Flaming Nora

I've teamed up with House of Ruhr gin in a special competition today in my local newspaper, The Sunderland Echo. You can win my new gritty saga set in the northeast pit village of Ryhope in 1919, The Miner's Lass  along with a bottle of House of Ruhr gin.  Why the connection between the book and the gin?  Because Bryn from House of Ruhr is, like me, Ryhope born and bred.  To enter the competition, you need to buy today's copy of The Sunderland Echo. All details are online here. __ Glenda Young Twitter: @Flaming_Nora Facebook: GlendaYoungAuthor Website: GlendaYoungBooks.com

October's newsletter has just been posted. Includes two competitions, a special promotion and a chance to learn Italian!  Read it all here. __ Glenda Young Twitter:  @Flaming_Nora Facebook:  GlendaYoungAuthor Website:  GlendaYoungBooks.com

This week was a BIG week with the paperback launch of my gritty saga set in 1919, The Miner's Lass .  It's on sale now in Waterstones, Tesco, Asda and Morrisons. Plus, it's available online at all the usual places including Amazon at bit.ly/TheMinersLass . And you can enter to win a signed copy of the new book with chocolate and free bookmarks thrown in too! Enter here . I visited Scarborough Waterstones where I signed copies of my sagas Pearl of Pit Lane   and The Girl with the Scarlet Ribbon.  ...and I also signed copies of my cosy crime Murder at the Seaview Hotel . Get me, right next to Richard Osman too! The audiobook of my cosy crime set in Scarborough  MURDER AT THE SEAVIEW HOTEL was selected for Apple US’s Mystery & Thrillers flash sale which runs until 3rd November. The audiobook price has dropped exclusively on the Apple US store for the promotional period to $4.99.  Buy it here . Whilst in Scarborough this week I had coffee with Gemma Alexan...

My new novel is out in paperback today. It's called  The Miner's Lass  and is a gritty, dramatic saga set at the end of the first world war in a northeast coalmining village.   The book is available from all good bookstores. In the UK it's also available from Tesco, Asda and Morrisons supermarkets and online everywhere from Amazon, etc.   Buy it here. You can also enter a competition  to win a signed copy right here. __ Glenda Young Twitter: @Flaming_Nora Facebook: GlendaYoungAuthor Website: GlendaYoungBooks.com

When a prestigious crime fiction website offers to review your novel, it's a nail-biting experience waiting for their verdict on your precious work. I must admit I was nervous. Would Murder at the Seaview Hotel be too cosy for their liking, too twee? Too funny? Not enough blood, guts and gore? Well, I needn't have worried.  The book was not only well received by the site, but given a sterling 5 star review and they even said this about it too: Author Glenda Young has a lightness of touch worthy of a master baker award as she melds together a tale that is both laugh-out-loud funny and lump-in-the throat sad. Her depiction of a woman deep in grief could be cloying, but instead it is poignant and rings true. The downbeat moments are tempered by the fun of the Elvises – including Helen, acting as a last-minute stand-in called Helvis and providing one of the highlights in a book that is a pleasure to read. You can read the full review here.  Thank you, Crime Fiction Lover! __ Glend...

Very pleased to say that my new gritty saga The Miner's Lass  and my new cosy crime set in Scarborough Murder at the Seaview Hotel , are both featured in a local magazine.  This goes to all homes in my postcode area and the chap who runs the magazine has kindly placed this full page feature for me.  Wonderful stuff! __ Glenda Young Twitter:  @Flaming_Nora Facebook:  GlendaYoungAuthor Website:  GlendaYoungBooks.com

The audiobook of MURDER AT THE SEAVIEW HOTEL has been selected for Apple US’s upcoming Mystery & Thrillers flash sale which will run from 26th October – 3rd November.  The audiobook price will drop exclusively on the Apple US store for the promotional period to $4.99. Buy it now! __ Glenda Young Twitter: @Flaming_Nora Facebook: GlendaYoungAuthor Website: GlendaYoungBooks.com

Very proud to say that my new cosy crime set in Scarborough Murder at the Seaview Hotel  is featured in New Writing North's October newsletter.   Thank you! __ Glenda Young Twitter:  @Flaming_Nora Facebook:  GlendaYoungAuthor Website:  GlendaYoungBooks.com

COMPETITION TIME!  Win a signed copy of my new book The Miner's Lass, a bar of Green & Black's salted caramel chocolate and free bookmarks.  All details at https://www.facebook.com/GlendaYoungAuthor/posts/281467890649503   __ Glenda Young Twitter: @Flaming_Nora Facebook: GlendaYoungAuthor Website: GlendaYoungBooks.com

You can now watch my online book launch for The Miner's Lass in An Audience with Author Glenda Young as I chat to Pauline from The Word in South Shields here  __ Glenda Young Twitter: @Flaming_Nora Facebook: GlendaYoungAuthor Website: GlendaYoungBooks.com

This week I'm continuing research for my next historical saga set in 1919. It's a part of the process that I love as it means I'm constantly learning, and I'm burying myself in old books from the past.  As you read this, I'm not here. I'm taking a well-deserved break to the seaside town of Scarborough where my cosy crime, Murder at the Seaview Hotel  is set. I'll walk on the beach, take in the sea air, try to decompress after a very busy year of writing books, stories and sagas. Speaking of sagas... Really chuffed to have my new saga,  The Miner's Lass  in the spotlight on this month's newsletter from publisher Headline.  My book's been chosen as one of the top fiction releases for October.  You can read the whole newsletter here. This week I received my author copies of my new book The Miner's Lass . It's always a joy to receive the book, to feel it in my hand at last and to read it again. And yes, I do read it again as by the time it...

