Flaming Nora

Saturday 4 December from 10-12 My Sunderland sagas will be on sale at Sunderland's Christ College PTA Christmas Fayre on Sat 4 December from 10am to 12 noon.   Note, I won't be there, sadly, but my books will!   Saturday 11 December from 11-3 I'll be at Roker United Reform Church Christmas Fayre, selling my Sunderland sagas and cosy crimes. Come and say hello! __ Glenda Young Twitter:  @Flaming_Nora Facebook:  GlendaYoungAuthor Website:  GlendaYoungBooks.com

Signed, dedicated books for Christmas.  All sagas £6.99 each and the cosy crime is £9.99 (prices include UK 2nd class postage).   Email me at glenda (dot) sunderland (at) gmail (dot) com if you'd like any books, thank you! __ Glenda Young Twitter:  @Flaming_Nora Facebook:  GlendaYoungAuthor Website:  GlendaYoungBooks.com

Very happy to be included in a festive list in my local newspaper, The Sunderland Echo.  It's their list of 13 of the best Mackem Gifts to Buy This Christmas and I'm in there with my novels setr in the coalmining village of Ryhope where I was born and bred.  See the full list here. __ Glenda Young Author of historical novels with Headline    Twitter:  @Flaming_Nora Facebook:  GlendaYoungAuthor

Fancy a fun, festive read? The Greatest Snowman is my book of Christmas short stories, available now in paperback (£2.99) and ebook (£1.99). Available here. __ Glenda Young Author of historical novels with Headline Twitter:  @Flaming_Nora Facebook:  GlendaYoungAuthor

I love a Christmas Fayre. And I'll be at my local fayre on Saturday 14 December from 12 noon to 3.30pm with a stall selling my three novels published so far.  These are:  Belle of the Back Streets (paperback) The Tuppenny Child (paperback) Pearl of Pit Lane (hardback) I will happily sign and dedicate books too. Come along, it'll be a great afternoon! Roker United Reformed Church, Sidecliff Road, Roker SR6 9JP. There's a full list of all my upcoming talks and events here.   __ Glenda Young Author of historical novels with Headline Twitter:  @Flaming_Nora Facebook:  GlendaYoungAuthor

Merry Christmas to all of my reader. Deirdre: A Life on Coronation Street - official ITV tribute to a soap icon. Available here. I'm on twitter @flaming_nora

This year I made some of my Christmas cards to give to family and friends.  As a seaglass collector, I made the cards from seaglass, bits of driftwood and glitter. That's it, that's all it takes to create a little masterpiece and I couldn't be more chuffed.   They're all different and unique - with different shapes and sizes of seaglass and driftwood. I used different coloured card too. You can see more of my seaglass crafting here . I still have two remaining seaglass framed hearts for sale on Etsy if you'd like to see them . Deirdre: A Life on Coronation Street - official ITV tribute to a soap icon. Available here. I'm on twitter @flaming_nora

When to take the Christmas tree down is a sore point in our house. I want it down on January 1st - out with the old and in with the new. And then there is the point of view that would like to keep the tree up until 12th night. And so this year we settled on a compromise. The tree was taken down on the the day after the Christmas Radio Times ran out. Our Nordmann fir has now gone to be recycled. It's what it would have wanted. ______ I'm on twitter @flaming_nora

I've collected sea-glass for years and collecting it is one of my favourite things to do on the beach, apart from playing frisbee, eating ice-creams and plodging. Searching for sea-glass resulted in finding a post-Medieval rosary bead . But anyway, I digress. I collected so much of the glass that I kept it in a big bowl in the living room.  And then I thought I'd have a go at making some Christmas decorations with it.  My lovely sister-in-law drove me to a craft shop in her fab car for a day out. We went to Dainty Supplies .  It's something of a mecca for those who like crafts. I didn't know where to start or what to look at and took sis-in-law's advice on what might work with glass to make it look festive.  Here's what I bought for approx. £30 total. A glass bowl, some white LED lights, glass glue, red plastic beads, clear plastic baubles, clear plastic star shapes, clear plastic heart shapes. I started by sorting my sea glass into different ...

