Flaming Nora

My local newspaper, The Sunderland Echo, have featured me today making stotty bread at home. If you can get your hands on flour and yeast and want to give it a go, the recipe is here on my blog . You can read the full feature in the paper here. __ Glenda Young Author of historical novels with Headline Twitter: @Flaming_Nora Facebook: GlendaYoungAuthor

Today, Monday 27th April 2020, I was interviewed on BBC Radio 4 Woman's Hour by presenter Jane Garvey who ended the interview by calling me 'fantastic'.  I'm going to dine out on that for months. I was chatting about my novels set in the northeast pit village of Ryhope (where I'm from) in 1919, about short story writing and coming to writing at a later stage of my life. If you'd like to, you can listen to the interview here. I'm introduced at the start and my interview begins at 20 minutes and 15 seconds in. You can listen to it at BBC Sounds here. If you enjoy radio, you might like to read my blog post all about the radio shows that defined my life. It's called Radio, Radio and it's here. __ Glenda Young Author of historical novels with Headline Twitter: @Flaming_Nora Facebook: GlendaYoungAuthor

I've been writing Coronation Street weekly updates since 1995 and this week's  Coronation Street update has just gone live here. And if you'd like to support the Coronation Street weekly updates to keep them going (please),  you can donate here __ Glenda Young Author of historical novels with Headline Twitter: @Flaming_Nora Facebook: GlendaYoungAuthor

Very grateful to all at New Writing North for including me in their latest newsletter.  I'm under the People section here . __ Glenda Young Author of historical novels with Headline Twitter: @Flaming_Nora Facebook: GlendaYoungAuthor

It's day 1,489 of lockdown and 7 days since I sprained my ankle. I have been confined to the sofa with my foot up with a bag of iced peas. It's recovering, I'll be fine, but I'm a very impatient patient. I'm not the sort of person who can sit still. But I have to, for now. I went over twice on my ankle in the garden last Tuesday and a call to NHS 111 confirmed it wasn't a fracture. I have to sit and wait this out. And while I do, I write. And what a joy it is. I was already scheduled to begin writing novel 6 (as yet untitled) before lockdown began.  It's another gritty saga set in a northeast mining village in 1919. I'd planned to do three weeks of research in museums and archives ... and then lockdown began. My research plans were scrapped, changed. I bought a pile of books from ebay and I did three weeks of research by reading instead. A friend of mine gave me his access to an historical research site, which has helped a great deal. Historia...

I've been writing Coronation Street weekly updates since 1995 and this week's  Coronation Street update has just gone live here. And if you'd like to support the Coronation Street weekly updates to keep them going (please),  you can donate here __ Glenda Young Author of historical novels with Headline Twitter: @Flaming_Nora Facebook: GlendaYoungAuthor

I've been writing Coronation Street weekly updates since 1995 and this week's  Coronation Street update has just gone live here. And if you'd like to support the Coronation Street weekly updates to keep them going (please),  you can donate here __ Glenda Young Author of historical novels with Headline Twitter: @Flaming_Nora Facebook: GlendaYoungAuthor

My Weekly magazine are celebrating their 110th anniversary this week. And I'm surprised and very happy to be included in their special edition with a lovely mention, as below. __ Glenda Young Author of historical novels with Headline Twitter: @Flaming_Nora Facebook: GlendaYoungAuthor

Today I've been out for my daily walk, baked a chicken pie and cleaned the kitchen. And I've also plotted my novel. It's a rough plot and plan at this stage, nothing more than the synopsis broken down into plot points and spread over 16 chapters. Why 16 chapters? Because 16 sheets of A4 fit perfectly onto the carpet in my writing room leaving me enough space to walk around them, and in and out of the room while the chapter plans remain where they are while I think. I'll be doing a lot of thinking in the coming days because plotting and planning is about more than making lists and spreadsheets and sticking post-it notes onto bits of paper. It's about thinking and creating and seeing where your characters will face obstacles that will hinder them or where they meet characters who might help them. Or kill them.  It's about making sure that your plot points work, that they're dramatic or emotional enough to carry the reader through, involving them in ...

If you'd like to, you can read my winning story in this year's Evesham Festival of Words right here.   __ Glenda Young Author of historical novels with Headline Twitter: @Flaming_Nora Facebook: GlendaYoungAuthor

I've been writing Coronation Street weekly updates since 1995 and this week's  Coronation Street update has just gone live here. And if you'd like to support the Coronation Street weekly updates to keep them going (please),  you can donate here __ Glenda Young Author of historical novels with Headline Twitter: @Flaming_Nora Facebook: GlendaYoungAuthor

Good news is in short supply right now so I'm absolutely over the moon about this. I've won this year's Evesham Festival of Words Short Story competition with my short story called The Fan Club Man. The story will be going on the festival website soon and if you'd like to you can read it once it's live. It's a story about a man, not without his difficulties in life, who runs a fan club for a soap star that he's infatuated with. So when she calls him out of the blue and asks him to meet, he goes a bit giddy kipper. However, what she has to tell him isn't what he wants to hear.   The judge said that my story made them both laugh and cry. And it was inspired by a true story of something that happened to me. That's all I'm going to say! __ Glenda Young Author of historical novels with Headline Twitter: @Flaming_Nora Facebook: GlendaYoungAuthor