Writing In The Wild
‘The girl stared at Jenny with cold blue eyes and…’ ‘Dear Karen, I don’t like…’ ‘a shape so dark and stealthy…’ ‘something moves in the still …’ ‘tympanist hits his drums with two sticks so…’ ‘Leçon onze – un lapin = …’ ‘Heat of room 20°, heat of ice 0°’ These are on the back…
Tales of a Country(ish) Mouse
Although I was born in London, I’ve lived in small towns and villages since the age of eighteen months and consider myself a sort of country mouse. Of course, I’ll never be a ‘local’ since I don’t at least three generations of family in the graveyard. I have no idea therefore what it’s like to…
Yes But How Much Is True?
The other evening my husband went out cycling. Yes, it’s November. Yes it was dark. But he and his friends do this weekly after work whenever they can. At nine-thirty, it started to pour with rain as forecast. At ten p.m., just as he returned, the whole town had a power cut. I heard with…
It’ll Come To Me In A Minute
When I was young, when my maternal grandmother addressed me, she would often go through my sister’s name, our cousin’s, her own sisters’, her nephew’s and my mother’s, until she got to Paula. These days I do the same, swapping my son’s name for my husband’s (my excuse is that they start with the same…
Inktober – What’s The Story?
Am I alone in seeing stories everywhere? I can’t remember when I didn’t think ‘what’s their story?’, ‘what if X happened next?’, ‘why are they/is this/am I like this? What led them/it/me here?’ I dealt with long boring journeys by imagining the lives of the people we passed in the car, or what might be…
Best Served With Peacock
Still in a sort of limbo between writing projects, my plan for my three ‘free days’ last week (e.g. not doing the office job) was to: For one reason and another, I only managed number three, and my long suffering (his words not mine) husband has been playing guinea pig again. My first proper job…
Art For Calm’s Sake
At the moment, after finishing work (for the moment) on two books simultaneously (listed at the end), my Muse is tempting me from what I’d been planning to write next, towards writing a ‘contemporary’ novel set in an alternative world where there’s also magic and might just include A Novelty, in a slightly different format.…
A Novelty
Within the wrapping was an antique cigarette lighter. It was attractive: engraved, simple. But I didn’t smoke. ‘It’s a time machine,’ said Beth. She was eccentric, but she was my best friend. I raised my eyebrows at her. ‘It’s true,’ she insisted. ‘I found it in the Christmas market.’ Oh, a novelty present. I peered…
Permission To Play?
Being a bit behind, I’ve only just seen the new Barbie movie. This isn’t a review or critique as I’m still sort of processing what I think (although I found bits very funny and I bet they had a blast making it). It’s just a reflection on something raised by an article on it. My…
Murder At Midnight – Out Now!
It was a dark and stormy… All right, when Murder at Midnight starts, it’s just dark, but then it’s set in midwinter! Could that be why the local standing stones are a bit spooky? Or could it be something else? Murder At Midnight is now out, and if you’re in the northern hemisphere and want…
Tea and Trophies
According to an article, Dorset farm workers had eight meals a day: dewbit, breakfast, nuncheon, cruncheon, lunch, nammet, crammet and supper. Admittedly, a Dorset farm worker probably needs more calories than a Dorset writer/office worker, and I’m generally happy with a mere three meals a day, but even so, I really want to know what…
Author Interview with Chantelle Atkins
Welcome to an interview with author Chantelle Atkins and news about her latest book. Chantelle has just released the first in a brand new young adult post-apocalyptic series ‘The Day The Earth Turned book 1: Summer’. Here’s the blurb: The adults are all dead. Society has collapsed. Two groups of teenagers emerge on either side…
When Is A Marble…
When is a marble not a marble? You may have realised that I’m a bit of a hoarder. Whether this is by nature or nurture I don’t know. My husband is not much better, although in his case, he may have caught it from me. In the last few years, we have become a good…
Death On Opening Night – Out Today!
