Image credits:-

Pixabay for general pictures.

Book covers from Bridge House Publishing and Chapeltown Books.

A huge thanks to Fiona Park for taking the image of me signing Tripping the Flash Fantastic.

Other images from the Swanwick Writers’ Summer School taken by me, Allison Symes.

Facebook – General

Am on train for first time since December 2019. I had just renewed my railcard and was getting ready for various writing events when You Know What struck and all writing events for 2020 were cancelled or moved online. What a year – 2020, the year everyone wants to forget!

Am on my way as I draft this to the Swanwick Writers’ Summer School. So looking forward to seeing many friends in person I’ve not seen for two years. And some dear friends I still won’t see until 2022. But the fact Swanwick is back at all is cause for rejoicing.

Will be going to a wide range of workshops and talks over the next few days. One of the things I love most about writing is there is always plenty to learn. That in turn fires up creativity or so I’ve always found.

First full day at Swanwick. First trip to its legendary book room! No real surprise there.

But that is the great thing about writing. It is a journey. Journeys are not meant to be static. I hope to go home with some flash stories drafted ready for polishing up later. And with tips for markets and/or competitions too.

Lovely to see friends in person again and I am learning so much from the courses already.

Pleased to have drafted some useful opening paragraphs for flash fiction pieces, which I hope to write up in full later. One is homework from Della Galton’s excellent flash fiction course. The other is something I have in mind for a competition.

Also learned so much from Writing in The Gig Economy led by Anita Belli and Gerald Hornby. 

But best of all, and something no writer ever tires of, is being asked to sign copies of your book! Many thanks to Fiona Park for taking the photo below.

A huge thanks to all for the wonderful response to the photo shared yesterday.

It is always a joy to have photos of me signing my books. Thanks again to #FionaPark for taking it.

Also thanks to #ValPenny for a shout out in her great workshop on Creating Suspense.

And yes it is done in flash. It is what is known as short-term suspense as the tension has to be immediate nor can it go on for too long. There simply isn’t the word count room. Great fun to do though!😄

Also fabulous to catch up with #LindaWPayne. She and I are the Bridge House Publishing, CafeLit, and Chapeltown Books contingent at Swanwick this year.

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Glad to report there will be a flash fiction course at the Swanwick Writers’ Summer School this year.

It will be led by Della Galton and I know there will be plenty to take from it. Have brand new Swanwick notebook and pen on standby!

Am also hoping to draft a few stories as a result of writing exercises set. I wrote up a story from an exercise set by #SimonHall back in 2019 at Swanwick.

That story became The Balcony Seen and ended up on CafeLit. That is what I call a result!

Really enjoyed this morning’s first flash fiction session led by Della Galton at the Swanwick Writers’ Summer School. Useful, informative, and affirming too. Hope to end up taking home flash pieces to work on later by the end of the course.

Glad to share my latest YouTube video. Hope you enjoy Belief.https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=O5U_gUAIVWI

Found the Characterisation course from Della Galton and the Creating Suspense workshop from Val Penny so useful. These are building blocks for whatever kind of writing you do. (Nice to have a shout out from Val as Queen of Flash too!☺ Cheers, Val. 🍸🍸).

Have finished a flash piece and submitted it for the Swanwick flash competition. Will know how it did on Thursday. All good fun.

Goodreads Author Blog – Book Rooms.

I am currently at the Swanwick Writers’ Summer School and one of its many joys is its legendary Book Room.

As well as having my flash collections in there, it will be a delight to see books by friends in there. I expect to make purchases!

If you could have your own book room, other than the books themselves, what would you like to see in it?

I would like a huge comfy armchair with the big back and huge arms. It would be one of those you can sink into and it would have side pockets filled with the next books to be read. The cushioning would be in red velvet.

There would be two side rooms – a loo and, separately, a kitchen. Depending on time of year, I would want a regular supply of soft drinks, tea, or hot chocolate. 

Only disturbances allowed would be for emergencies. It would be understood I would be a minimum of three hours in the book room at any one time.

I would also still find a way of getting my writing done! Naturally the housework fairy would take care of the chores.

Sounds great to me! So what would you have in your book room?