Flaming Nora

What a week! My feet have hardly touched the floor.  It was book launch week and I held the book launch on Saturday 24 May at the Lambton Arms pub in Chester-le-Street with cakes from Lucky Button cakes. And the participation of Chester-le-Street heritage group. It was a fantastic day! Here's a picture of me next to some of the exhibition organised by the heritage group. And a picture of local florist Nicola from Pretty Busy Blooms with her daughter. And a picture of councillor Tracie Smith, who is a huge support to me and my books. And then a group of ladies stayed at Scarborough's Spa Chalet, they're a book group reading Murder at the Seaview Hotel. The owners of the chalet prepped it Elvis-style for the book and they sent me these wonderful pictures. My new novel was spotted in supermarkets next to the legend that is Catherine Cookson, what an honour. And I took a couple of  days holiday to Northumberland where my books were on the shelves at the astounding Barter Books ...

This week was publication week for Secrets of the Toffee Factory Girls.   It's now in Asda, Morrisons, Tesco, Waterstones, WHSmith, online and all good bookshops. Want a signed copy? Get in touch here. The launch has been supported amazingly well by local traders in Chester-le-Street.  Pretty Busy Blooms decorated their shop and window display to support the book and even dressed up her daughter as Dainty Dinah (the brand of toffee).   The Crafty Gift Shop in Chester-le-Street also decorated their window display. And there's a 3 day free exhibition all about the toffee factory and Dainty Dinah toffee by the Chester-le-Street heritage group which runs in The Lambton Arms hotel on Front Street in the town from Thurs 22 to Sat 24 May.   I'll be there all day Saturday selling my books and there are free cakes for the first 50 books sold. Cakes are made by local baker Lucky Button Cakes. I sent out a publication day newsletter to all of my subscribers whic...

This week I've been putting final touches to research and planning for cosy crime 5 set in Scarborough - title to be confirmed.    On the whole it's been an exciting week, meeting Sunderland musicians and interviewing them as research for the book, it's been really interesting and I've loved every minute.   I'm taking this time now... "the calm before the storm" .... to gather my thoughts before I begin writing the novel later this month. The book launch for Secrets of the Toffee Factory Girls was featured in Durham's In and Around magazine in a lovely article, thanks to them so much! My upcoming talk at Tenby's Cliffe Norton Hotel (owned by Alfa Leisureplex) was advertised on Alfa's social media this week. I'm looking forward to this visit a lot. Also this week I had a brilliant afternoon talking to Travel and Tourism students at Sunderland College about how writing fiction can encourage tourism. With thanks to Kelly Mounsey and Linda Dev...

This week a friend of mine travelled on the North York Moors railway and sent me this wonderful picture of my books for sale in the shop.  A bargain price too! Elsewhere this week, two of my events for the launch of Secrets of The Toffee Factory Girls were included in The Crack magazine in the northeast. Cheers to the Crack! And my cosy crimes were featured in The Scarborough Fair brochure, available to collect everywhere in Scarborough. My author newsletter for May went out and you can read it online here. However, this week has mostly been taken up by putting the finishing touches to research and preparation for planning and plotting of my cosy crime number 5 set in Scarborough. That's why I travelled to Hartlepool this week, to interview a member of the band Venus Grrls as part of research for my book. And I'm delighted to say my cosy crimes and a feature about me was included in Scarborough Spy magazine. If you haven't read it yet, do pick up a copy if you're in tow...