Olivia's Oracle

In the news

2012-01-09T20:28:00.003Z

I'm expecting to be in a nice feature in the Essex Chronicle newspaper this week - together with Elizabeth Lord from http://elizabeth-lord.blogspot.com. We're both Essex authors and members of the Essex group of the Romantic Novelists' Association. I contacted the paper a week or so back, as part of my promotion for 'Sophie Being Single', my new Kindle e-book. Local papers can be a great source of support (so can local radio) - and the Chronicle have been very good, giving me a mention every time I've had anything new to report on my writing career, right back to when my first book was published in 2003. I told them about the Kindle book, and offered to tell them more or even write a bit myself for the paper, explaining about why writers (especially those of us who are previously published) are making the decision to self-publish e-books. Instead, they called me to say they'd decided to produce a double-page spread about the subject, interviewing me and hoping I could suggest other Essex writers who would fit the bill.

Luckily Elizabeth Lord did fit the bill - but my other friends from the Essex RNA happen to live in the wrong area of Essex for the paper! What a shame. So I'll be interested to see whether the paper has managed to produce any other suitable Essex authors themselves, to be interviewed, or whether it's just going to be the two of us! (In which case I doubt whether it'll run to a double page spread!)

So this morning I had a date with their photographer, which is always a bit of fun - posing with my Kindle and a pile of books. Hope I don't look too ancient in the pic they choose ... but as they always like to quote people's ages in articles like this, I suppose it won't make any difference!

Ode to my Kindle (with apologies to Frances Garrood!)

2012-01-03T10:28:00.002Z

Blogging mate Frances, over at

http://francesgarrood.blogspot.com/

really made me laugh the other day with her 'Ode to my new Kindle'. Like many of us, she confesses that she didn't think she'd like one until she got one. I admired Frances' ode and she challenged me to write one myself, so here goes - hope it makes someone else laugh!

I Love Him

Slim, smooth good looks!

He carries my books

on buses and trains

and even on planes.

He doesn't run out

when I need him about.

He's lovely to hold

and easily controlled.

Oh, if I were single

I'd marry my Kindle!

OK, it's not the best piece of writing I've ever done, and not likely to get me a new publishing deal! (although I think maybe Amazon should pay me for advertising!). Anyone else want to try an ode? It doesn't have to be to a Kindle ... maybe your laptop or favourite pen or whatever. Right, that took my mind off the Taxman for a minute ... now to try once again to sort out the muddle of my tax statement. Grrrr ....

Happy New Year!

New book!

2011-12-29T16:35:00.003Z

So how was your Christmas? I hope you had a lovely time, and that Father Christmas brought you everything you wanted. I have it on good authority that lots of people have been given new Kindles for Christmas so I've timed my most exciting news for this post-Christmas period!

I now have a brand new book available on Amazon as a Kindle e-book, under my own name (Sheila Norton). It's called 'Sophie Being Single', it's the first of a series of three books about three sisters - one single, one married and one divorced. And it won't add too much stress to your post-Christmas bank balances, at only £2.29 for a download.

At thirty-four, Sophie Jennings is still single, and that’s the way she likes it. She has her own flat, a good social life and a gorgeous boyfriend, Charlie, who feels exactly the same as she does – settling down, marriage and children aren’t on the agenda for either of them. She also has her own business, ironically doing wedding hair and make-up. While her married and attached friends think she’s weird and her family think she’s selfish, all her bridal clients for some reason seem to want to use her as an agony aunt! Hearing about so many horrible husbands and bastard boyfriends convinces her she’s definitely best off as she is – satisfyingly single. Or is she ...?

'Sophie Being Single' is a feel-good read for the New Year with lots of laughs and some emotional anguish along the way - I really hope my readers will enjoy this new book and will be looking forward to the other two sisters' stories when they've finished reading it.

If you do read the book please let me know if you enjoy it!

And Happy New Year to everyone! Let's hope it's a successful one for us all.

Writers and Libraries feature

2011-12-23T17:08:00.002Z

Just to let you know, the feature I wrote almost a year ago about Writers and Libraries (A Special Relationship) has just been published in the February edition of 'Writers' Forum' - out now! (I had to look twice at the magazine but yes, it's the February edition!).

