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.


Find out more about my books. Click on the image below:



I'm on twitter @flaming_nora

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.

Find out more about my books. Click on the image below:



I'm on twitter @flaming_nora

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.

Find out more about my books. Click on the image below:



I'm on twitter @flaming_nora

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

Find out more about my books. Click on the image below:



I'm on twitter @flaming_nora

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.

Find out more about my books. Click on the image below:



I'm on twitter @flaming_nora

Sunday dinner and soap

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

Corrie weekly update - he's fast, he's mean, he likes a fruit machine

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

The Bees Knees

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'm on twitter @flaming_nora

Books I read on my holidays 2016

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, I felt like he was being completely honest.  Couldn't help but read this with a smile and respect for such a decent and hugely talented bloke. Another 10/10.

I'm an Ali Shaw fan. His two previous novels were magical and left a lasting impression on me. In fact, when I finished reading his first book The Girl with Glass Feet I burst into tears. The Trees was  solid and strong but it didn't give me the tingle of magic that his other books did. A mark of "good but looking forward to his next book" 7/10.

This is the second book in Danny Baker's autobiography. I read his first book on holiday some years ago and remember tears of laughter streaming down my face.  This second book - Going Off Alarming - doesn't disappoint. I'm still only half-way through it but I was so engrossed in it, and laughing so much at it, that I hardly noticed how terrified I was of the turbulence on the plane back home. So far, so good, and it'll be 9/10.

Find out more about my books. Click on the image below:



I'm on twitter @flaming_nora