Flaming Nora

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. Find out more about my books. Click on the image below : I'm on twitter @flaming_nora

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. Find out more about my books. Click on the image below : I'm on twitter @flaming_nora

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. Find out more about my books. Click on the image below : I'm on twitter @flaming_nora

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...

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. Find out more about my books. Click on the image below : I'm on twitter @flaming_nora

I've a short story in The People's Friend magazine which has gone on sale today.  The story's called Sunday Dinner and it's about what happens when a couple of empty nesters relish having the house to themselves - while their son goes off to University. My soap opera Riverside is also featured in the magazine. I do hope that people are enjoying reading it as much as I'm enjoying writing it. Find out more about my books. Click on the image below : I'm on twitter @flaming_nora

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, Tommy Orpington arrived. Find out more about my books. Click on the image below : I'm on twitter @flaming_nora

I've just found out today that one of my short stories, which I entered into a writing competition some months ago, made the longlist.  I'm over the moon. Also, I'm mildly annoyed that I had to seek out the website to find out who had made the list and who hadn't. I didn't receive an email to tell me it had been longlisted. When you pay to enter these cpmpetitions (and they're not cheap, some of them), then the least the organisers can do is let you know you've been either successful or not. Anyway, fortunately I'm organised and keep links and deadlines in a list and checked the Doris Gooderson Short Story Award website today . And there it is, in black and white, on the long list. My story, The Bees Knees. It's the third short story I've had longlisted this year, one of which came in as Highly Commended too. I just need to crack through to making the shortlist now somewhere. Find out more about my books. Click on the image below : I...

Back from an amazingly relaxing holiday in northern Mallorca and these are the books I read while I was away. I love reading biographies and autobiographies, especially those of people I grew up listening to or watching on telly.  And so it begins that the books I read on this holiday included two music biographies.  The first of these was Chrissie Hynde's Reckless. The book is wonderful, it rips along at some speed and she can write very well.  I came away though, with the feeling that she wasn't telling the reader all of the truth. I suspect there's a book's worth of other stuff she could tell if she wanted to. But that's the beauty of writing one of these books when you're famous, I guess. You tell it like it is, or as you want it to be. I really enjoyed it and score it 9/10. Ah. My favourite author.  A fantastic read. Nothing less than a solid 10/10. Another music biography - Nile Rodgers' Le Freak - and unlike Chrissie Hynde's book above...