I hope it helps to publicise the case for keeping the library service afloat - as well as making other writers realise just how much we do need them, and sometimes take it for granted.

And thanks to Dawn for pointing out to me that the feature was published ... I'd put the magazine aside to read after Christmas!

Christmas memories

2011-12-22T20:57:00.002Z

Like most of us, I suppose, at this time of year I often think about all the Christmases we've enjoyed with our other halves and our families over the years. Of course, the older we get the more Christmases there are to remember! Some Christmases are particularly special for various reasons - others more difficult - and some Christmas memories just give us a good story to make people laugh! Here are a few of my favourites from our own family archives:

* I met my husband on the 23 December at a teenage dance in the 1960s. I didn't know then, of course, how long it was going to last! But he did see me all the way home that first night (a journey of two bus-rides), even though it would mean a long walk back from my side of town to his afterwards. And he did take me to the Ilford Palais the next night - Christmas Eve - which, as I was still a schoolgirl, seemed like a really glamorous date! So I guess he got off to a good start!

* Our first daughter was 5 months old at her first Christmas, and we thought it would be nice, now we were a family, to have our Christmas dinner on our own with our baby before going to my parents in the afternoon. Our little one sat in her 'baby bouncer' crying all the way through our meal. But we put a paper hat on her and took a photo of her for the album - which seemed to cheer her up!

* Both our second and third daughters were born at Christmas time, so from then on it became both a busy time and a very special one for our family. Johnny Mathis' song 'When a Child Is Born' was released in 1976 when No.2. baby was due to be born, and we bought 3 copies: one for ourselves, and one for each set of parents, as it felt like 'our song'!

* Two years later, our youngest (third) daughter was actually due on Christmas day. We went to my parents for the day, and I was instructed to sit still, not move, and not to dare give birth until at least the dinner was over! In fact we made it home in the evening, and to bed, before things started happening - and she arrived on Boxing Day morning.

* I remember a Christmas Eve when the eldest daughter was playing Mary in her Sunday School nativity at the church carol service. Second daughter was only three, but she wanted a part too so she was allowed to be a donkey. We dressed her in brown trousers, brown jumper and a brown hat with cardboard ears attached - and pinned a tail on her trousers made from plaited brown wool. During the service she became bored and started twiddling with her tail, much to everyone's amusement, especially us - we were in pride of place in the front row, watching her!

* Then there was the Christmas when our oven died, halfway through cooking the turkey. Fortunately my next-door neighbour, a very good friend, had cooked hers on Christmas Eve so when I yelled over the fence for help, she was able to transfer our half-cooked bird to her oven!

* When the girls started school I started teaching music to groups of children after school - including our own daughters. At Christmas time, I'd teach them to play lots of carols on their recorders, and eventually I had some more advanced players who could play the tenor and treble recorders. I got the children playing two and three part harmonies and on the last lesson before Christmas, I always invited their parents to come and listen while we entertained them. Once or twice we were invited to play at carol services, and one year we also went out carol-singing, with some of the kids accompanying us on their recorders. We collected for the local hospice. I think about those evenings fondly now, when groups of kids knock on my door, mumble a couple of lines of 'We wish you a Merry Christmas' and expect a handout - for themselves!

* And then, on a very different note, there was the Christmas Eve when I was working at the hospital, when the after-work drinks party went on a bit, and I was enjoying myself, and ... somehow forgot I hadn't bought any vegetables for the Christmas dinner. The shops were closed by the time I got home. Oddly, I still can't remember what we ate with our turkey that year! I guess I must have had some frozen peas in the freezer!

* There was one year my brother, sister-in-law and their children came over from Australia for Christmas - and it snowed. The kids had never seen snow. We all went out for a walk in the woods and it was perfect - I think my neice still talks about it now she has her own children!

* And now we've come full circle. We're grandparents, and starting all over again with the lovely excitement of Christmas with a house full of little ones. Little Noah might not yet have a complete understanding of what it's all about but I'm sure he's going to enjoy it all this year. And as for our three new baby girls - now 5 and a half months, 4 months and nearly 2 months - all we can hope is that they feed, sleep and smile contentedly for us and that we get through the festivities without too much screaming (from children or adults!). Hopefully this year's will be another Christmas to remember.

