Flaming Nora

I write this on the eve of a very special day. Tomorrow, I am spending the day at my old Junior School.  I've been invited in by the Head to officially open the school's renovated library. It's an honour and a privilege to be asked. I've already been in for a recce and library is wondrous, colourful and calm. A learning haven, a safe place to get lost in a book without fear of being unable to find your way out again. I've asked if I can stay for school dinner and the Head has told me I can. My mam worked as a school dinner lady in the infant school across the yard from the juniors when I was there. Every time I think of mam in her green school dinner pinny I think of pink custard and coconut tart. If it's on the menu, I'll have it of course. Not only that, but I'm also giving talks to each of the nine (gulp!) classes in the school. I'll talk about being a junior there myself and about the love of reading and libraries the school instilled in...

I'm going to be in Waterstones Sunderland (in The Bridges shopping centre) signing copies of the paperback version of BELLE OF THE BACK STREETS - and you're invited to come along.  It's Saturday March 9 from 11am to 2pm. All details here. If you can't make it to my book signing but would like to perhaps come along to the book launch or a talk I'm giving on the book or come to my book signing, all my events  are listed on my website here. Debut novel Belle of the Back Streets Now out in hardback, audiobook and e-book Pre-order paperback, released March 7 2019  Kindle e-book just £1.99   Website:  glendayoungbooks.com

I'm having a book launch when the paperback version of BELLE OF THE BACK STREETS is released in March- and you're invited.  Yes, you, sitting there reading this. You're invited to the book launch which will be held on Thursday March 7 at 6pm in the Albion Inn, Ryhope Village Green, Ryhope, Sunderland. That's the Albion above, an imposing pub on the corner of the village green in Ryhope, where my novel is set. The Albion features heavily in the book too, the reason I'm holding the book launch there.  If you can make it and you'd like to come, you'll be very welcome indeed. The facebook event is here. If you can't make it to my book launch but would like to perhaps come along to a talk I'm giving on the book or come to my book signing, all my events are listed on my website here. Debut novel Belle of the Back Streets Now out in hardback, audiobook and e-book Pre-order paperback, released March 7 2019  Kindle e-book just £1.99...

I've been writing Coronation Street weekly updates since 1995 and this week's Coronation Street  has just gone live here.  This week Corrie called a spade a spade. Or was it a shovel? Debut novel Belle of the Back Streets Now out in hardback, audiobook and e-book Pre-order paperback, released March 7 2019  Kindle e-book just £1.99   Website:  glendayoungbooks.com

All through my writing life I've demanded silence. A quiet house with no-one in it but me. The only sound the tapping of the keyboard or the bashing of my head against the wall. I shun the radio, turn off the TV.  I have found the way I write. It needs to be quiet... ... until it wasn't any more. This week I've been fully focused on writing a short story for a national competition. It's a story that features a world-famous singer and the narrative revolves around four of the fans. On the surface the story is fun. But read deeper, between the lines and you'll find the undertone mournful, one of loss. While I've been writing it, I needed to feel mournful too. I needed something to give me, as the modern parlance goes, all the feels. I've got a box set of hits from the singer who features in my story. I stuck on the CD. There was one particular song I was waiting for and when it began I rode the wave of emotion. I listened to the words and the tune, ...

My debut novel  BELLE OF THE BACK STREETS comes out in paperback on March 7 2019. I'd be really happy to come and talk about the book, the characters, developing the story, the research I did before starting to write - and to answer any questions about the book set in Ryhope in 1919. And so, if there are groups in the north-east who might like to know more, just get in touch via my website. Debut novel Belle of the Back Streets Now out in hardback, audiobook and e-book Pre-order paperback, released March 7 2019  Kindle e-book just £1.99   Website:  glendayoungbooks.com

I've been writing Coronation Street weekly updates since 1995 and this week's Coronation Street  has just gone live here.  This week Corrie was all about babies and the Barlow kid. Debut novel Belle of the Back Streets Now out in hardback, audiobook and e-book Pre-order paperback, released March 7 2019  Kindle e-book just £1.99   Website:  glendayoungbooks.com