Fi and Jade are back! And this time, it’s theatrical. A small town theatre with big ideas, a faded star, ambitious amateurs. Nothing can go wrong – can it? Death On Opening Night is out today and if you read it, you’ll find out why I mentioned in my last post that Liz and I…
Out Of The Loop
It may be no surprise to some, that at school I was considered a bit of a weirdo. This was partly because I was good at the ‘wrong’ things. If I’d been good at sport, I might have been OK. I tried, I really did. But my first memory of doing anything competitive was the…
Loser Of The Keys
What follows is a tale of woe with a hint of mystery. To begin with, the woe. Current affairs being what they are, this is very small beer, but all the same, I’m sure at least one of you will sympathise. One day in February, I charged up my MacBook, then went to make it…
Murder for Beginners – where’s the inspiration?
When my daughter was born, we thought of calling her Sabrina. At the time, we lived in Gloucestershire, and I worked in a building that looked down onto the canal basin off the River Severn. Sabrina, in case you don’t know, was the name of the goddess of the Severn. Well, among other reasons, at…
Say When
I’ve just undertaken the annual calendar ritual. The old calendars are in the recycling and the new ones are ready for action. Though the concept of new year (and its date) is a human/cultural construct, there’s always the hope that like shedding a skin, as we say goodbye to the old and hello to the…
The Other Type of Christmas
And then there was the year when Christmas went wrong. In my part of the world and in my family, Christmas involves a house decorated with bright colours. It’s a time of secrets and excitement as presents are bought or made and then hidden; for the wider family to get together, exchange gifts, play boardgames,…
Big Tree, Little Boxes
When we decorate the Christmas tree this year (some time this week), there will be something missing. Several things in fact. When my son started primary school aged four, there was a fundraising fair towards the end of the Christmas term, which included a stall selling decorations. I bought two for the children: each with…
One Step At A Time
Several years ago, my then line manager sent me on an assertiveness course for female managers. I’d recently just taken on a role which involved liaising with outside agencies. I actually very much enjoyed that part of the job but my need for assertiveness was/is perhaps in other areas. Moreover, I appreciated the intent, as…
Hear All About It
My first recollection of stories on audio was listening to my father’s recordings of The Goon Show via reel-to-reel tape. Incomprehensible as the humour was to a three year old, it was hard not to enjoy songs called I’m Walking Backwards to Christmas and The Ying Tong Song. Then there were records with a story…
Apple Time in the Historical Experiment Kitchen
It’s apple season and also, after ten days of being banned from cooking due to having covid, time for me to do some cooking ‘archaeology’! I have a project in hand, adapting the sort of recipes my characters might eat, into something that’s easy to cook in a modern kitchen with modern ingredients, and mindful…
Postcard Whisperers
When I was a teenager, in the days before mobile phones (or at least before anyone normal had one) and emails and social media, I started filling a postcard album. To start with, I added postcards from schoolfriends, relations and my penfriend in Germany, who sent them from holidays taken in places as exotically distant…
Why Choose A Woman?
In March I was involved in a literary festival, both as an organiser and as a contributor. One of the things I did was to talk about suspense fiction with Helen Matthews and Katharine Johnson. At the end, we opened the floor to the audience. Here are some of the questions, and some of the answers…
Equinox
I was the chieftain in the settlement then. A killing winter it had been and a grasping one, reaching with frost crackling fingers to catch the young ones and the old ones and freeze the yet unknown ones in the womb. Not a child under three years old survived that winter. And that winter dragged…
Of Chopsticks, Tramps and Bandages
‘Girls must be partners and comrades rather than dolls.’ ‘Their pork is excellent… but they do not find it necessary to burn the house down for each joint.’ ‘The well-dressed man has an unpleasant shock in store for him.’ ‘Returning from the city, they discovered the house lit up and a man lying in bed.’…
A Hint of Spices Past
Ingredients: a good book, time, tasty food. Method: Combine as desired. Try to keep grease spots and crumbs off the book. VariatIon: Ingredients: A historical recipe, unfamiliar ingredients, time, and a mixing bowl. Method: Follow recipes wondering if they’ll work. Eat the result whatever it turns out like. Don’t worry too much about crumbs and…
Jobs For The Girls
Aged five, I was asked to draw what I wanted to be when I grew up. I drew a woman in a headscarf wielding a broom and smiling. A happy housewife. What was I thinking? I never wanted to be a housewife. I actually wanted to be a secretary, but couldn’t draw one because I…
The Making of ‘Weird and Peculiar Tales.’