I'm sure my daughters will remind me of others - good and bad - that I've left out. Maybe we'll talk about that over Christmas dinner! I'd like to finish off by wishing all my readers a very happy Christmas making your own special memories. And let's hope 2012 is a good year for us all.

Full of woe?

2011-11-13T11:10:00.002Z

I'm gutted! Devastated! Humiliated! OK, I'll calm down in a minute, but I don't think you can blame me for being upset. For the whole of my life, I've believed something about myself (obviously told to me by my parents) which I've just discovered isn't true!

I'd better explain. The other day we were talking with our eldest daughter about which days of the week the grandchildren were born on. We had a Monday's child first; and the new babies have been Sunday, Saturday and Friday in that order. You know the old rhyme, don't you? Monday's child is fair of face, etc. So we got to discussing how true the various labels were, in terms of our own family. We thought it was most unfair, and untrue, for poor Middle Daughter to be labelled 'full of woe' (being a Wednesday child), but the others (Sunday and Tuesday) have nice, complimentary descriptions attached to them. I was happy to show off about being a Friday's child - loving and giving. Nice one. I've always thought that was obviously a fair and accurate description of my loving and giving self! (!)

When it came to my husband, we giggled pityingly about the fact that he didn't even know which day of the week he was born on. Well, granted we were both born a long time ago! - but my Mum had made a point of letting me know (so I thought) about being a Friday's child. So this morning I got on the internet and looked up the calendar for our year of birth - and giggled a bit more to see that he was actually a Monday's child - fair of face. Ha! Well, I suppose he'll like that!

And then I checked my own birthdate. I don't know why - after all, I knew it was a Friday, didn't I. And I nearly choked on my cup of tea. There it was, in black and white (well, in figures on the screen) - a WEDNESDAY. What??? Has someone been fiddling with the calendar? I was so shocked, I had to exit the page, go back into it and look again. But there's no getting away from it: my lovely mum either got muddled up with the day, or just told me it was a Friday to keep me happy! Fair enough, if I'd gone through life believing I was Full of Woe, I might have turned out differently! (I hope my lovely middle daughter doesn't believe in all this stuff!).

Of course, I don't really believe in it myself, either - but it just goes to show how easy it is to believe something about yourself, just because you've been told it for so long. As a postscript, I had a quick look at the calendar for my older brother's year of birth. I was wondering whether Mum could have got the two of us confused - maybe he was the Friday child! But no - he was born on a Thursday. And for once, this is completely appropriate. He emigrated to Australia at the age of 22 and has lived there ever since. Thursday's Child has far to go!

OK, I'm off to bury my Woeful head in shame. Loving and giving? Well, I did try!

A tale of three babies - and a new e-book.

2011-11-03T17:32:00.007Z

Well finally, after what feels like a whole year of waiting (and I guess it has been, actually!), we now have all three of our new grandbabies safely delivered. And ... it's a matching set! Yes, history seems to be repeating itself. Thirty-odd years ago we had our own three little girls, close enough in age to grow up together with all the joys, companionship and the odd argument that entails! And now, each of the girls has produced a daughter of their own during the last few months.

If you've managed to wade through my recent blog postings (and I know some of you have followed this on Facebook too), you'll know we had Caitlin Emily in July, Alice Molly in August, and now - last Friday, the 28th October, Kitty Ruth arrived. She's a lovely little sister for Noah George, who has been a specially good boy and as you can see from the pictures below, has welcomed her in the nicest way! Noah is going to grow up as the Big Boy of the family and we're sure all the little girls will look up to him and think he's the Bees Knees!

And here's a picture of the three girls with the three girls! How lovely that the cousins are so very close in age and we hope they'll grow up to be as close as their mummies still are.

Writing news has taken a bit of a back seat as you can imagine, but I do have one announcement: The first of my Olivia Ryan books ('Tales from a Hen Weekend') has now been published on Amazon for Kindle - at the very special price of only £1.14 (even more of a bargain than my Sheila Norton Kindle books!). Here's the new cover image:

And although I've decided to publish this under my own name 'writing as Olivia Ryan' (now everyone knows who I am!), you'll find the e-book on the Olivia Ryan page - there's no facility for being in two places at once on Amazon, unfortunately!

