Busy, busy busy. But learned things this week. In this new, active writing state, if I don't write regularly, everything else suffers. Good diet and exercise make me feel better. Yoga makes me feel all stretchy and much more chilled. Ditto swimming. Work works better when all of the above are followed. Family and relationships… Continue reading No time for reflection, but will anyway…
Today Tuesday Talk chats to writer Catherine Miller about her dream holiday, favourite author and what inspires her to write…
An interview with the lovely Catherine Miller, author of the wonderful 'Waiting for You'.
Catching up
I've not blogged for a while, for a number of reasons (nothing bad or serious, just life getting in the way!) so I thought I'd break the drought by writing something today. I'm not sure what this post will be on, so bear with me! The past few weeks have been really busy. I've been… Continue reading Catching up
Yr 9 Avoiding Trouble with Non Pratt
A great day had by all when YA author Non Pratt came to visit school :).
It took a while to finalize dates and events with the new writer on the block, Non Pratt, but so worth it! She came into school on Wednesday after a 5.15am start from Enfield and worked with our Y9 students non stop until the end of school.
We ran 2 workshops in the morning for selected students, on Character building and Devilish dialogue – and the Library Ladiez think they were our most successful ones to date. Non came well prepared to deliver 1hr 20 minute lessons with pace, humour and plenty of feedback. All students eagerly participated in describing characters from popular culture (from Dora the Explorer to Cat Woman) and reading aloud from their work to collect positive and constructive feedback from Non. The dialogue students worked on creating interesting and insightful words that might have been spoken by Hansel & Gretel – with the help of a Norwegian…
View original post 261 more words
An onscreen kiss to take your breath away.
**CAUTION** A couple of spoilers for Season 4 of Ripper Street are contained herein** I've loved Ripper Street from the off. It pushes my buttons on many levels; the Whitechapel mythology, a brooding (and emotionally bruised) trio of leading men, headed up by the delectable Matthew 'I'm not Colin Firth but I make a cracking Mr Darcy… Continue reading An onscreen kiss to take your breath away.
What I Learned from Famous Writers at London Book Fair
Love this – an entertaining account of watching three very different authors’ talks. I especially love the quote from Jeanette Winterson in the penultimate paragraph about the three available endings – very true!
London Book Fair always buzzes with big names and LBF16 was no exception. Meg Rosoff, Deborah Levy and Judith Kerr were all interviewed at the English PEN Literary Salon (a designated area away from the publishers’ stands). Sadly, I missed all of the above but I did manage to catch appearances from other successful writers: Jeffrey, Peter and Jeanette. But can you learn anything useful by listening to a half-hour slot from an established name?
First up, I happened to be sitting in the PEN Literary Salon area (meeting a friend) when who should show up behind a wall of press photographers than Jeffrey Archer in a novelty tie (it may have had books on it, but I wasn’t close enough to see).
Archer is brash (often dismissive of press and underlings) and irrepressible. He talked about book promotion rather than writing, and declared himself a “storyteller” rather than a…
View original post 266 more words
Why I love Sporting Hares…
I'm not a designer kind of girl. Frankly, I don't know my Mulbery from my Matalan, so this is quite an unusual post for me. I dress in supermarket chic, most of the time, and I tend to wear clothes until they fall off me. So it's no surprise that my review of Sporting Hares… Continue reading Why I love Sporting Hares…
Plotting versus pantsing…a new approach for Book 2.
Are you a plotter or a pantser? This was the question that I, quite understandably, replied 'WTF?' to, back in 2006 when I participated in NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) for the first time. For the uninitiated, that basically means do you write a novel outline first, and then adapt it as you actually write… Continue reading Plotting versus pantsing…a new approach for Book 2.
Quick and dirty blog post: Sherlock Holmes, A Game of Shadows
For reasons too weird to get into here, I was reminded of my 2012 fixation with the Robert Downey Jr/Jude Law/Guy Ritchie Holmes fest that was Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows last night. Anyone who knows me knows that I adore Sherlock Holmes in any incarnation, and the Guy Ritchie reimagining was no exception. So, I… Continue reading Quick and dirty blog post: Sherlock Holmes, A Game of Shadows
From Superwoman to Slummy Mummy: A life of day to day extremes.
No matter how hard I try, my life seems to swing from one extreme to the other. I'm not talking about anything major; the big stuff is in place (house, job, enough money to feed and clothe my dependents, a really good network of amazing friends and family), but the day to day running of… Continue reading From Superwoman to Slummy Mummy: A life of day to day extremes.
Fay Keenan 