My stint as a finalist, Clement & La Frenais comedy award 2019

Yesterday was a very special day. Sunday October 27th saw the Sketch for Sammy show at the Exchange Theatre in North Shields. I was there as a finalist, one of six whose comedy sketches had been chosen to be performed from all of those who entered. 

The theatre  began to fill up. North-east celebrities were spotted at the bar. 'Is that him off the telly?' we whispered. Oh yes, indeed it was. 

It's not false modesty to say that I never expected to win. I was gobsmacked at being shortlisted so winning was never on my mind. Well, okay, perhaps I allowed myself a moment when I thought it might be possible. But just a moment.

That moment disappeared the instant that the first of the six shortlisted plays were performed. And then the second. It was clear that there was real comedy writers in the room, and I knew I wasn't one of them. But hey, I'd been shortlisted, so there must've been some merit to my sketch and I know I shouldn't do myself down. 

All of the shortlisted sketches had been honed by TV comedian Jason Cook who gave us advice on making them even more funny than they were at the start. Taking Jason's advice, I beefed up my script to give the main character, Megan, a more pyschotic edge. And we're talking bat-nut-loopy.

My sketch was third to be performed in the show. Nessa Karon came onto the stage as my Megan and kicked the sketch into orbit. She was phenomenal as super-crazy-lady Megan, being interviewed for a new job.

"Aye-aye captain!" Megan greets her interviewers.

"I'm going to fly, Roger! Fly!" Megan gets the job.

The cast of my sketch having a giggle on stage.

After all six sketches had been performed, it was time for the judging to begin. The judges, pictured above, were TV actor Tim Healey, and TV writers Kim Tserkezie and Elliott Kerrigan! The show was hosted by TV comedian and writer Jason Cook and there were also some stand-up comedians and other comedy sketches peformed. It was a giggle of an afternoon that I really enjoyed.

And then the judges' decision came in.  All of the writers were asked up to the stage. You'll notice there are seven of us standing there but that's because one sketch was written by two writers. I'm the one in the orange shirt.  The awards were given out... 

... and the winner was Ian McCormick, who won the award for the second year running, with a very funny, tight sketch that was the first to be performed. A worthy winner. Ian's sketch will be included in the Sunday for Sammy show that takes place next year.

It truly was a day I'll never forget and I am honoured and proud to have been part of it. 

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Glenda Young

Author of historical novels with Headline

Twitter: @Flaming_Nora

Facebook: GlendaYoungAuthor

Corrie weekly update - Oct 26 2019

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

And if you'd like to support the Coronation Street weekly updates (please),

you can donate here. 

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Glenda Young

Author of historical novels with Headline

Twitter: @Flaming_Nora

Facebook: GlendaYoungAuthor

First look at Pearl of Pit Lane

A gorgeous package arrived today.

It's the first time I've held this book in my hands. It's my third novel, called Pearl of Pit Lane and it's set in the northeast coalmining village of 1919.

It's about a young girl called Pearl who lives with her aunt Annie, who earns money by selling herself on the streets. When Pearl comes of age, Annie is deep in debt. To survive, she needs Pearl to work the streets too. However, Pearl has other ideas.

Rather than submit to life working the pit lane, Pearl runs away. She has nothing and nowhere to go, but Pearl is determined to survive on her own terms.  Follow Pearl's amazing journey.

Pearl of Pit Lane is out on November 14th in hardback, audiobook and eBook (paperback March 2020).

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Glenda Young

Author of historical novels with Headline

Twitter: @Flaming_Nora

Facebook: GlendaYoungAuthor

Radio interview with Sun FM 103.4

I love radio. 

I love listening to it - and out of all the interviews and publicity I do when a new paperback is released, it's the radio interviews I love doing the most. 

This week I went into my local station Sun FM to chat to Simon and Lauren on their breakfast show about my second novel The Tuppenny Child which is out in paperback  now. The story is set in Sunderland in 1919.

The interview is now online and if you'd like to listen to it, it's here.

And if you'd like to read a blog post about my love for all things radio and wireless, it's here!
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Glenda Young

Author of historical novels with Headline

Twitter: @Flaming_Nora

Facebook: GlendaYoungAuthor

Short Story: Meet the Neighbours

I've a short comedy story in this week's The People's Friend magazine, out today (Wednesday 16 October 2019).

The story is called Meet the Neighbours and it's about some new neighbours who aren't all they're cracked up to be - even if they ARE celebrities!

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Glenda Young

Author of historical novels with Headline

Twitter: @Flaming_Nora

Facebook: GlendaYoungAuthor

The Tuppenny Child in the Bookseller Heatseekers Chart

The Bookseller is the trade journal for book sellers and authors. They compile the best selling charts each week. 

Well, one of those charts has The Tuppenny Child featured in it. 

