Joined the challenge to write a poem a month in April!

Give it a try. Just join up and take the pledge at readwritepoem.org
Some (or most)of my 30 poems may turn out to be rubbish but you never know until you try - and I just might make myself write at least one gem!

Spring is coming!

Well, it's March already and the weather is definitely getting warmer. Everything seems more positive and fun when the sun shines!

Fiction: I have just had a story accepted by Liz Smith at My Weekly - the first one I have sent them since their new rules came in a few years back. To be honest, I had almot forgotten I'd submitted it, the response was so slow, but it's a yes, so all is forgiven! It's good to be getting back into successful short story writing. I even won the Write Invite Saturday 30-minute competition last week, with another £40 prize on its way. At the fiction editor's request, I am also having a go at writing some stories for The People's Friend to go with some illustrations -they have a few in stock and need stories to match. One already done, and I'm pleased with it. Using short phrases/themes (as in Write Invite) or pictures as prompts certainly makes me think up some original ideas I would not otherwise have come up with.

Poetry: I hosted my second poetry evening in a local library last month - great fun and surprisingly well supported by people of all ages - from 10 to 80. Poetry is alive and well in Ruislip! I came second in the Writing Magazine ghost poem competition, and the poem is in the April issue with some incredibly flattering comments from the judge - worth more than the £50 prize, in self-esteem alone.

Non-fiction: This area of my work just grows and grows, with 2 or 3 of my articles in every issue of Child Care at the moment, one sold to Nursery World to celebrate 100 years in June since the first ever Fathers Day, and I have been asked to write some practical activities pages for another magazine called Practical Preschool. I enjoy non-fiction more than I ever expected to. It's very structured, needs thought and research, and is just as creative as other forms of writing in its own way... and it brings in a good regular income.

Looking ahead: to the next Writers Holiday in caerleon in July. Paid my deposit, booked my courses, and looking forward to seeing old friends and meeting new ones. Can't wait!!

January 2010 A new year a new start!

Happy New Year!
Having put my 'failed' novel behind me, things can only get better! And I do have an idea for another. I'm just waiting for it to reach the point where it will grab me by the throat and tell me to start writing! Another writer has now taken up the Writers Forum Book Deal or Bust challenge, with a monthly column following her progress, so good luck to her.
My 'choosing your writing name' article is in January's Writing Magazine, and I have just heard that I am the runner up in their ghost poem competition (to be published in a few months). Lots of non-fiction commissions to work on, including one about using puppets and another celebrating Fathers Day, so I am keeping busy.
Write Invite continues to provide the weekly timed challenge I need to make me write fiction, and I finished the year 7th in their league table with one win and five second places, so quite pleased with that. I will certainly keep doing it every Saturday for a while yet.
The radio interview was great - I missed its broadcast (I live in the wrong area and nobody told me a date!) but I was able to hear it online. It may even still be there (express fm). They changed some of my music choices, but the interview itself sounded good. And the poetry cafe in the library was a great success with people aged ten to eighty taking part, many reading their own work for the first time. I have been asked to compere another in a different local library in February. I do love my poetry - if only it paid more!!!

October 2009 update

My interview for the radio station has never been broadcast - or if it has, they haven't told me! As it's not local, I can only hear it online, so I do hope they warn me when/if it's coming on. Lots of non-fiction projects on the go, with recent acceptances on nursery rhymes, children's books and child safety, and lots more commissioned to write for publication over the next couple of months. Writers News are planning to use a piece I wrote about choosing a writing alias, probably in either Dec or Jan issue, EYE will be using a piece about involving dads in kids' education in their Dec issue, and another couple of People's Friend fiction stories should be in the magazine very soon now. My novel has still not found a home, and I will be closing the monthly Writers' Forum column down after the December instalment, but I have had lots of encouraging feedback from readers and shared many of their own writing stories too, so it's been a really enjoyable experience, I've learned a lot, and it can all only help me to write a better novel next time. I am compering a poetry cafe night in West Drayton Library this week to celebrate National Poetry Day, so that should be fun - if anyone turns up!