Just a couple of days before Kitty was born, I had a short story accepted by my editor at The People's Friend. It had been under consideration since April so I was pleased it's sold - especially as it's about a grandma whose whole family produces babies during the same year! Although it's not my life story at all, I must confess to having been inspired by events in our own family! So the story will always be a little bit special to me. I'll let you know when it's published.

A 'People's Friend' kind of day.

2011-10-25T19:12:00.011+01:00

Hello - how are you all? Just thought I'd tell you about my day today, because it really sums up the life of a short story writer!

This morning I was sitting working on my writing when an e-mail came through from 'my' editor at PF, rejecting a recent story I'd sent her. So far, so all-too depressingly ordinary ... I've had several other rejections recently from other mags.

About half an hour later, another e-mail came through from PF. This time it was one of their routine ones to advise me that a previously-accepted story is going to be in this week's issue. Ah well, that cheered me up!

Went out for a couple of hours, came back - and there was yet another e-mail, from the editor again - but this time it was an acceptance! Yay! A story they'd had since March has made the grade. I'm really pleased about this one, too, as it's about someone whose whole family are producing grandchildren at the same time. Does that sound familiar? No, I haven't just written my own life story, but I can't deny my own situation was the inspiration!

Here are some recent pics of our two gorgeous granddaughters - while we're still waiting for the next baby to arrive - and one of Big Cousin Noah - taken on his second birthday last month - because I think it's such a happy picture of him.

Caitlin at 3 months - Alice at 2 months - Noah at 2 years

Just not meant to be?

2011-10-17T14:11:00.003+01:00

Have you ever resigned yourself to something not happening, deciding that the best way of looking at it is that it 'just wasn't meant to be'? That's just happened to me, with a competition I was going to enter.

I think, actually, I was kidding myself a bit, even thinking of entering it. It's the The Sunday Times EFG Private Bank Short Story Award 2012 - which is only open to published writers, so you can imagine how high the standard must be. OK, I'm published, and I write a lot of short stories too, but normally my stories are specifically geared to the womag market and not really the sort that I'd enter for what sounds like quite a 'literary' competition. But it just so happens I've got one story that might 'fit' ... I wrote it just because it was a story I wanted to write, not for any particular market, and I only ever submitted it to one magazine. I wasn't surprised it was rejected as 'unsuitable', and I didn't try it with any others as it just isn't a typical womag story (and at just under 3000 words, it's also too long for most of them).

So I downloaded the entry form and instructions, etc, and then (typically) put them to one side and spent more than a month dithering about it. But for some reason, today, I suddenly decided I was going to enter it. I told myself it was being a bit ridiculous, that with all the Very Clever Writers obviously entering (it's a big prize), I had absolutely no chance ... but equally, absolutely nothing to lose.

I read the list of formatting requirements, and started making a few necessary amendments to my text (no indenting, no page numbers, that kind of thing) ... and then read the rules. Oh yes, I should have done that first! One of them states that by entering the competition, you agree to make yourself available to attend any events you may be asked to, during the lead-up to the awards ceremony, which is part of the Sunday Times Oxford Literary Festival. And the dates are ... when I'll be in Australia next spring, visiting my brother!

Now, I must admit I hesitated. After all, the only people who'll be required to attend those events will be those who are at least long-listed, if not short-listed. And that's never going to be me! But ... after all, what would be the point in entering, if I was so certain of having no chance whatsoever of coming anywhere, that I was prepared to turn a blind eye to that requirement? And it is one of the rules. Supposing they decided to invite the writer of the worst entry in the competition to go along - a bit like the worst performers on X-Factor are publicly humiliated! Not that the Sunday Times are likely to behave like that, of course!

So, needless to say, only a couple of hours after deciding to give it a go, I've had to abandon the whole idea. Being contrary by nature, I'm now feeling disappointed that I'm not entering after all! But of course, the trip to Australia will more than make up for it! And ... maybe next year, I'll dig that story out again and actually enter it.

The Big Red Read - the result!

2011-10-06T11:58:00.002+01:00

Just wanted to share my excitement with you ... and also my thanks if you voted for me! ... my book 'Sweet Nothings' came second in the Big Red Read fiction awards! Huge congrats to Juliet Archer whose book 'The Importance of Being Emma' came first! I noticed there were some very well received new-release titles on the short list, so the fact that a book from my backlist has enjoyed this little comeback is a real thrill for me.

