Flaming Nora: Reaching the end, Page proofs and Library talks- my writing week

Friday, January 28, 2022

Reaching the end, Page proofs and Library talks- my writing week

This week I finished writing the first draft of my eighth saga novel set in the coalmining village of Ryhope in 1919. I can't yet tell you anything about this one, or the title and there's still a long way to go before I send it to my publisher and consider it 'done'. I'm now in the process of editing the book and then I'll print it again, read it again, edit it again and keep on doing this until I'm truly happy with the finished result. Only then will I send it to the publisher. But it's still a milestone and one I'm celebrating!

I had a short story called The Social Media Girl in this week's Best magazine. It's a fun story about a woman who takes on a new role creating social media content for a wildlife park. But then strange things start to happen in her new role when her wild side begins to appear.

Thank you to Scarborough Writers' Circle for this wonderful write-up in the Scarborough News about my talk to the group earlier this month. You can read it all here.

A reminder that I'm giving an online talk for Northumbria Libraries. It's free and everyone with zoom can join in. I'll be talking about my writing life and my cosy crime Murder at the Seaview Hotel. It's on Monday 31 January at 2pm and you can sign up to join in here. I hope to see you there!

This week I received the page proofs of my seventh Ryhope-set saga, A Mother's Christmas Wish. This one comes out in August this year in ebook, hardback and audiobook and it comes out in October in paperback. It's the first Christmas novel I've written and I'm very proud of it. My job with the page proofs is to check for any errors in grammar and spelling that may have made their way through onto the page, and it's the last chance to correct things before the book goes to the printer.

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.