Flaming Nora: The week I opened a bookshop

Friday, September 01, 2023

The week I opened a bookshop - my writing week

This week I spent two days in York in the Rowntree Mackintosh toffee archives, and it was wonderful. I was there to research about the history of toffee making during WW1. This research is for the second in the trilogy of my novels The Toffee Factory Girls. You can pre-order the first book which will be published in February 2024, it's here at bit.ly/ToffeeFactoryGirls

I was also invited to cut the ribbon and officially open the extension to a local bookshop, who has doubled in size! Featherbed Books celebrated their 1st anniversary by opening a new part of their bookshop, and I was invited to officially open it. What a day. What a great event with lots of loyal customers turning up for cakes and drinks and friendly chat. Nicole and her mum Stephanie run the shop in Houghton-le-Spring. What an honour it was to open the new part of the shop.

Also this week I was shortlisted in the Hastings Book Festival short story competition. You can read a list of the shortlisted entries here.

This week my 350th episode of my weekly soap opera Riverside was printed in The People's Friend magazine. A milestone to celebrate! I love writing Riverside.

And there's a new competition to enter to win chocolate and a signed book. Enter here.

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.