I was sad to miss the awards ceremony, and wish now that I'd gone! But I understand it was a great evening. I think thanks are due not only to all of you - friends and followers - who might have kindly voted, but also to the library readers who must have made up the majority of the votes.

I think you all know by now how strongly I feel about the library service. As a mid-list author, I rely on PLR for the biggest chunk of my income from writing. My books seem to do well in the libraries and I really appreciate the support I get from them. It's a two-way relationship of course, and I (and most writers I know) do our bit to support them too, by doing author talks and events and waiving our fees.

And by the way, the feature I wrote, quite a while back, on writers & libraries, has now been accepted for publication in 'Writers' Forum' - so I'll let you all know when it's going to be published!

The best and worst things - and East London events.

2011-10-04T12:19:00.005+01:00

I took part at a library event at East Ham in East London last night - I was part of an author panel chaired by my good friend Jean Fullerton and comprising of myself, Julie Cohen and Catherine Jones (Kate Lace).

The event was supposed to be about 'chick lit' but I must admit, we ended up discussing all sorts of things about our writing, answering very varied questions including what we consider to be the best - and worst - things about being a writer. I didn't find that one too tricky! For me, the best thing is definitely being able to spend my time doing my favourite thing! OK, getting published is the icing on the cake but how many people are lucky enough to be able to spend as much time as they like, doing the thing they enjoy most? (I suppose that's just because I'm retired, of course - but I enjoyed it just as much when it was my relaxation after a hard day at the day-job!).

The other girls came up with some good answers too. Julie said the best thing for her was that feeling you get when the writing's going really well, it flows like magic and the characters just seem to take over. I think we can all agree with that - although sadly it doesn't happen all the time, does it! Catherine said the best feeling is when you hold your published book in your hands for the first time. Oh yes, I agree with that one too! The thrill never wears off. (But sadly that doesn't happen as often as we'd like, either!)

And the worst thing? For me, it has to be the fact that we never stop getting the rejections and disappointments, however many stories or books we've had published. The waiting, the endless waiting, only to be told it's 'no' again!

Because I'd already agreed to take part in the event last night, I regretfully turned down an invitation to go back to East London tonight, for the Awards ceremony of the Big Red Read - which my book 'Short Nothings' was shortlisted for. It's a pity as I'd like to have gone - but I'm sure I'll hear all about it from some of the other RNA authors who were shortlisted, and who I think are going to be there. I'll let you know as soon as I hear the results.

Exciting news ...

2011-09-04T12:14:00.006+01:00

We writers hear so much gloomy news these days - about how difficult it is to find a publisher or even an agent, how hard it is to find a market for short stories, and how heavily the odds are stacked against us when we try to get anything accepted - whether we're new or established writers.

So it's doubly exciting to hear some really good news, especially when it concerns someone who I know has worked hard to achieve it and undoubtedly deserves it. Anne Cameron is the daughter of one of my best writing buddies, Dawn. I met Dawn back in the early 1990s when we both won prizes in the Writers' News story competitions and attended the awards ceremony in London. Ever since, we've been 'pen pals' - originally by old-fashioned letter and now of course by e-mail - encouraging each other in our writing and sharing all the inevitable ups and downs, and we finally managed to meet up again last year.

Dawn has often told me about her daughter Anne, who's also a writer, having produced short stories and teenage romances in the past but who has worked for a considerably long time on an action adventure book for 9 to 12 year olds, about an 11-year old boy called Angus McFangus (lovely name!).

This book has now been sold by Madeleine Buston at the Darley Anderson agency, to US publisher Greenwillow books, who are part of HarperCollins - as the first of a series of four Angus McFangus books! It's a super deal, and I personally can't wait to read the first book -

ANGUS MCFANGUS - STORM PROPHET - which is going to be published in the States next year, and I hope UK publication will follow soon! (OK, so I'm not 9-12 years old, but the first line about the book on Darley Anderson's website: You know something is seriously wrong when it starts raining newts and frogs... has got me hooked already!).

I wouldn't be surprised if Angus McFangus could be the new Harry Potter! And I'll be proud to say I was sharing Anne's success with her mum right at the very start. Huge congratulations to Anne, and I think we can all agree that it gives us some hope ... the deals are still out there, you just need to write the right story, and find the right agent, and above all have the talent and perseverance necessary. I promise to keep you all updated about Angus McFangus!

