Celebrating a writing milestone

Today marks a writing milestone. I have finished the first draft, all 100,000 words, of my second novel. It's going to be called The Tuppenny Child.

There's still a lot more work to do with edits and rewrites. But I am now going to give myself a well-deserved pat on the back. I might even crack open a bottle to celebrate in style tonight.

I'm going to miss the characters in this book a lot. I've grown very fond of them over the months while they've lodged in my head. I know them inside out, what they eat for breakfast, the colour of their shoes. 

And as I edit this book, my mind is already turning to thoughts and ideas for book three, which I'm working on now with my publisher at Headline and my agent. 

It's going to be a great summer ahead immersing myself in research before I start writing book three.

And do you know what?

I can't wait.

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Corrie weekly update: Adventures in Abergele

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

This week it's all ramping up to Corrie's big showdown.

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Corrie weekly update: Smashed glass and broken hearts

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

This week the aftermath of Aidan's suicide has been heartbreaking to watch

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Woman, Stanley. Woman. #Corrie #AmWriting

Here I am at the launch of the Hetton Hub, a community library in the north-east. I was invited to attend along with two other north-east writers - crime writer Sheila Quigley and Sunderland writer Alan Parkinson.

And here we all are, picture credit: Kevin Hosking photography.

It was my first time attending anything like this and I really enjoyed it despite my nerves!

I chatted to people about my Corrie books and about my novel Belle of the Back Streets too.

As my novel is set in a north-east pit village, there was a lot of interest in it, which was great. I gave out some of my zines and my bookmarks and had a really good time.

Thank you to Springboard North East for asking me along to the launch of this amazing place.

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I'm on twitter @flaming_nora

Title of my second novel revealed #amwriting

I'm almost finished writing the first draft of my second novel. As with my first  novel - Belle of the Back Streets - the novel is set in the north-east coal mining village of Ryhope and centres around a community just after the end of the first world war.

Belle of the Back Streets is published in November this year.

And now the title of my second novel has been revealed.

It's exciting news indeed. 

You can find out what it's going to be called by looking at the publisher's website here.

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I'm on twitter @flaming_nora

From Ryhope to Coronation Street and back again

If you'd like one my little zines that tell the story of my writing life in a tiny little booklet, let me know and I'll email one to you to print with instructions on how to fold it.

No origami skills needed.

Or send me your address by email and I'll pop one in the post to you with a free bookmark too.

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



I'm on twitter @flaming_nora

Corrie weekly update: Death, devastation and David

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

This week Aidan Connor's suicide storyline in Coronation Street brought a heavy responsibility to my door that has made me question my future as a Corrie fan online.

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I'm on twitter @flaming_nora

The book of my life (aka my very first zine)

I've had a lot of fun today making my very first zine.  Having been asked to attend a few events over the next weeks and months, I wanted to create something personal that I could give away. And so I had some bookmarks made which gives details of my debut novel on one side of the bookmark and on the other is a listing of all of my Coronation Street books.

And today I've been making a zine.  It's a book of my life as a writer - from writing Corrie weekly updates for th'internet, all the way through to writing official Corrie books for ITV and Corrie fan books for other publishers as well as self-publishing too.  Then it chronicles my life as a creative writer, making up my own stories, my forays into writing for women's magazines and more literary stories for competitions. 

It opens up to a sheet of A4 which you can read just like a book in your hand.  Here's one side of it:

And here's the other:

And the zine ends, as all good books should, with a happy ending and the news of my three book deal with Headline.

I'm still working on the zine, it's by no means perfect but I rather think that's the point with zines. I'm really happy with the way it looks, a tiny handmade book of my life that I can hand out at events. Chuffed. A day well spent playing on the computer.

And here's the events listings here.

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I'm on twitter @flaming_nora

Writer of the Week in The People's Friend magazine

This week I've been chosen as The People's Friend Writer of the Week and they've interviewed me here.

I chat about writing the magazine's first ever, weekly soap opera Riverside and give a tiny piece of advice to aspiring writers. 

I hope you enjoy reading it.

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I'm on twitter @flaming_nora

Tales from the Dark Side

I recently had a short story published in an anthology of crime stories. The anthology is called Noirville and it's published by Fahrenheit Press. My story was one chosen out of many who entered the Noirville competition and to say I'm pleased to be included, well, I really can't put into words to be honest just what this means to me.  You can read more on that here.

And I've just found out that my story - The Canary Islands Crime Boss - has been reviewed by an international crime writer Robert Lopresti.  Crikey!

You can read Robert's little review here.

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I'm on twitter @flaming_nora

Acceptable in the 80s

I used to knit, a lot, back in the day.

I knitted Aran jumpers, striped jumpers, patterned jumpers. I knitted with three needles, round needles.

Today I've put two of the jumpers I crated up for sale on eBay. I haven't worn them in years, and they've still got.. well.. some sort of appeal. I hope.

My listings on Ebay are here.

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I'm on twitter @flaming_nora

An ode to the weekly soap

A lovely surprise this weekend to see my weekly soap Riverside mentioned in a reader's poem in a recent edition of The People's Friend magazine.

Really chuffed.

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I'm on twitter @flaming_nora