The Bookseller's Heatseekers charts are compiled using titles by authors who have not appeared in the official UK Top 50 since Neilsen Bookscan records began. As such, they reveal books that are selling well, but not well enough to make the overall list in a seven day period.

And here she is, my very own The Tuppenny Child, straight in the Heatseekers chart at number eight this week.

This is very good news indeed.

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Glenda Young

Author of historical novels with Headline

Twitter: @Flaming_Nora

Facebook: GlendaYoungAuthor

The Tuppenny Child in Inside Soap magazine

With thanks to Inside Soap magazine for including The Tuppenny Child in their Hot List this week - the pics of books and DVDs they're recommending to soap fans.

The magazine is out in the shops now. It has a competition where you can even win a copy of The Tuppenny Child.

 __

Glenda Young

Author of historical novels with Headline

Twitter: @Flaming_Nora

Facebook: GlendaYoungAuthor

Finalist in Sketch for Sammy - The Clement and La Frenais Comedy Award 2019

Sunday for Sammy's Ray Laidlaw with Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais

Sharing some very exciting news today.
I'm one of six finalists in this year's Sketch for Sammy - The Clement and La Frenais Comedy Award 2019.

The live final will be held on Sunday October 27 at 2pm at The Exchange Theatre in North Shields. All six comedy sketches will be performed by professional actors. It'll be great! All welcome, please come. I've never written anything like this before, so as you can imagine, am feeling a bit gobsmacked at being chosen as one of the finalists.

A panel of celebrity judges comprising actress and comedy script writer Kim Tserkezie, (Balamory) comedy writer Elliott Kerrigan (Boy Meets Girl) and Chairman of the Sunday for Sammy Trust, Tim Healy, will choose the winning sketch which will be considered for inclusion in the 2020 Sunday for Sammy show.

To obtain your free ticket, email julieclay@blueyonder.co.uk
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Glenda Young

Author of historical novels with Headline

Twitter: @Flaming_Nora

Facebook: GlendaYoungAuthor

The Number 8 Bus to Everywhere - My Writing Week

How do you imagine a writer's day to be? I always thought, perhaps hoped, it might involve lazing on a chaise longue, wearing a silk dressing gown while smoking a cigarette in one of those really long cigarette holders like Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany's.

Alas, a writer's life isn't like that. Or at least, mine's not, so far. But then it's early days. Perhaps I should put the chaise longue on order?

So as I'm not lying around smoking in a silk dressing gown, what the chuff am I doing with my writing life? Well, this week I was on the number eight bus to Beamish. I know, thrilling stuff.

Actually, it really is thrilling and I couldn't be happier. It was a long bus ride, all 90 minutes of it from Sunderland interchange to Beamish museum. For those who don't know Beamish, it's a world famous open air museum, telling the story of life in North East England during the 1820s, 1900s & 1940s - and it's a perfect place for researching the old way of life.

I was there this week to research my fifth novel. I've dedicated all of October to researching this book - which will be called The Paper Mill Girl.  The staff and volunteers are Beamish are superb and the attention to detail in everything you see and visit is outstanding.

On my visit this week I spent some time in the Local Resource Centre where the computer desk came with the most unusual - and best ever - seat I've ever had at an office desk.

After the resource centre I wandered the cobbled streets of the pit village and the old town at Beamish. I breathed in the air, the smells, the sounds, and I watched people moving from shop to store, from one side of the street to the other. It all went in to my notebook and it'll come out in another form, somehow and some way in my novel.

Beamish have recently opened the first stage of their new development, a 1950s village. It's where the Grand Electric Cinema from Ryhope (where my books are set) will be moving, brick by brick.  The welfare hall is now open and I went in for a look around. I started chatting to a chap who worked there and it turns out he's a writer too, and teaches script writing. We knew lots of people in common and had a really long natter. It was nice to meet you, Porle Miller.  Visit his website here.

Beamish was just one day in a remarkable week for me. I'm fizzing with nervous energy right now as there's so much going on.

Invited to WHSmith in Newcastle to sign stock this week I was met by staff member Katie who had arranged a display on a table of my books, it was fantastic, I really was overwhelmed. Katie told me that my second novel The Tuppenny Child is 'flying off the shelves' which I'm sure is a phrase every writer loves to hear. I know I did. It's the second time this week I've been told that about this book.

While in WHSmith I met a lovely lady called Wendy Burke who is also a writer and we had a really good chat. Follow here on Twitter here.

The Tuppenny Child has been on a 'blog tour' this week too, with stunning reviews from book bloggers Tracey Shults and Amanda Oughton.  In fact, Amanda's review made me cry.

Elsewhere this week, I found myself on the Nice and Easy table in Newcastle Waterstones too - with both my novels on sale - Belle of the Back Streets and The Tuppenny Child.