Baby Days (or Daze?)!

2011-08-23T13:00:00.005+01:00

It's all been happening again in our family! Here's our gorgeous latest new addition, little Alice Molly, who was born early on Saturday morning:

I can still hardly believe she's here, having (somehow, ridiculously) missed two text messages the previous evening, telling us that she was on her way - and not finding out till the morning that she'd actually arrived! Yes, I seem to be in a daze these days!

Alice is almost exactly six weeks younger than her cousin Caitlin - here's a really nice

pic of both the new mums with their babies.

We're already imagining the fun these little girls are going to have, growing up together, and how much little Noah is going to enjoy bossing them around - especially when his own new brother or sister (due in October) is here too!

I always liked the idea of having a big family ... but the reality was that three children were plenty to cope with! My girls were really lucky to grow up so close together and maybe now we're belatedly getting that big family!

Just so he isn't left out - here's my latest photo of Noah, too - enjoying a snack at his new home, where they'd just moved into.

I told you it was all happening in our family! They've all been so busy, working so hard - I feel tired just thinking about it! We're a very happy Nanny and Granddad.

The Big Red Read

2011-08-12T10:55:00.001+01:00

I’ve just found out that one of my books (‘Sweet Nothings’) has been shortlisted for the ‘Big Red Read’ run by Redbridge district libraries as part of the East London Libraries Festival. I’ve never been shortlisted for anything before so it’s quite exciting.

If you feel you'd like vote for the book, please just send an e-mail to:

bigredreadvoting@visionrcl.org.uk - just saying you vote for Sweet Nothings by Sheila Norton.

If you want to see more about the Big Red Read and the other shortlisted books, here’s the website:

http://www.redbridge.gov.uk/cms/leisure_and_libraries/libraries/big_red_read.aspx

Thank you very much!

Library lendings

2011-08-11T18:06:00.003+01:00

I've just found out about something new, and feeling quite excited about it so I thought I'd share it with you! I'm sure you all know about PLR (Public Lending Right) - where authors get paid a few pence every time their books are borrowed from a public library. But did you know there's a new facility on the PLR website where authors can see the statistics for each book, for each edition, for each year and even for each library area? Wow - I was so impressed when I found it, needless to say I've wasted a lot of time looking at it!

It isn't quite as straightforward as it sounds, because PLR is based on a different sample of library areas each year. So, for instance, my own area (Essex) isn't included every year - and I've always assumed that most of my book lendings are from libraries in Essex, because that's where I'm best known. Not that my personal friends run back and forth to the local libraries taking out my books just to boost my income! - but because I do library events and talks in the Essex area, and interviews on local radio and in local papers etc, which I hope all helps to promote the books. So when Essex Libraries aren't included in the PLR sample, I would have expected my payments to be less - but in fact, I'm pleased to say they've been pretty good each year, naturally increasing each time a new book has come out.

Studying the stats on the website last night, I was amazed by the variation in the different library areas. For instance, I seem to do well in Northern Ireland! And in West Sussex. And Lancashire, and sometimes Leicestershire. Each of these areas has sometimes lent out more of my books than Essex. London, Northumbria, Devon and Cornwall are other areas where I've sometimes had a good 'score'.

As I said, I'm afraid I spent far longer than I intended, browsing these stats and wondering about them. I can't help wondering WHY one particular book would do particularly well in Devon, for instance, or why they all seemed to be popular in Northern Ireland and West Sussex! (Thanks, everyone in those areas!). Obviously some library areas must have ordered more copies of one, or all, or my books than other areas did - or they've placed them in more beneficial places on the shelves perhaps! But why? I'd love to know whether there were librarians in some places who just liked my books, or whether it really was that readers in those areas were enjoying them and recommending them to their friends. It's a lovely thought but I bet the answer is more prosaic than that!

It was interesting too, to see how the lendings peaked - usually in the year AFTER publication - and then began to tail off, but the earlier books are still being borrowed. My first book 'The Trouble With Ally' was published in 2003, and was still being borrowed a few hundred times during the last year that figures are available for (2009/10). That's quite reassuring and also confirms what I've always said: that when books are actually out there, being seen, people can choose books they like the look of, read them and hopefully enjoy them. But sadly when they're on sale in the shops it's for such a short time, and unless you're a best-selling author they're often tucked away on the back shelves - so they don't even get seen.