The true story behind the slightly less than true stories in ‘Weird & Peculiar Tales’!
Bones, Stones and Long, Long Roots
Today, my husband and I dug up two old bones. One was definitely some sort of leg joint, the other, which had snapped, was harder to distinguish. ‘I assume they’re not human,’ I said, dubiously. For the record, we weren’t on an archaeological dig, but clearing a part of the garden which was once thought…
Foreshadows
I live in an area where there were a lot of Roman roads, many of which are below more modern roads. One of them, not far from where I live joins another road near an old hill fort, which Roman invaders occupied for a while (presumably after turfing the locals out) before they built something…
This? Or That? What do I prefer in fiction as reader and writer?
I recently saw one of those memes on a Facebook page where you had to choose between This or That for your mystery reading preferences. I’ve never been too good at choices. When I was doing A level languages, if I was under pressure and had two options for a translation, I invariably chose the…
New Beginnings Everywhere
The sparrows have returned to our garden from wherever they shelter over the winter. From what started as four sweet little birdies a few years ago, a small army of spadgers now congregates each morning on one of the trees to eye up our house. They’re clearly ready to start roosting again which involves a…
Once More With Feeling
Somehow it’s New Year again. My daughter has gone back to university and all the Christmas food has been eaten except a few chocolates and enough cheese to make macaroni cheese for fifty (and the Christmas pudding which we’ll have tomorrow). I stopped doing a ‘round robin’ Christmas letters a long time ago, around about…
Author Interview with Anna M Holmes
Hi Anna – Welcome to my website. Please tell us a little more about yourself and your books? I’m a visual writer, working on big canvases in different genres. My stories are driven by plot and character. Originally from New Zealand I live in the U.K. with my Dutch partner. Dance, yoga, and writing are…
Bonfire Night
(An extract from The Cluttering Discombobulator) 1974 November – I remember And then there was the time Dad threw a firework party. In those days and where we lived, Hallowe’en wasn’t much of a thing. If you wanted sweets pretty much for nothing, you waited till Christmas when you could go carol singing or, on…
What I Did On My Holidays
Ah – the writing topic for the start of the Autumn term. Did it fill you with dread? There were the children who’d gone something amazing (like go to Disneyland), children like us who’d gone to stay with relations or had a camping holiday and the children who’d been unable to go away at all.…
Where to Begin?
This year, it feels like I have mostly been writing the sequel to The Wrong Sort To Die. When I started writing, I never thought I’d write a series. But here I am, looking to release book two in the third series I’ve written or co-written. Writing a sequel is quite different to writing the…
A Novel Idea
Here’s a confession about a time when ‘the story’ was more important than common sense, logic or, in fact, the environment. Sometimes I’m asked whether I have a preference in terms of what era I read about in historical fiction and whether it reflects on the eras I write about. It’s hard to answer either.…
Father’s Day with Roderick
Father’s Day is tricky for many. Some have lost fathers, some never knew their fathers, some wish they’d never known their fathers. I was fortunate to have a father whom I loved very much and who loved me. That’s not to say we always got on or always understood each other. We were in some…
The Underdog
Nancy sat back in her seat. As the music soared, she smiled. There had been nothing else she could have done. She had got her revenge. *** The years might never have passed. The tall arrogant woman marched into the hall with her entourage, finding fault with everything from the decor to the spotlighting and…
What’s Going On?
