Putting the fun into funiculars - my writing week

This week has been a whirlwind of a week. I've done some writing on my third cosy crime set in Scarborough... and some research too. Yes, I went to Scarborough for two days for R&R&R (rest and relaxation and research) and what a joy it was. It's my happy place and it did me a lot of good.

While researching a plot point on the Central Tramway funicular, the lovely people who ran it were so interested in what I was doing, that they actually STOPPED the funicular mid-way in order for me to write notes. They checked with the two other passengers in the car with me first, they said they didn't mind (indeed, they were over the moon when they knew what I was up to!). I still can't believe this happened. How incredible was that?!

While there I had a meeting with the lovely people at Scarborough Waterstones who had both my cosy crimes in their window!  Woohoo! They told me the books are constantly in their top 5 bestsellers in the shop.

I also had a meeting with the amazing powerhouse that is Gemma from Scarborough's South Cliff Gardens project to talk about the book launch on August 6 that is being held in the gardens. Would you like to come? You're invited, all details here.   

I visited Scarborough library too, so while it was a break away from home and writing, it was still very much a working break.

My cosy crime Curtain Call at the Seaview Hotel went on a "blog tour" and more wonderful, 5* reviews were received 

Saturday 21st May was by The Book Magnet - read her review here

Sunday 22nd May was Dark Raven Reviews - read their review here

Thank you to all of the bloggers for such fantastic feedback, it really makes my heart happy.

Last week, in case you missed it, the reviews were as follows:
Monday was BooksByBindu - read her review here.

Monday was also Sue Wallace - read her review here.

Wednesday was Ginger Book Geek - read her review here.

Thursday was Lollyball91 - read her review here.

My Scarborough cosy crime Murder at the Seaview Hotel was given a massive shout out by Steve Lamacq on BBC6Music as part of their Book Week 2022.

Reached a milestone 100 reviews with 4.5* average for my 2nd Scarborough cosy crime novel, Curtain Call at the Seaview Hotel. I'd call that a happy launch! 

Well, would you just look at that! The guys from online magazine The Recs UK are on holiday somewhere lovely with my brand new cosy crime book!  

My Scarborough cosy crime, Murder at the Seaview Hotel is not only book of the month but was spotted in the window display at Waterstones Sunderland!

While inside the shop, they have a special table just for my books, which is always wonderful to see! They are SO supportive of local authors.

And my books - cosy crime and sagas, were spotted in Waterstones in the Metrocentre, Gateshead. What a treat!

Plus, the big event this week was attending Sunderland History Fair, where I'd been invited to give the opening, welcome speech. What an honour it was and what an incredible day. I've written about the event here and I do hope you read it as it was a fantastic event.

Plus, this week I was featured in The Chronicle northeast regional newspaper, where I chatted to about writing my historical sagas and my cosy crimes! You can read it all here.

And Curtain Call at the Seaview Hotel was reviewed by Crime Fiction lover website where it was given a fantastic 5* review. Read it here.

The book was also given a mention in New Writing North's May 2022 newsletter.

And included in The Bookseller paperback preview for August releases!

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.

I also kept the Coronation Street Blog ticking over with news and editing the team of 16 bloggers. 

See you next week!

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Glenda Young

Twitter: @Flaming_Nora

Facebook: GlendaYoungAuthor

Website: GlendaYoungBooks.com

Sunderland History Fair - An amazing day in a great city

Saturday 21 May was the day of Sunderland History Fair, held in the beautiful Bethany Church in Sunderland.  There were over 70 stalls inside from heritage societies, history societies, writers, artists and many other organisations. There were battle re-enactments! A wooden ship in the car park!. There were Romans and Normans fighting with swords and shields! In short, it was a fantastic event, packed full of wonderful things. Right up my street.  

I was honoured and proud to be asked to officially open the event.  I'm still on cloud nine after everything that happened yesterday and wanted to write it all down so that I didn't, wouldn't ever, forget what an amazing day it was.

Here's the Bethany Church where the event was staged.