Browsing in a charity bookshop yesterday, I came across an old copy of Erin Pizzey's The Watershed. I stopped what I was doing and took a long, deep breath. That book, more than any other I've read since, has truly changed my life. I was in my early twenties when I read it first, finding my way in the world with life in general and fellas in particular. I think I must've bought it at the time because on the front of the book there's a quote from Cosmopolitan (my Bible back then) saying it was up there with Scruples, Princess Daisy and Lace - all of which I'd read and loved.  But The Watershed isn't anything like Scruples, Princess Daisy or Lace.  It's a hard book to read, vital  as you'd expect Erin Pizzey, outspoken fighter for women's rights, to write. Except I didn't know that back then. I'd never heard of Erin Pizzey.  The Watershed is at times, a difficult book to read. You want to shake Rachel, the heroine. You want to tell her t...

I've been writing Coronation Street weekly updates since 1995 and this week's Coronation Street  has just gone live here.  This week Corrie was all about Claudia's hair.  Debut novel Belle of the Back Streets Now out in hardback, audiobook and e-book Pre-order paperback, released March 7 2019  Kindle e-book just £1.99   Website:  glendayoungbooks.com

Just today I realised that not only do I write about the world's longest-running soap opera Coronation Street ... but ... I also write weekly soap opera Riverside for the world's longest-running woman's magazine, The People's Friend! That's quite a double act. Debut novel Belle of the Back Streets Now out in hardback, audiobook and e-book Pre-order paperback, released March 7 2019  Kindle e-book just £1.99   Website:  glendayoungbooks.com

Dancers from the Fly Right Dance Company at The People's Friend party I've just returned home from a trip of a lifetime. No, it wasn't the Caribbean and I haven't been on a round-the-world cruise. I've been to Dundee. Yes, Dundee. It's a smashing little city with an enormous heart. I was there at the invitation of The People's Friend magazine, it's the longest-running women's magazine in the world and I'm proud to say I write for them. The magazine celebrates its 150th anniversary this year and the birthday party was in full swing last night. Along with many of the writers for the magazine, I was there last night, rubbing shoulders with the magazine's staff, illustrators, accountants and all manner of staff who work in the impressive, historic D C Thomson building.  Here's a photograph I took of the building before the party began. And here's a little look inside The Counting Room inside the building, an area nam...

I've been writing Coronation Street weekly updates since 1995 and this week's Coronation Street  has just gone live here.  This week in Corrie we enjoyed sparks, chemistry and fireworks to usher in the new year. Debut novel Belle of the Back Streets Now out in hardback, audiobook and e-book Pre-order paperback, released March 7 2019  Kindle e-book just £1.99   Website:  glendayoungbooks.com

The paperback of Belle of the Back Streets   is released on March 7 2019. I've been invited to Waterstones in Sunderland (in The Bridges shopping centre) to do a book signing from 11am to 2pm on Saturday March 9. I do hope you might pop in and say hello. All details here Debut novel Belle of the Back Streets Now out in hardback, audio and e-book  Kindle e-book just £1.99   Website:  glendayoungbooks.com

Today I have reduced all of my Coronation Street fan / companion eBooks to just 99p each on Amazon. Yes, they're all  now just 99p. They're all at Amazon, here. Debut novel Belle of the Back Streets Now out in hardback, audio and e-book  Kindle e-book just £1.99   Website:  glendayoungbooks.com

I've a short story called Susie and the Bandshees in February's Take a Break's Fiction Feast magazine.  The story is about a Siouxsie and the Banshees tribute band who reunite. It's a story of love, loss, grief and death - and a lifetime of domestic abuse. Not an easy subject to cover, but the second on the theme of domestic violence that I've sold to Take a Break. Debut novel Belle of the Back Streets Now out in hardback and e-book  Kindle e-book just £1.99   Website:  glendayoungbooks.com