In no particular order, here we go with my personal favourite top 10 highlights of my writing year 2021.
2. Breaking into the top 50 UK bestsellers chart with my novel The Paper Mill Girl
3. Writing 50 episodes of my weekly soap opera Riverside for The People's Friend magazine. Episode 250 of Riverside was published this year.
4. Having 12 short stories published for magazines including The People's Friend, My Weekly, Take a Break Fiction Feast and Best.
5. Donating hundreds of my novels to Ryhope Community Centre for distribution around the village (where my novels are set, and where I grew up) to those self-isolating during lockdown.
6. Making the front page of my local newspaper The Sunderland Echo and having a whole page dedicated to my novel The Miner's Lass.
7. After more than 20 years, I gave up writing the Coronation Street Weekly Updates. You might think it odd that I'm including this as a highlight, but it was very difficult to let go. However, I had to say goodbye to them as they were taking too much of my creative time that I now invest in my novels and short stories. Do I miss writing the weekly updates? No. Do I miss the thousands of people on my mailing lost who have been with me for decades? Very much.
8. I had books published with Headline one of the UK's major top 5 publishers! My novel The Paper Mill Girl was released in paperback in March. In May, my novel The Miner's Lass was released in hardback, ebook and audiobook and in paperback in October. In August, my first cosy crime novel, Murder at the Seaview Hotel was released in hardback, ebook and audiobook and in paperback in November.
9. I had an article published in the Crime Writers Association newsletter.
10. My novels were read by a local book group and turned into amazing pieces of embroidered art work.
11. I was featured in Chat magazine all about my writing and novels.
12. My novels inspired a book trail in Ryhope village
13. I was commended by the British Association of Paper Historians for the research carried out for my novel The Paper Mill Girl.
14. I ran a competition for a reader to have their name included as a character in my second cosy crime set in Scarborough. The winner was.... (well, you'll have to wait and see!). All donations made with entries went to Dog A.I.D. (Assistance in Disability).
15. I was one of only nine writers shortlisted in the Kilmore Quay 'Write by the Sea' short story competition.
16. My cosy crime set in Scarborough was featured on Alan Ayckbourn's official YouTube channel in their weekly news round up!
17. Bookshops reopened after a long lockdown. Bookshops! Bookshops!
18. Wrexham Libraries chose me (me!) as Author of the Month for August 2021
19. Think I've got something in my eye. This... and many, many more messages saying similar things fill my heart and soul. Messages like these make it all worth while.
20. I invited my dad to my book launch for my cosy crime set in his favourite place, Scarborough. I left the invitation on 'his' bench in Scarborough in Peasholm Park where we scattered some of his ashes after he passed away. Miss you every day, dad.
My heartfelt thank to everyone who made my writing year possible. Big shout outs to Waterstones Sunderland, Waterstones Scarborough, TripFiction, Fulwell Community Library, Hendon Back on the Map Community Library, Sunderland Libraries, The Word at South Shields, South Cliff Gardens at Scarborough, Stephen and Martyn and EatMe Cafe in Scarborough, New Writing North, BBC Tees, BBC Newcastle, Simon Grundy at SUN FM 103.4, Claire Pickersgill of Hype That PR, Inside Soap magazine, Durham on Air, Katy Wheeler at the Sunderland Echo, Louise Hardy at NE BIC, Bek Homer BBC York, Romantic Novelists' Association, Book Fairies North East, Deborah Doyle of Roker Life, Izzy McDonald-Booth of National Glass Centre in Sunderland.
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Glenda Young
Twitter: @Flaming_Nora
Facebook: GlendaYoungAuthor
Website: GlendaYoungBooks.com