‘Where now?’ said the taxi driver. ‘I’m not sure,’ said Margaret. ‘What’s happening?’ whispered Nellie. ‘What’s going on?’ It’s a good question. After fourteen months in some form of lockdown, things are changing. Within a couple of days, I’ve gone from not having any face-to-face ‘dates’ in my calendar to adding five meet-ups during July…
Reactions
This time last year, existing in a limbo between a breast cancer diagnosis and a lumpectomy, I decided to deep-clean my kitchen cupboards. This is not normal behaviour. Writers will tell you that they’ll frequently do anything rather than put pen to paper and I’m no different. But in my case procrastination doesn’t usually involve…
Dinner for Two at Margaret’s
It’s the evening of a cold February day in 1911. Dr Margaret Demeray is returning to her Bayswater flat after a long day in a central London hospital. Meanwhile, Fox is leaving the north London hotel where he lives to join her for dinner. *** Fox feels nicely anonymous in this hotel. It was modernised…
Archer
The sky had lightened but the sun had not yet risen. I’d been awake all night, pacing, pacing. So while it was still not yet light, I walked from my house and out of town and up the hill fort. Perhaps in that ancient place when the sun rose, my world would make sense again.…
Something and Nothing
My son and I were discussing star signs the other day. Apparently I’m supposed to be good at organisation while my dislikes include absolutely everything at some point or other. We both laughed at the latter as it’s unfortunately quite true (although not necessarily for very long) but when he raised doubts about the former,…
Sisters, Sisters (chatting with the Demerays)
My own sister was born when I was three and a half. My delight wore off when I realised she was getting more attention than I was. She had dark brown hair and big brown soulful eyes. I was mousy and sulky looking. She seemed good at making friends, I was rubbish at it. She,…
Heart of Quartz
Last Monday I ‘attended’ the funeral of a lovely person who was younger than I am, who died from secondary breast cancer. She was always adamant that this shouldn’t be described as a battle nor her as brave, so I won’t. However, typing these words alone makes me fill up. She was a number of…
Viewscapes
They say that eyes are the windows of the soul, but I’m not convinced. If we could look into someone’s eyes and gauge exactly what sort of person was behind them, the world would be a much happier place. We’d immediately see the kind heart or the cruel one. We’d know whether it was wise…
Rude Words and Literature
We had a number of family words which were often completely baffling to outsiders. This was sometimes because of where we lived and sometimes because they’d been made up – usually by my father. The most embarrassing of these was ‘tuppence’ which was the family euphemism for faeces. The word ‘poo’ was considered rude by…
Pests
Bertram smirked as he dropped his handful of dirt onto Aunt Hepzibah’s coffin. Daft old biddy. No sense of humour. Giving him a thrashing just for dropping spiders down her back while she snoozed. What else was he supposed to do on childhood duty visits? If she hadn’t been so bad tempered, maybe he wouldn’t…
Imaginary Friends?
Did you ever have an imaginary friend? This question was posed on a Facebook group recently. Some said they’d had several, some had had none. Some hadn’t, but their children or siblings had. Some had ones who when they explained them to adults appeared identical to dead relations the child hadn’t actually known, which is…
An Interview with Val Portelli about her new genre busting book Alderslay
Hi Val, your new book ‘Alderslay’ has just been published. What’s it all about? Hi Paula, Thanks for having me as your guest. The book is about a young woman looking for her first home to share with her fiancé, a dog, a vineyard, an old house in need of renovation, family history and some…
Choose to Challenge
‘Maude and I are going to Switzerland for 19th March while you’re on your mission,’ said Margaret. ‘Really?’ said Fox. ‘Is this to do with International Women’s Day? Why Switzerland?’ Margaret shrugged. ‘I’ve never been there and they’re not doing it in Britain.’ ‘I might come with you before heading over the border,’ said Fox. …
Author Interview with J.D. Hughes
Welcome to my website – can you tell us something about yourself? My favourite authors are: Colleen Hoover, L.J. Shen, Vi Keeland, Sylvia Day, E.L. James, Nora Roberts, Linda Fausnet, T.M. Frazier, Melanie Harlow. And my favourite books are: My all-time favourite book has to be Verity by Colleen Hoover. It has a romance element,…
Byways, Rabbit Holes and Wrong (or maybe Right) Turns
Given the reading habits I formed as a child, it’s not too surprising I ended up writing historical mysteries, but I hadn’t really thought about the research required. Now I have an internet trail that includes purchasing cookbooks and books on poison, digging for mindfulness techniques and also whether the physical appearance of a murder…
Hearts and Flowers
Well it’s Valentine’s Day 2021. Where I am, it’s very cold, raining, we’re in lockdown and everything’s closed, so there’s a limit to how easy it is to be romantic, especially when you’re me. Usually, my husband cooks us a nice meal which we eat à deux. This year, we have two other adults in…
Chopsing – Video Interview
Some people describe me as talkative, others as reserved. When I was a child, elderly female relations seemed unable to decide if I should talk or hold my tongue. I was either told to stop whispering and speak so that people could hear me or told that children should be seen and not heard. Teachers…
What Three Things?