Really chuffed to have my new saga, The Miner's Lass  in the spotlight on this month's newsletter from publisher Headline.  My book's been chosen as one of the top fiction releases for October. You can read the whole newsletter here. __ Glenda Young Twitter:  @Flaming_Nora Facebook:  GlendaYoungAuthor Website:  GlendaYoungBooks.com

This week I've made a tentative start on researching my next saga set in the northeast coalmining village of Ryhope in 1919.   I've drawn up a plan of research and will dedicate myself properly to it over the next few weeks before I write up the research, make chapter plans and then (gulp!) begin to write. It's a nerve-wracking time, but exciting too. I love researching my sagas, it's my most favourite part of the whole process. And because I enjoy it so much, I have to be careful not to lose myself in the research and spend too much time researching when I really should be writing. Today, I bought a silver sixpence from 1919 while researching. It's not every day I buy a silver sixpence from the era to help with research. I could have looked at pictures to help, but needed to feel this particular coin in my hand. Someone's life depends on it.  It's less than two weeks before the paperback release of my saga The Miner's Lass.  I've stared a daily coun...

I was interviewed today on BBC Radio Tees about this upcoming Coronation Street storyline .  And I managed to get in a lovely little mention (thank you Radio Tees!) of my debut cosy crime set in Scarborough, starring 12 Elvis impersonators (Twelvis!)  Murder at the Seaview Hotel. You can listen to me here at 3 hours and 39 minutes . __ Glenda Young Twitter:  @Flaming_Nora Facebook:  GlendaYoungAuthor Website:  GlendaYoungBooks.com

Received a wonderful surprise yesterday to find out I was nominated in the VCAS 20/20 Open Arms Awards for 2021.    I'm in the category of Community Culture and Arts, which is wonderful.  However, I have no idea who nominated me for this award. Was it you, reading this? If so, thank you from the bottom of my heart. I can only imagine I've been nominated for this award because of the many donations of my books I've made during lockdown 2020 up to the present day.  The books have been donated in large numbers, to Ryhope Community Centre for distribution around the village with afternoon teas to those self-isolating.  I also regularly donate books to two local community libraries, to Saint Paul's church for their Christmas fayre and to their parish shop too. During lockdown of 2020 I also donated books to my local NHS. This nomination is a wonderful recognition of my donations, thank you so much. Glenda Young Twitter: @Flaming_Nora Facebook: GlendaYoungAuthor ...

Well, this is rather exciting. I can now reveal that I've been writing a Christmas saga set in the 1920s in the northeast pit village of Ryhope where all my sagas are set. The book will be released in ebook and hardback in August next year, 2022.  The paperback will be out in time for Christmas 2022.  The book is called A Mother's Christmas Wish  and you can pre-order it now!  It's here. __ Glenda Young Twitter:  @Flaming_Nora Facebook:  GlendaYoungAuthor Website:  GlendaYoungBooks.com

Front cover of the local paper today, I couldn't be more proud and burst into tears buying it in Morrisons.  Forget the BBC Radio 4 interview that I had to fight tooth and nail to get my working class voice heard on. This... this is what matters.  My dad used to read the Sunderland Echo from cover to cover. It took him a couple of hours then he'd throw it on the floor and moan "There's nowt in it!" as we laughed at him. Well dad, today there's summat in it you would have loved to read. You can read the whole article online here . __ Glenda Young Twitter: @Flaming_Nora Facebook: GlendaYoungAuthor Website: GlendaYoungBooks.com

This week is National Libraries Week and I've been concentrating on preparing and giving two online talks. Meanwhile at the back of my mind are all kinds of ideas and stories as I begin research for my eighth saga set in the northeast in 1919.  I know the story and what will happen, and I now need to begin research in earnest which will keep me busy for the next 4 to 6 weeks. I'm delighted with this!  My debut cosy crime, Murder at the Seaview Hotel , is featured in this week's Bookseller magazine on my agent's hot list of books set to light up this year's Frankfurt Book Fair. Murder at the Seaview Hotel was also included in New Writing North's Bookshelf for Autumn 2021.  As part of National Libraries Week  I gave two online talks by Zoom. The first was for Northumberland Libraries  and the second was for The Word (National Centre for the Written Word) at South Shields. I had a short story published in Best  magazine Meanwhile, the most amazing reviews con...