And now it's Friday and the week draws to a close, but not to an end. Today I'm visiting another local WHSmith to sign stock of The Tuppenny Child. And this afternoon, I'm doing more research for The Paper Mill Girl.  

Tomorrow, Saturday 12 October I'm giving a talk at The Word in South Shields. It's at 2.30pm and tickets cost £2. Please come. All details are here.

A full list of all the talks I'm giving on my books can be found on my website here.

___

Glenda Young

Author of historical novels with Headline

Twitter: @Flaming_Nora

Facebook: GlendaYoungAuthor

Corrie weekly update – the return of Debbie Webster

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

And if you'd like to support the Coronation Street weekly updates (please),
you can donate here.

__
Glenda Young

Author of historical novels with Headline

Twitter: @Flaming_Nora

Facebook: GlendaYoungAuthor

The Tuppenny Child in The Crack magazine

The Crack magazine is a north-east listings magazine that I rush to pick up at the start of every month. It covers gigs, events, museum exhibitions and so on in the area and I'm delighted to be included in it this month. I've got not one, but two, events listed in the literary pages and my thanks go to whoever sends these in to the magazine.

The two events relate to publicity for my second novel The Tuppenny Child and you can find out more about it here.

Saturday 5 October, book signing at Sunderland Waterstones.

Saturday 12 October, talk at The Word in South Shields. One of my favourite places in the north-east. Tickets are £2 and you can book in advance here.

-- 

Glenda Young

Author of historical novels with Headline

  

Twitter: @Flaming_Nora
Facebook: GlendaYoungAuthor

The Tuppenny Child - BBC Radio Newcastle interview

This week I was invited into BBC Radio Newcastle to talk to award-winning DJ Lisa Shaw about my second novel set in Ryhope, Sunderland.

The book is The Tuppenny Child and there's more information on it here.

If you'd like to listen to my interview, it's short (about 6 minutes) and I start talking after ELO, at the 1 hr 15 mins mark here.

-- 

Glenda Young

Author of historical novels with Headline

  

Twitter: @Flaming_Nora
Facebook: GlendaYoungAuthor

Sunderland Echo competition - Win a free copy of The Tuppenny Child

My local newspaper, The Sunderland Echo, are running a competition to win one of eight copies of my second novel set in Sunderland, The Tuppenny Child.

All details are here.

-- 

Glenda Young

Author of historical novels with Headline

  

Twitter: @Flaming_Nora
Facebook: GlendaYoungAuthor

Review of books I read on holiday 2019

Just returned from a wonderful holiday in the sun. While there, I relaxed and read a great deal. Here are the books I read with a little sentence or two about each one. 

The Testaments by Margaret Atwood

My most favourite book, ever, of all-time is The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood. And yes, I loved the TV show, up to a point. That point being at which the book ended and the fiction of TV took over. I stopped watching then. The Testaments is a fantastic follow-up to The Handmaid's Tale. Enjoyed it enormously, so much so that I've started reading it for a second time. 

Can you ever forgive me? By Lee Israel

I know of this book because of the 2019 film starring Richard E Grant. It's the memories of a literary forger and the film is a lot of fun, sad too in places. The book is as sarcastic and witty as you'd expect. It's a slender book, a thin volume and you can read it in an hour or so.

Righteous by Joe Ide

The second of Joe Ide's books that I've read. Really enjoy his main character, the detective Isiah (IQ). Some of the violent scenes felt as if they'd been scripted for TV rather than prose but otherwise enjoyed this a lot and looking forward to his next book already. Particularly liked the vivid characters of IQ, Dodson, Cherise and Ruffin the dog.

Transcription by Kate Atkinson

The second Kate Atkinson book I've read but I'll definitely be reading more. Excellent characterisation, strong and gripping plot, fast paced action and an absorbing story.

Perfidious Albion by Sam Byers

Gulp. I never want to use social media again. Horribly, scarily true. Brilliant characters.

The Sea Inside Me by Sarah Dobbs

I know Sarah Dobbs. Everything I know about writing flash fiction I learned from Sarah Dobbs. This is the first time I've read one of her novels and it knocked me for six.  A strong storyline and wonderful, powerful prose.

I Just Can't Stop It by Ranking Roger with Daniel Rachel

And last but by no means least, one of the best musical biographies I think I've ever read. The Beat, The Selecter and The Specials were in the charts, on the radio, on Top of the Pops at the exact time I was getting interested, I mean really interested, in music as a 15 year old. I've had a life-long love of ska and reggae ever since. I can't recommend this book highly enough. RIP Roger.

-- 

Glenda Young

Author of historical novels with Headline

  

Twitter: @Flaming_Nora
Facebook: GlendaYoungAuthor