Flaming Nora: Community, Scarborough and putting Sunderland on the map

Friday, May 21, 2021

Community, Scarborough and putting Sunderland on the map - my writing week

This week I've been writing, a lot. I'm back in Scarborough... in my head for now, in reality late next month. I've just completed the first 40,000 words of my second cosy crime Set for Murder at the Seaview Hotel. The first in the series is out in August in ebook & hardback. Pre-order now at http://bit.ly/MurderAtTheSeaviewHotel

Speaking of my debut cosy crime, I was very happy to see MURDER AT THE SEAVIEW HOTEL included in Headline's Publishing Highlights catalogue for July-December 2021.

Elsewhere this week my writing week features involvement with my local community, which I couldn't be happier about. My books are all about mutually supportive women and as in books, so it is in life.

First off though, May is Local History Month and you can view my online talk about Writing Fiction in Old Ryhope via the wonders of YouTube, below.

Friends of Fulwell is a local community organisation who do sterling work. This week they delivered packs to residents including signed copies of my novels including The Girl with the Scarlet Ribbon, which I am overjoyed about. If you receive a book, I hope you really enjoy it.

I was delighted to be asked by Sunderland University to deliver one of their very popular Community Lectures this summer. My talk will be called Writing Historical Fiction Set in Sunderland at the End of WW1. The recorded talk will be shown online, on Wednesday 14 July at 2.30pm. It's free and you can sign up here.

A local book group was set up during lockdown and they meet online by Zoom. It's free and open to all. The book group is reading my novels, which I'm honoured about. They're now seeking new members where they're creating sewing designs based on my novels. You don't need any sewing experience to join in. They've already worked on my book The Paper Mill Girl and next up will be Pearl of Pit Lane. This is FREE and all books and sewing kits are provided. Email rokerlifeproject@gmail.com to join.

I was proud to put my home city of Sunderland on the map this week when the new release of The Miner's Lass shot up the Amazon charts for new saga releases. Thank you to everyone who's bought the book and those who've left reviews too. It means the world to me.

My novel The Girl with the Scarlet Ribbon is still only 99p for the ebook until the end of May. Don't miss out! Download it here.

There's still time to enter to win a signed hardback copy of the new book The Miner's Lass, a box of chocs and free bookmarks. Enter at the pinned post on my Facebook page. Competition closes Sat 22 May 2021

And there's still time to enter to win 1 of 3 copies of The Paper Mill Girl with Trip Fiction here. Competition closes Sat 22 May 2021

And finally, when I get a moment to read, I've been losing myself in Donal Ryan's books. He's an Irish author, new to me, one I discovered by reading the Bookseller magazine after being unable to browse bookshops over the last few months.

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.