Christmas specials of Trollied, Hebburn and Vicious; the return of Grand Hotel; Matthew Bourne's Sleeping Beauty; the finale of Mad Dogs; my ex-English teacher Malcolm Gerrie interviewing Blondie's Debbie Harry and Chris Stein in Talks Music Now; the Ladybird Books Story; John Barrowman Live at the Royal Albert Hall. Well, it is Christmas. ______ I'm on twitter @flaming_nora

I hate Christmas telly adverts with a vengeance.  It's 2012 and we still have to endure the most sexist telly adverts just because it's Christmas. Christmas telly adverts always get up my nose because more than any other time of the year, with their hyper-feminity - perfumes , make-up, hair curlers/straighteners/wavers and hyper-masculinity - power tools, heavy booze, heavy gadgets - stereotypes that should have gone out with the ark.  But no, they're still here and unfortunately being beamed into our homes once more Morrisons ' blurb says their campaign "...shows Christmas as it really is. Mum wrestling with the turkey, mountains of sprouts to peel and an interfering mother-in-law! Have a gawk at it here . And Tesco's just as bad. As Adam Ant's Prince Charming plays, the fella of the family saves the day when the poor woman just can't cope with the mountain of food she's expected to prepare.  Have a gawk at it here. And I've ...

The weather outside is frightful unseasonably warm And the fire is glowing delightful not switched on So since we got no place to go Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow . Let's go to the pub, to the pub, to the pub. Merry Christmas, Blog Readers!

It's that time of year so I shouldn't be too surprised that I've gone through it again. I blog about it every year too. In Mid-November I have a hissy fit and go into bah-humbug mode about not wanting to get caught up in the commercialism and cynicism of Christmas. And then, before you know it, it's almost December and I've done all me shopping and planning to go out and buy a tree up this weekend. It's like I have to go through that grumpy patch to get to the good stuff. Mind you, I still hate the commercialism and could well do without it. But I do love the good stuff, the family stuff, the food and the drink stuff, the watching telly stuff, going out stuff, being off work stuff. And it's all that I'll concentrate on this Christmas, as always.

It's coming up to Christmas and the telly ads have started. I have a sort of love/hate relationship with Christmas telly ads. Not the ones for sherry and chocolates, for jumpers and games. It's the ads for perfume and aftershaves I have the problem with. Both sell a hyper-realistic femininity and masculinity that only ever appears in ads for scent, and only ever at Christmas. A flight of stairs and a wind machine are usually involved. So let's cut the crap and tell it like it is. Perfume and aftershave won't make you  more desirable, even at Christmas. If you're lucky, they might make you smell nice, that's all. Anyway, while Googling for an image to use on this post, I came across a facebook group I'll blog here too. It's called " Angered by Christmas Perfume Ads " so I guess I'm not the only one who feels this way.

I'm done, finished, spent. My Christmas shopping is in the bag, done and dusted, ready to be wrapped.  So why am I planning a whole day at the shops tomorrow? To buy some goodies for me, me, me. Because I'm worth it. And it's Christmas, and if I turn up at me mam's in me old jeans and jumper yet again, she'll have summat to say.

It's beginning to smell a lot like Christmas. Even though we haven't yet put the tree  or the decorations up, I'm almost, just almost, starting to get that tingly feeling that suggests Christmas is on its way. It's either that, or wind..

I'm making a list, I'm checking it twice. I know which of my relations have been naughty or nice but by heavens, I'm in no mood for Christmas just yet. Mind you, yesterday I bought my first Chrimbo present. And now I feel dirty for succumbing to the commercialism. Bah humbug, etc. I love Christmas, I just hate the expense, the shopping, the chocolates you don't want, the CDs you won't play, the books you won't read, the socks you'll never wear, the bubble bath that will bring you out in a rash, the money that gets wasted each and every year. But I love the family time, the food, the cold, snowy days with nothing to do but snuggle up by the fire, eat chocolates, crack nuts and watch old films on TV. I love the tree and all the tinsel bling. I love the two weeks off work. I just hate that it costs so much bleeding money and want to suggest a cap of a tenner on all our family gifts but they'll all call me Scrooge, I just know.

Right, that's me done for another year. I've wrapped, packed, had me hair cut, trimmed me toe nails and am all set for the trip up north. Merry Christmas and all that.

Every November, I go through this same routine. I hate Christmas, I don't want it to come, it's too expensive, too stressful, too - you know, Christmassy. I was like this last year , remember? And the year before . And because I've been through this routine before, I know it'll change come mid-December when the Christmas Radio Times is in the shops and all will be well with the world. Just you wait and see. I'll even come back and blog it.

I'm not looking forward to Christmas. And in my grump, I remembered feeling exactly the same thing at exactly the same time last year. I even blogged about it . Maybe I just need to hear Slade to get me in the festive mood?