There are several ways to develop characters, but this is one I’ve heard from several writers. It was author Chantelle Atkins who encouraged me to write it down. The idea is to answer the following: What three things does the character want? What three things does the character fear? What three things are stopping them…
Resolving Not To Resolve
At a work meeting via Teams on 31st December, a colleague asked who had achieved their 2020 resolutions. While there was the usual mumbling about getting fit and losing weight, most people felt just getting from January to December in 2020 had been enough of a challenge and had long since forgotten what they’d vowed…
Yo! Season’s Greetings – what’s your feast?
It’s December 21st, nearing the end of a year for which the Oxford English Dictionary extended its Word of the Year to include ‘several unprecented words of the year’. I’m sure if each of us had a £1/$1/€1/etc for each time we’d uttered one of them, we’d all be rich. Diwali and Hanukkah have not…
Author Interview with Sim Sansford
Hi Sim, welcome to my blog. Can you tell us something about yourself? I’m Sim and I make words into adventures. I was born and raised in the county town of Dorchester, Dorset, I began scribbling away stories on scraps of paper since before I can remember. I spent a lot of my childhood on…
By Any Other Name
Names hold power. People gain identity when they’re named. It may not be the identity they want, or in the case of foundlings or slaves bear any connection with their ancestry but it’s the one they’re given. In older times, the right birth-name might protect a baby from another realm and a ‘real’ name might…
Hallowe’en 2020 – Post Event Evaluation
‘Failed!’ shouted the new Head of Haunting, slapping a ghostly performance dashboard. ‘All you have to do was scare people witless. One night. Once a year. That’s it. We talked it through. We had a plan. But you failed.’ ‘We didn’t have a plan,’ muttered the Elf Queen. ‘You did.’ The Head of Haunting flicked…
Author Interview with Stephen Deutsch
Welcome to my website Stephen. Thanks for taking part in an author interview. Please tell us a little about yourself I’m Stephen Deutsch, novelist, composer and filmmaker. I was born in New York and moved to the UK in 1970, becoming a naturalised citizen in 1978. I was trained as a pianist and composer, spending…
Modesty
I’ve been thinking about modesty lately. Modesty is, of course, a human concept. The sparrows nesting in our eaves have not been modestly tweeting that they’re nice bird-next-door types, while worrying in case they’re showing too much down. No they haven’t. Instead, they’ve spent a warm, dry spring reproducing at least three times – usually…
In Two Minds
I was one of those weirdos at school who was good at both English and maths. I craved both pretty things and books. I liked to be girly and have adventures. I loathed wearing trousers but despite always wearing a skirt, I could climb trees, could go exploring and when necessary, could slap a trouser-wearing…
Bus-stop on a Rainy Day
The zip broke and Jake’s portfolio exploded just as some swine swerved to speed through the puddle near the bus queue. Rain had already leaked through the gaps and soaked into the cheap seams. Muddy, grimy road-water just added an extra patination to his paintings. The handles slipped as he struggled to hold the portfolio…
Fresh Fruit and Little Monkeys
When I was nine, I worked for perhaps three weekends in a zoo. It was a tiny South Welsh concern called Penscynor Bird Gardens (later Wildlife Park) and originally housed birds, monkeys, an aquarium and llamas. When I was fourteen or so, our school cross-country route ran through the llamas’ field and they used to…
Between
I exist in the impossible land of the folksong, the acre between foam and strand. Liminal space. Interstitial. I’m waiting on the foggy threshold between two months ago and next week. A nowhere place. They say one should seize each day, not worry about tomorrow or beyond tomorrow but I’m not good at these in-between…
Of Rags and Richness
I seem to have become infected with some sort of reverse-Midas touch which means pretty much everything I touch is breaking down. This includes the fridge-freezer, the oven door, the car (or at least a warning light has come on) and the laptop which has ‘lost’ its word processing system. And yesterday, when I was teaching…
Lost Sometimes
I remember when the sky was always an impossible blue. The days when I left home after breakfast not to return till evening. When with a friend, I’d lie in fields of barley or under larches or hide from little sisters among the bracken or in hawthorn trees or walk among plants taller than our…
Broadening the Mind