Here I am giving my speech. Put me in front of a microphone and I either want to run away and hide, or sing karaoke. I wasn't sure what to do for the best, so I read my prepared speech instead! It was short and sweet as I knew everyone would be itching to get on with the fair.  Yes, I was nervous and my leg started twitching with nerves towards the end of my speech, but I made it!

Here I am with one of the organisers from Sunderland Heritage Forum, Stuart Miller. He's a great writer and a wonderful historian.  A few years ago I attended one of his courses on the history of Sunderland. He told me then that his daughter has a cat who gets looked after by her neighbours. Then I told him that my brother and sister-in-law take a cat in and look after it. Yup, same cat! Small world!

And there was a lovely big cheer at the end when I announced the History Fair officially open!

Then, what a lovely suprise!  I was given a beautiful bouquet of flowers.

As an honorary committee member of Ryhope Heritage Society, I was very pleased that the society were at the History Fair too. In fact, we had our stalls next to each other so that we could tell everyone about Ryhope's history and heritage. I grew up, was born and bred in Ryhope, attended school there and lived there until my 30s. I still have family there and return often. Ryhope is where my bestselling historical novels are set at the end of the first world war.

One of the highlights of the History Fair for me was to meet this lovely girl called Amira. She's one of the youngest readers of my books, and I was amazed that she enjoyed the books so much. She'd already read one of them and bought another yesterday. If I can reach out to anyone through my books and get them interested in history and heritage, in writing and reading, in following your dreams, then my work here is done. What a lovely girl she was.  I'm still in awe.

Here are the flowers I was given at the fair, they're now in my living room and smell divine.

The History Fair was incredible. So friendly, and very well organised. The only problem I had was that because I was working so hard on my stall selling books and chatting to people, I didn't get a chance to walk around the event and meet as many other people as I'd have liked to.  And yes, while I sold a TON of books (thank you, everyone!) what was important was talking to people, sharing our love of Sunderland's history and heritage, meeting new people, introducing them to my books and working alongside Ryhope Heritage Society to let the world know about our little village that had one of most productive coal mines in the northeast, as well as a thriving farm community.

When I could nip away from my stall for a few moments, I chatted to author Margaret Hedley, author of these amazing books which I always use in my research for women's lives in a north east pit village. I wanted to say thank you to her as her books are full of real-life information about women's lives that I write about in my fiction.  

It was also wonderful to meet Neil Sinclair, author of books on Sunderland's railways. Neil has helped me with research for many of my books as they include railway journeys of the past. 

And while walking through the cafe yesterday, a woman called out to me: "Are you Glenda Young?" and when I said "Yes, I am," she pulled a copy of my cosy crime Murder at the Seaview Hotel out of her handbag and asked me to sign it. She told me she couldn't put it down, it went everywhere with her and she was getting nothing done at home as she was glued to the book. I was delighted, what an amazing thing to happen!

You can find out all about Sunderland History Fair at their Facebook page where there are lots of pictures from yesterday's event. It's all here.

Thank you to Sharon Vincent, Stuart Miller and Sandra Lane for all of their support.

__

Glenda Young

Twitter: @Flaming_Nora

Facebook: GlendaYoungAuthor

Website: GlendaYoungBooks.com

TikTok, Talks and a Tour - my writing week

This week I've been continuing to write my third cosy crime novel set in Scarborough and is it so much fun. I am loving it. And I can now reveal the title of my third cosy crime. It's called FOUL PLAY AT THE SEAVIEW HOTEL and is (gulp!) available for pre-order on Amazon.

I've also finished edits on my eighth saga and have returned those to my publisher. It may not be the last time I see those edits and I'll keep working on the manuscript until it's perfect. This one will be released next year.

This week I joined TikTok!  I'm here and still learning, so be gentle with me.

I gave two talks this week. One to Silksworth Heritage Society. Met a lovely 82 year old lady who had never read a novel in her life... until two years ago when she started reading one of mine and now she's hooked on books.  I was in bits. And I gave another talk to a local WI group, which was great, so supportive and lovely ladies, very friendly.

Waterstones Sunderland were being awesome, promoting my cosy crime books as their pick of the month of May!

