Flaming Nora

This week I'm reminded of a line from classic Coronation Street, from the lips of barmaid Bet Lynch.  "That's not a smile, it's a lid on a scream."   It's been a heartbreaking week for reasons I won't publish here. Elswhere... The Toffee Factory Girls books are now on sale in the gorgeous shop at The Word (National Centre for The Written Word) in South Shields. It's one of my favourite places in the Northeast!  Also this week my Scarborough cosy crime about obsessive crazy golfers, is still on sale for 99p ebook.  Download it 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. I also kept the  Coronation Street Blog  ticking over with news and editing the team of 16 bloggers.  Sign up to receive my free, monthly email newsletter with competitions, events and news  __ Glenda Y...

This week I travelled to York to visit the Borthwick Archives at the University of York. This was to carry out research for the last in my trilogy of Toffee Factory Girls books and I was particularly interested in toffee factory production at the end of WW1. It was a remarkable visit and I came away with so many ideas for my story.  The research trip was financed by the Strachey Trust via The Society of Authors and my utmost grateful thanks go to them.  Thank you so much. My Scarborough cosy crime Murder at the Seaview Hotel  was once again in the top 10 audio downloads for August at Listening Books. Woohoo! While in York this week I popped into Waterstones in the city and signed copies of my Scarborough cosy crimes which were featured on their suspense table. Nice! Also in York, inside each national WHSmith shop there are new SAGA bays. For too long sagas have been mixed in with general fiction or romance, when they have their own identity. I'm over the moon to see these...

This week I was delighted to see my novel The Tuppenny Child on BBC TV. It was a news item on Breakfast News about libraries and their importance in our communities, something I'm passionate about.  Thank you to Bedale Library for their support - whether by accident or design! Also this week I gave a talk at The Old Rectory in Houghton-le-Spring as part of Heritage Open Days.  If you're reading this very early on Friday morning, 6th September, the talk starts at 10am so hurry along, it's free! The talk at The Old Rectory was given some great publicity in The Crack northeast listing magazine, who are always supportive. I popped into the Saint Paul's church charity shop in Ryhope, which used to be the TSB Bank when I was a kid and I had my first bank account there!  The shop now has 60 of my novels to celebrate my 60th birthday a couple of weeks ago and I was interviewed for their Parish magazine. Here I am with Rev. David Chadwick, vicar of Saint Paul's. I'm in ...