Flaming Nora: Elvis, sunrise and roses

Friday, January 15, 2021

Elvis, sunrise and roses - my writing week

This week I've been working hard, continuing to write my current work in progress. It's my seventh novel set in 1919 in the coalmining village of Ryhope, where I was born and bred. As yet, it's untitled, and I'm almost two thirds of the way through the first draft. It's rough and raw at this stage, and the second draft will see it polished and made shiny before a third draft, maybe even a fourth, sees it being sent to the publisher before the deadline of end of May.

Also, this week was a very special week as something happened that I've been looking forward to for months. My publisher Headline sent me the cover of my sixth novel The Miner's Lass. I'm over the moon with it, the heroine looks exactly as I pictured her and the background is superb.

Elsewhere this week I was featured on Sunderland University's news page after they invited me to share my lockdown experiences with them. Why Elvis? And why so many of them? All is revealed in the link below.

You can read more on that here.

Something happened this week that really cheered me up. I was in the middle of cleaning the kitchen (an author's life isn't all glamour and prosecco) when the doorbell rang. There was a delivery, a box of flowers for me. I wasn't expecting flowers, I mean, who does? What a lovely surprise to receive a bouquet of roses and freesias, my absolute favourites. The bouquet was a new year's gift from my literary agent, Caroline Sheldon. How gorgeous the flowers were.

And speaking of things that have cheered me up this week, I've been walking a lot on the beach during lockdown. I'm lucky that the coast is right on my doorstep. This week the sunrises have been stunning and a morning walk sets me up for each writing day ahead.

I crafted another episode of my weekly soap opera Riverside for The People's Friend magazine. I've been writing Riverside weekly since 2016 and you can find out all about it here.

And finally, I wrote another Coronation Street weekly update and sent it to my emailing list of thousands of Corrie fans around the world. I've been running this list since 1995 and if you'd like to sign up to receive these weekly updates, all details are here.