I love research. It provides the best excuse to get side-tracked I can think of. At the moment, because I’ve been writing or plotting two historical mysteries set over 1,700 years apart, I’m surrounded by books about Roman-Britain, Roman cookery and Celtic traditions as well as ones on Victorian/Edwardian slang and dialect, maps of late…
Lockdown (Tall) Tales
It’s time for the evening lockdown video call between me, my sister and my mother. First crucial question of course is: ‘What’s for dinner?’ I’m planning a concoction made from odds and ends which I’ll pretend is a proper recipe (again). My mother is having fish and potatoes (again). My sister is smug because her…
Make Do and Bend
Thanks to my father’s eccentric views on store cupboard necessities and general tidiness, I can make a meal out of pretty much anything using a workspace barely big enough for a dinner plate. He taught me to experiment with recipes and cuisines, while my mother taught me to cook from scratch. So all in all,…
Personal Grooming
‘Listen,’ says the Grooming Fairy. ‘She’s a lost cause.’ ‘I know but…’ says Aelfnod, ‘Look at her, all proud of her nails – painting them with cheap nail-polish and all. She’s had that bottle for five years at least.’ ‘Five years? I bet there’s dinosaur claws with that stuff on waiting to be dug up.’…
In Sync
On day three of having to work from home, my team gave up video-Skyping in favour of audio-Skyping. The argument was that everyone’s broadband was struggling but I suspect most of us preferred to talk from behind our smart profile pictures rather than reveal what we really look like in our spare rooms or at…
Perspective
‘So many knobs,’ I say, sighing into my mug. ‘I beg your pardon?’ Aelfnod splutters on his tea. ‘Door knobs, cupboard knobs, handles, things for opening lids with, taps, letter-boxes. You know. Things that need extra bleaching just now.’ ‘Ah.’ Aelfnod settles back and a dreamy look crosses his face as he contemplates the joys…
To Hamster or Not To Hamster…
Meeting a good friend the other day and having to elbow bump when normally she’d drag me into an engulfing embrace felt rather surreal and very sad. I never knew until social distancing became advisable how much I’d miss hugging. Being unable to hug my mother and having to keep a two metre distance at…
How Are You?
Never has an innocuous phrase had so much meaning than it does at the moment. It’s usually a throw-away expression that usually means little more than ‘hello’ and doesn’t expect much of a response other than ‘not bad’, ‘a bit under the weather but soldiering on’, ‘could be better’ or more usually ‘fine thanks’ (whether…
Room
I am tired. Lying in the bath, I let the steam envelop me. I massage round and round my eyes. They want to stay shut and slide into sleep. I am so tired. It’s been a long day and I wash off the travelling and the negotiating and the business smiles. The water is…
World Book Day – some ideas!
#Worldbookday some authors to check out on facebook (too many to tag everyone so I’ll do it again soon) For fiction from mystery to children’s Paula Harmon For historical and contemporary mysteries and children’s fiction Liz Hedgecock For romance and fantasy Val Portelli For poetry and cookery books (you know you need both!) Debbie Ross For…
Nice-breakers
How do you feel about ice-breakers? Only asking because right now, I’m organising a meeting. It’s been in the offing for a while so I should be prepared but I’m not. I know that ice-breakers can make some people feel exposed and I don’t want to do that to anyone. But I’ve found one which…
Guest Blog: When Stars Will Shine – A miscellany of stories raising money for Help for Heroes
I’m delighted to welcome Emma Mitchell to my blog to speak about the anthology she has put together to raise money for Help for Heroes. Although it’s no longer Christmas – that’s no reason not to check it out! Over to Emma: When Stars Will Shine When Stars Will Shine is a collection of short…
Roaring into the Twenties
The nicest thing happened to me on 31st December. Val Portelli emailed New Year’s wishes for me: A secret writing space Trained housework fairies Self cleaning and ironing clothes Self cooking and washing up meals Empty, peaceful train journeys Supportive work colleagues Considerate offspring Strong anti-bodies as soldiers for ailing relative No plot holes, and…
Glimmers
I sometime imagine myself dragging my spirit through mire in the last few weeks towards Christmas, whispering encouragingly ‘nearly there, nearly there’. It’s not about Christmas itself, which I enjoy and try to make as laid back as possible. It’s about the increasing darkness beforehand. I’m not entirely sure when this really kicked in. As…
Daisy-chains and Black Holes
If making daisy-chains and acting out what might happen as you fall into a black hole or similar were Olympic events, I might have had the chance as a sportswoman. Or maybe not. I used to blame my lack of confidence at sport on childhood trauma: firstly aged five, hearing two grannies laugh at me…
Accurate Records?