Thank God for PLR - thank God for the library service and readers who borrow from libraries!
If you're a published author pop over to the PLR website now and have a look at your stats. And if you work in a library maybe you can help to explain those variations to us!

Competition Winner!

2011-08-01T19:01:00.002+01:00

Just to let you know that the draw has now been made, for the competition on my website to win a signed book - and the winner is Katie Bowles from Staines in Middlesex. Katie has chosen to receive a copy of 'Tales From a Honeymoon Hotel' and says she's looking forward to sitting in the garden reading it in the sunshine. As it's an ideal story for a holiday read, set on the lovely Croatian island of Korcula, I think she's made a good choice!

I had 113 entrants to the competition, and I'm just sorry everybody couldn't have been a winner. But thank you to everyone who entered - or at least, any who may be reading this blog!

Author interview

2011-07-29T20:19:00.002+01:00

Hello everyone

Just popping in quickly to let you know I've been interviewed for the Romantic Novelists' Association blog and it has been published today. If you want to know all about how I got published, what I like writing, my favourite place to write, my advice for new writers and so on - please go over and have a read at http://romanticnovelistsassociationblog.blogspot.com/

Hope everyone has a good weekend, whatever you're doing!
x

Self-promotion - how much is too much?

2011-07-23T14:02:00.004+01:00

I was just going to make this a quick post to remind anyone who hasn't yet entered the competition on my website (http://www.sheilanorton.co.uk/) to win a signed book, that this is the last week before the competition closes. Just answer a simple question - the answer is on the website - and choose which book you'd like if you win. 'Simples' as they say!

But while I'm at it, I thought I'd also bring up the subject I've been discussing with my Facebook friends today - and which has also been a topic recently on the RNA members' forum. Self-promotion. Of course, you'll realise that the above paragraph is a form of promotion; I'm happy for lots of people to rush and look at my website, and in return I'm more than happy to give away a free book to the lucky winner. But if EVERY post I wrote on this blog - or everything I ever put on Facebook, or every time I commented on a forum or on anyone else's blog, was a blatant bit of promotion for my own books, it'd be too much. Well, it would, wouldn't it - you'd quite rightly all be sick of me! (And I hope you're not!).

But someone made an interesting point the other day, asking if continual postings about someone's own writing work are really any worse than continual postings about the 'minutiae' of life. You know the sort of thing - this isn't a criticism because I think we've all done it - a status update on Facebook saying you're going to bed now because you're tired, or you're going to have a glass of wine, or you've bought a new dress. Or writing blog posts about our cats, dogs, or (gulp!) grandchildren!

Some of us expressed a little concern at this point. Most of us have, as FB 'friends' (and I presume Twitter friends, although I'm still resisting having a Twitter account myself), and blog followers, etc, a mixture of 'real-life' friends, family, other writers, and readers of our books. So it's a tricky act to balance our posts. Of course we all want to share our writing successes and inevitable failures, but we don't want to come across as being self-obsessed or even writing-obsessed, unless promoting our writing is the ONLY reason we're on social networking sites. Equally, like anyone else we like to share snippets of our lives with family and friends, but don't want people who only know us as writers to think 'Who cares if you've got a new kitten or fancy a cup of tea!'

Too much promotion, being too much in-your-face, I think can be counter-productive. But perhaps too much 'wittering on' (as someone put it) can also make people stop reading your posts!

Well, I asked my FB friends to let me know what they thought about this whole issue, and I'm pleased to say the consensus is that people are generally happy to read the anecdotes about our everyday lives ('like we're all working in the same office and stopping for a natter' as one of my writing friends said!) and happy too to read the writing news but not non-stop posts of promotion, copying all our reviews for everyone to read, etc.

So I think we can all pretty much carry on as before (phew!) and with that in mind I'll just quickly let you know I've got a story in the People's Friend Summer Special out now! And my gorgeous new baby granddaughter will be two weeks old tomorrow and is doing fine. There - that's a bit of each for you! Now I'm off to put the kettle on ...

A new arrival !