I had a short story called Linda's Little Bookshop, published in Best Magazine this week.

And my writing pal Mirabel found my debut novel Belle of the Back Streets in Dagenham Library in London. It has the original cover, which was most odd. It's probably a collector's item now!

My cosy crime Curtain Call at the Seaview Hotel went on a "blog tour" this week and there are some wonderful, 5* reviews coming in. 

Monday was BooksByBindu - read her review here.

Monday was also Sue Wallace - read her review here.

Wednesday was Ginger Book Geek - read her review here.

Thursday was Lollyball91 - read her review here.

Saturday 21st and Sunday 22nd blog reviews will be posted here next week (as my writing week is blogged each Friday). Thank you to all of the bloggers for such fantastic feedback, it really makes my heart happy.

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.

I also kept the Coronation Street Blog ticking over with news and editing the team of 16 bloggers. 

See you next week!

__

Glenda Young

Twitter: @Flaming_Nora

Facebook: GlendaYoungAuthor

Website: GlendaYoungBooks.com
__

Glenda Young

Twitter: @Flaming_Nora

Facebook: GlendaYoungAuthor

Website: GlendaYoungBooks.com

Short Story in Best Magazine, Linda's Little Bookshop

I've a fun, short story in Best Magazine, in the shops today. It's called Linda's Little Bookshop.  

If you read it, I hope you really enjoy it!

__

Glenda Young

Twitter: @Flaming_Nora

Facebook: GlendaYoungAuthor

Website: GlendaYoungBooks.com

Winner announced in Curtain Call at the Seaview Hotel competition

Congratulations go to Nicola Lightfoot who was drawn at random from all the correct entries. Nicola wins a signed hardback copy of my new cosy crime set in Scarborough, Curtain Call at the Seaview Hotel, along with a big box of Milk Tray.

Find out more about the book at http://bit.ly/CurtainCallAtTheSeaviewHotel

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Glenda Young

Twitter: @Flaming_Nora

Facebook: GlendaYoungAuthor

Website: GlendaYoungBooks.com

Book launch, Book of the Month, Lanzarote, Scarborough and soap - writing week

This week I've been writing my third cosy crime, editing my eighth saga and doing promotion for another book. It's mad, but all in a good way.

Wahey! My cosy crime CURTAIN CALL AT THE SEAVIEW HOTEL is now out in hardback, ebook and audiobook. It's set in Scarborough, there's a murder, mystery and a rescue greyhound called Suki. What's not to like? Order it now and I hope you really enjoy it http://bit.ly/CurtainCallAtTheSeaviewHotel

My book was featured on Jill's Book Cafe Blog as one of her fiction picks of the week. You can read it here.

The book was featured on the wonderful SHOTS Blog where I wrote about the performance of crime, as this book features a troupe of actors. Read all about it here.

My book even found its way to Scarborough and here it is at the wonderful Eat Me Cafe inside the Stephen Joseph Theatre. 

And here it is with the good luck Elvis charm that Helen Dexter, amateur sleuth in the novels, likes so much.

And the book is now on sale in Waterstones Scarborough

Front page news! Front page of the Daily Star, Express, and in most local and regional REACH PLC newspapers this week. The People's Friend magazine are giving away a free copy saying "There's another episode of the much-loved soap Riverside by bestselling author Glenda Young" I couldn't be more proud.

My first cosy crime, Murder at the Seaview Hotel is BOOK OF THE MONTH in Sunderland Waterstones and they asked me in to sign copies. Grab it while you can!

And here it is featured on the receipt!  What a treat!

Readers love my Scarborough murder mystery books so much that the first one continues to send readers to Scarborough. I think I've got something in my eye, now.

Elsewhere this week, I wrote a blog post for Lanzarote Wine Tours and you can read it here. It's not book related, but it is writing!  

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.

I also kept the Coronation Street Blog ticking over with news and editing the team of 16 bloggers. 

See you next week!

__

Glenda Young

Twitter: @Flaming_Nora

Facebook: GlendaYoungAuthor

Website: GlendaYoungBooks.com