Confessions of an unpublished author
There's something I'm slowly realising as I get older – time for writing doesn't magically appear, you have to make it yourself. Here's my next confession – all through my twenties I believed that one day I'd be a published author...but I got incredibly frustrated...
A box of…what?
I have a confession to make. I don't like any of my Box of Stories books. There, I said it. I was umming and ahhing over whether to post this so soon after my initial post, where I was so excited to dive right into the books I'd received. But after battling my way...
Flash Fridays: Winter’s Mountain
Lately, I've been so snowed under with my new job, looking after my toddler, organising a christening, setting up a new business (e.g. life in general) that I've barely had time to sit down, let alone find the time to write. I decided this week that it was high time I...
Viva la vivid!
I have a bad habit when I'm writing. Well, several bad habits actually (not plotting out the story far enough! Too many adjectives in speech! Not finishing novels!) - but here's the one that struck me the most while I was rewriting the first draft of my horror short...
A Box of Stories
Like all writers, I'm an avid reader. I consume books (and chocolate...and films...) like most people drink water or wine. Alas, as I'm not a huge fan of alcohol, my vice is a tendency to buy as many books as there are days in the year. As you can imagine, this habit...
British Fantasy Awards 2021
Wow, it's been a while hasn't it! Sorry for the long silence, since - checks last blog post date and chokes slightly –19th May I've been; working on our new business! Organising Little Terror's christening for next weekend! Getting a new job on a dairy farm! Dying my...
Stealing time
It can be hard finding the time to write. If you manage to battle through the procrastination, the existential crisis’s, the anxiety, the crippling self-doubt - you then have to deal with real life as well. Toddlers who demand your attention every waking minute of the...
Bad hair, great hair
I don't know about you, but I have been SO READY for the hairdressers to reopen. I had a hair appointment booked in January, but then the third lockdown was announced and it got cancelled. And then as a challenge to myself, I refused to cut or dye it til I got back in...
Flash Fridays: Cherry Blossoms
It's time for another Flash Friday!This week (or month…or bi-monthly? I really need to check how frequent this competition is) to celebrate the arrival of Spring, the theme was Cherry Blossoms. I loooooove cherry blossoms - it's my dream to go to Japan and experience...
Flash Fridays: Gold
This week's Flash Friday entry is slightly different - instead of 350 words, it's only 100. If I thought 350 words wasn't a lot to work with, then 100 words is a whole different game. But you know what, I love a writing challenge and it's restrictions like this that...
More credit, please
First things first - I think I've finally figured out how to add comments/navigation to posts, so all being well, those things SHOULD show up at the bottom of all my blog posts from now on. If they don't...I'm just gonna throw the computer out of the window and live a...
Flash Fridays: Dawn (part 2)
Welcome to a new ‘Flash Friday’ post! The idea behind this series is simple – I’ve been entering flash fiction contests on a website called ‘voice.club’ in an effort to both regain my writing confidence and to meet fellow writers. You can check out their regular...
Learning a new skill
So my husband's new work iPad arrived last night and I decided to have a play around. We got the iPad to help us with our design work that we do (both for clients and my husband's business), so my husband also bought the Procreate app. We use the Affinity suite on the...
Times like these
If you've ever read my previous blog, you'll know that I suffer from anxiety - anything you can think to worry about, you can bet I've already thought and obsessed about it. Social anxiety, work anxiety, raising-a-child anxiety, and today's topic - time anxiety. For...
Feeling Sunny
Just a quick update with some of the things I've accomplished this week - this post isn't supposed to be a brag, this is me trying to 1) keep myself accountable for what I'm doing and 2) when I inevitably slip back into my anxiety-fuelled...
New book smell
Lately I've reading a lot of non-fiction - mainly gardening books/magazines (hello Gardener's World subscription!), autobiographies (Becoming by Michelle Obama) and reading around topics that interest me (Quiet by Susan Cain - HELLO FELLOW INTROVERTS/HIGHLY SENSITIVE...
Flash Fridays: Dawn
Welcome to my first ever 'Flash Friday' post! The idea behind this series is simple - I've been entering flash fiction contests on a website called 'voice.club' in an effort to both regain my writing confidence and to meet fellow writers. You can check out their...
A proper hello
I'm back! Chaos still reigns – last night was the first time in the whole 2.5 years since Little Terror came into the world that I actually wanted a glass of wine after he went to bed from sheer stress/having a meltdown (both me and him). And this is coming...