August/September 2009 update

Today I did my first ever radio interview! It was for a writing programme called Write On, broadcast in the Portsmouth area on Express FM 93.7 every Tuesday evening. The interview was all done over a phone line and recorded, to be broadcast at a later date, probably straight after their summer break. I quite enjoyed it and was able to fill a whole hour talking about my writing and choosing all the music tracks they played. I have also got very into a weekly online story writing competition called Write Invite, run by the same guy, Rob Richardson. It costs £3 to have a go every Saturday at 5.30pm when a choice of 3 themes is announced on their website and you have just 30 minutes to write and submit a story. It's very challenging but certainly makes you just get on and write, no excuses. I did make the shortlist last week, so I'm getting there. Every entrant (except the shortlisted 3) gets to vote for the winner. Winner each week takes £40. The search for a home for my novel seems to be getting nowhere, but I have sold more article ideas, so I am working on 3 commissions at the moment, on the nation's favourite nursery rhymes, children's sight and hearing problems, and books about child safety, all to appear over the next couple of months in nursery mags, plus my monthly column in Child Care has been extended for a further 6 months up to June 2010. The People's Friend specially asked for a story from a child's point of view so I have rattled one off and submitted it with high hopes of a yes! And one of my earlier accepted stories is due out next week in the PF Autumn Special. Oh, yes, and I came runner up in the June txtlit competition for an ultra short fairy story that fits the space of a text message, so I have tried again for the July competition on a ghost theme, choosing a ghost spider as my main character - hoping that's different enough to stand out from the crowd. Result due any day. And look out for my article in September's issue of Writing Magazine about how I took part in the judging of the Poetic Republic poetry competition. I have got a nice 2 page spread with photo, and my bio on the editor's page at the front, so that almost makes up for not winning the competition!

July 2009 update

As I write this, I am awaiting a visit from a Daily Mail photographer! A letter I wrote to them is to be their 'lead letter' (with photo of me at work) on Monday 6 July: all about the importance of sharing books with young children, which is one of my main passions! No news on the sale of my novel (YET!), although sadly the rejections are piling up, but life goes on and I continue to write just about everything else - fiction, poems and features. Although I didn't make it to the finals of the Poetic Republic poetry competition, I have done the next best thing and written about it - article accepted for publication in Writing Magazine, September issue. Still several magazine short stories out there too - some bought and paid for and just waiting to appear, others awaiting editors' decisions. And my monthly columns in Child Care and Writers' Forum are still going strong and bringing in the regular money. I am reading a book called 'We can't all be astronauts' in bed at nights now, all about a failed novelist coming to terms with the fact that he may not be destined for publication and great things after all - I know how he feels, and let's be honest - it's a great dream but for most of us it never actually comes true, no matter how hard we try/wish for it. So, for now, having my pic in the Daily Mail for millions to see is as famous as I'm gonna get - this month anyway! I just wish I could make up my mind what to wear when the photographer arrives.

June 2009 update

Spent an enjoyable day at the Society of Women Writers and Journalists' Summer Festival on Thursday. Nice lunch, lots of friendly writers to talk to, and to cap it all I got a highly commended in their novel competition for the opening of a new novel I have been working on. Meanwhile, I have been busily sending my number one novel - Losing Lucy - off to an assortment of agents, publishers and competitions over the last few weeks. A few rejections have already come back, but I remain hopeful! Follow my progress in my regular column in Writers' Forum magazine. I am still writing my non-fiction for the pre-school market, but the short fiction is certainly taking a back seat lately - a shame because I love doing it when I have the time and ideas. I also have a piece in the June issue of LINK, the magazine of the NAWG, all about the ups and downs of a week in my writing life. Just re-read it when the mag arrived on the mat and realised that I DO actually do something writing-related every day, just as I always planned to! I have been really enjoying being part of the judging process in the Poetic Republic poetry competition - where the entrants read and judge each other! Many will by now have been eliminated, but it's all still anonymous and secret, so who knows if my own poem is still in? Round 3 where only the best few will remain is coming up this month, with a winner due to be announced in July. Great fun reading random entries, warts and all, and a real eye-opener! I am hoping to write and sell an article about the whole project as soon as it is over. TIP: Never miss an opportunity to write about whatever of interest may happen to you - I don't!