Billy-no-mates.

Speaking of which, I couldn't go down into the basement either.  Again, the sweating hands, the palpitations. The fear.

Ditto the tunnel.

Oh, but the views... the views were outstanding.

What I loved most about the visit was the enthusiasm for the project from Sunderland Council and from the group of volunteers who will be leading the tours.  With my fear of small spaces, heights, tunnels, winding steps I fear (there's that word again) that I may not be much use a tour guide but I'll find my way into this volunteering opportunity as best as I can in some other way.

There's a lot of pictures from today's visit to the Lighthouse at my flickr account here.

If you'd like to be involved, there is a new website rokerpier.co.uk  and they're on twitter @rokerpier



Deirdre: A Life on Coronation Street - official ITV tribute to a soap icon. Available here.


I'm on twitter @flaming_nora

Don't do an Adele

What disappoints me most about telly singing shows like The Voice and X-Factor is that everyone tries to sound like someone else, someone already famous. 

They warble, they croon. They want to sound like Adele. It's not enjoyable to listen to and I want them to stop.  I want them to find their own voice and sing as themselves.

In my writing, I know that I've been guilty in the past of wanting to sing like Adele, in a literary sense. I've wanted to write like Margaret Atwood and have, to that end, even tried. I've failed miserably at it in much the same way the wanna-be singers on the telly shows fail. 

But I know now that the only way to forge forward with my writing is to write as myself.

I've found my own style.

I've found my own voice.



Deirdre: A Life on Coronation Street - official ITV tribute to a soap icon. Available here.


I'm on twitter @flaming_nora

Corrie weekly update - Whistling the people's tune

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

This week on Corrie, vote for Sally.


Deirdre: A Life on Coronation Street - official ITV tribute to a soap icon. Available here.


I'm on twitter @flaming_nora

Short Stories and Sudoku

I'm no fan of numbers. Maths scares me. Percentages bring me out in a rash and algebra makes me cry. So I didn't think I'd enjoy Sudoku, but I do.

A few years ago I couldn't get enough of the tricky little blighters and I'd sit and ponder with a pen in my hand, dropping numbers into boxes until all 9x9 of them were complete.

Then I lost interest in the puzzles and didn't touch Sudoku for years. But recently I've found my way back into them. It started when I picked up a free copy of Metro on the bus into town and found three Sudoku puzzles inside. Three. There's an easy, a medium and a tricky one to do. I can usually do the two first ones, but not the latter. I'm not that good.

Anyway, the point of telling you this is that sitting down to solve a Sudoku puzzle has, rather oddly but most definitely, helped my short story writing.

It's working my brain in a different way.

Instead of writing and editing blog-post sized chunks of writing, Sudoku stretches my wordy brain, uncurls it. Sudoku doesn't come naturally to me, it hurts. But I stick with it.

Two recent short story submissions to women's magazines have been accepted and I'm currently waiting for them to come out in print. I've also submitted short stories to various competitions and have a list of ideas for new short stories to write.

But first, a Sudoku, to warm my brain cells up.


Deirdre: A Life on Coronation Street - official ITV tribute to a soap icon. Available here.


I'm on twitter @flaming_nora