bring your blue shield to get a husband out of bed rather a lot of effort and he didn’t want it to have a cup of tea wrinkly… No, I haven’t finally lost the plot (well ok maybe I’ve lost a plot but not The Plot). If you can stick with me long enough, I’ll…
Nest Emptying
My girl has gone. Well, ok, my daughter – my younger child – has gone to university and will no doubt be back before we know it, but at the moment, it feels very strange. For the first time in twenty years, my husband and I are on our own in the house with the…
Writing Between the Fine Lines
Books for Older Readers? How is an older reader any different from a younger one? We aren’t of course – except for the level of irritation we may feel when reading how we’re portrayed. A great many industries have fallen foul of this (retailers – you know who you are) and the writing industry is one…
My Glass is…
They say there are three types of people: one who thinks their glass is half-full, one who thinks it’s half-empty and one who says ‘beer? I never ordered beer!’ There’s actually a fourth type. Dad would say: ‘despite all evidence to the contrary, my glass is not simply full, it’s overflowing and while you’re asking…
Wild Life
People often look to nature for calm, balance or for lessons in life. Unfortunately no-one seems to have told wildlife it’s their job to provide this. The ones round my way have no desire to be cosy and inspirational. In fact I suspect them guilty of pre-meditated mischief. For a start, there are the otters.…
Wheels on Fire
I’d prefer my husband to kill me with kindness, but no, he decided to drag me on a 22 mile cycle in temperatures hot enough to melt iron instead. OK so it was probably only 25°C, but I’m British of mostly North European descent. Allow me some pity. There was housework to do but there’ll…
Pruning
In my head, I could design a garden to make Capability Brown swoon. In reality, my gardening skills are worse than my housework skills. Nature fights back more than dust does, seeding things in the wrong places to thrive while I plant them in the right places to die. I reckon ivy, brambles and briar…
The Wrong Road
The near-blind walk in the foggy dark is long and slow and terrifying. I track my route forward by feeling the crumbling edge of the road through my shoes. When the ground beneath my thin soles feels too smooth or solid I know I’m potentially veering into the path of traffic and step sideways onto…
Author interview with J.S. Strange
Welcome to my blog. Tell me a little about yourself My name is J.S. Strange, and I write murder mystery novels based in Wales. My new book is Murder on the Rocks. Do you like to reflect a sense of place in your stories? If so, how/where? I definitely do. With my new book, I have based…
Who Are You?
Eighteen years ago at this precise moment, I was cradling my new-born daughter while perusing the hospital’s options for dinner. Since halal chicken curry was the best it could offer, I went home for my husband’s home-made chilli con carne instead. My husband was aghast. He had been looking forward to one last night of…
The Case of the Fateful Legacy
One of my favourite books, Have His Carcase, is one in which the heroine finds a very fresh corpse on a beach and takes so long to get help, the tide has come in and swept it off by the time anyone can get to it. Whenever I read the efforts she has to make,…
Author Interview with Chrisoula Panagoulia
Hi Chrisoula, tell us a bit about yourself. I am an English teacher here in Athens, Greece and at the same time a novice author. What makes me happy? What makes me happy is going to the swimming pool three times a week. I have a great time there as I’ve met some gorgeous people. I…