Flaming Nora: Walk, talk and toffee in York

Friday, September 13, 2024

Walk, talk and toffee in York - my Writing Week

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 new SAGA bays and proud to be part of them. With my surname being Young, you'll find me, as ever, right at the bottom on the end!

Last Friday I gave a talk to a lovely audience at The Old Rectory in Houghton-le-Spring as part of Heritage Open Days. It was a great event and thank you to everyone who came.

Also for Heritage Open Days I led a guided walk around Ryhope village showing locations from my novels. 25 people came along although I could have easily doubled that number and had to disappoint a lot of fans, I'm very sorry. Leading a guided walk is really hard and I had to cap the numbers. Maybe next year I'll do two separate walks... watch this space!

I was included in an article in The Scarborough News about this year's East Riding Festival of Words. Join me on October 11 at Bridlington library for a saga special with bestselling authors Val Wood and Mollie Walton. Read the news here.

And tickets are now on sale for the Festival of Words 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.