Blogs

Getting the Break

It was January when I began submitting my new novel to Literary Agents and Publishers. I remember sitting on the sofa, a cup of tea next to me, my laptop on my lap, while the rain teemed down outside. I drew up two lists, one for Literary Agents, one for publishers and typed in “Literary Agents/Publishers seeking submissions Women’s contemporary literature.” It was an arduous task. The internet has a habit of throwing up all sorts of unwanted rubbish that has nothing to do with what you’re looking for. Having made my lists I visited each website again....

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Talking the Talk I’m delighted to have been invited to speak at two Literary events this year. The first is coming up very shortly: next Friday the 1st June I shall be taking part in the Ilminster Literary Festival. My presentation is at 12.30 at the Archie Gooch Pavilion (Ilminster Football Club). Tickets £6.00 to include a glass of prosecco. https://ilminsterliteraryfestival.org/tickets-for-2018/ Although I have given plenty of presentations in the past, most recently the Counting the Days presentation that my husband and I give, based on my website onactiveservice.co.uk,...

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Planning ahead

So, having submitted my latest novel, I know you, don’t I?, to literary agents and publishers, I am now in that peculiar stare of limbo, waiting for replies. This gives me the opportunity to consider future projects. My husband and I are volunteer room guides at Coleridge Cottage in Nether Stowey and for some time I have wanted to write a novel about the three years Coleridge and his wife Sara lived in Somerset, how and why their stay here produced some of the greatest poetry in the English language, the happiness and difficulties they experienced here and the reason...

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Waiting for the break  I finished writing my sixth novel just after Christmas. Having self-published Counting the Days and Poppy’s Seed. I have decided this time to submit this latest one to agents and publishers. Like many writers I am waiting for that lucky break, that moment when someone decides my book is marketable. It’s a tough business nowadays: so many writers chasing so few opportunities. My sixth novel ‘I know you, don’t I?’ is slightly different from the others. I am still writing mainly for women and still interested in family dynamics, but this book is more...

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Ring out the old, ring in the new...  Is it too early for an end of year review? I’ve had such a productive year that I really do feel I’d like to shout about it. It began with the publication of Poppy’s Seed in February 2017. It’s an amazing feeling when you finally see the book you’ve worked so hard on. Read More

The Mysterious Mr.Mitchell 

Slade House was the first book I read  by David Mitchell. Not at all my usual genre I nonetheless found it refreshingly different and I loved the idea of a house that wasn’t there in the centre of London and the mysterious people who inhabited it. Compared to his others, this is quite short novel but it largely keeps to the same main protagonists and it is easy for the reader to understand quite quickly what was going on. It was eerie and spooky and I would recommend it to anyone. So having read reviews of some of his novels on Amazon...

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The life and Travels of a 20th Century Engineer

My cousin Brian Gregson, now in his eighties, jotted down his memoirs some time ago, always meaning to write them up into some coherent order. When he read my novel, Counting the Days he asked if I could take a look at his notes with a view to publishing them. The notes came to me in several separate parts: his childhood memories and school...

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Book Review City of Friends Joanna Trollope I wouldn't say that Joanna Trollope is one of my favourite authors but I have certainly enjoyed some of her novels, particularly Other People’s Children and Marrying the Mistress, both of which could be said to have influenced my own novel on divorce, re-marriage and step-children Out of Step. Jonanna Trollope’s novels are well-crafted....

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