2011-07-19T10:39:00.004+01:00

This is going to be a very quick post ... (that makes a change!) ... just to explain why I haven't been on Blogger recently. I also haven't done much writing! In fact, it's just been too exciting around here to think about much else, because look who's arrived:-

Our new little granddaughter Caitlin Emily was born on Sunday 10th July. She's the first baby of our youngest daughter & son-in-law and she's absolutely gorgeous! They're bringing her round again to see us today - can't wait! And she's the first of our THREE new grandbabies due this year ... young Noah is going to have two baby cousins and a baby brother or sister, and we're going from one grandchild to four within the space of three months!

OK ... needless to say, not much writing news to report apart from several of the dreaded R-words flying back from various magazines; but the e-books are starting to sell on Amazon which is very encouraging! Will be back soon ... hope everyone else is being more productive than me!

Do we want to be alone?

2011-07-01T12:14:00.002+01:00

I've always believed that one of the characteristics helpful for being a writer is the ability to enjoy your own company. After all, writing is usually a solitary occupation (I know there are people who co-write books, but personally I think I'd find that difficult!). I wouldn't go so far as to say it's absolutely necessary to be on your own in order to write; I wrote plenty of stories, and chapters of novels, years ago while the family were buzzing around the house. And I'm sure I'm not the only one who has sometimes needed so desperately to carry on with something I've been writing while it's going well, that I've sat working on my laptop even while the TV is on, pretending to spend a bit of time with Himself but obviously ignoring both TV and husband! I've written bits of stories in notebooks on crowded noisy trains and buses, and I've grabbed half-hour lunch breaks when I was at work, to continue with a chapter of a novel on my work computer while my colleagues chatted around me. Yes, it can be done - but I think most of us would agree it's easier to write in glorious solitude.

So is the solitude always glorious? The reason I ask is that this weekend, starting today, Himself isn't going to be around at all. Don't tell him, but I've been quite looking forward to three days of uninterrupted 'ME' time, to press on with editing and re-submitting some short stories, and finally getting down to the next novel. In fact, I actually get quite a lot of time on my own since I've been retired, as Himself has his own hobbies so we give each other a lot of space. Everyone's different, but although we enjoy each other's company, neither of us are the sort of people who want to spend our retirement living in each other's pockets, doing everything together. So I can rarely say that I haven't got time for my writing, or that it interferes with anyone or anything else.

And here's the funny thing. We're such contradictory creatures, aren't we! I think most writers understand Sod's Law of Procrastination. Because I'm sitting here today with limitless time available, and the idea in my head that I'm going to write several thousand words at the very least, what am I doing? Well, apart from writing this blog post and dealing with e-mails, I've been shopping on Amazon, checking my website stats, downloading some photos, reading various forums, have been for a walk, made another cup of tea (!) ... and oh look, it's nearly lunchtime!

When I was a working mum trying to fit in a bit of writing around everything else, I just Got On With It! So is all this solitude really the best thing for a writer after all? Is it too much of a good thing? Do I need someone around me, nagging me for things and interrupting me all the time just so that I can say 'No! I need to get on with this writing!' and actually do it?!

Well, anyway. I'm just off to have a quick look at Facebook and then ... maybe after lunch ... I really will start something! Have a nice weekend everyone.

E-books, a newsletter, and a competition

2011-06-24T10:48:00.006+01:00

Hello! I'm back from Blogger no-man's-land, and problems seem to have been resolved - fingers crossed!

Lots to tell you. No, not about the new book yet (fingers still crossed) - but I've been busy with other things. I've now published all FIVE of my Sheila Norton books on Amazon as Kindle e-books, having spent several quite enjoyable weeks (if I may say so myself!) re-reading them all and adding in the copy-editing. And then a bit of fun doing the 'cover' images. And to celebrate finishing the process, I've put them all on a 'sale' price - a real bargain at £2.29 each! So if you haven't yet had a look, please feel free to pop over to http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=node%3D341689031&field-keywords=Sheila+Norton&x=12&y=14 and have a browse. And if you have already bought one (thank you so much!) you now have a chance to get another one while they're at such a reduced price!

OK, sorry - sales pitch over! As another little celebration, I've also decided to run another competition. I held one some time ago, to win a signed copy of 'Tales from a Honeymoon Hotel' - which proved to be very popular. This time, the winner gets a choice of several books. It's very easy to enter, and you don't need to buy anything - details can be found on my website at http://www.sheilanorton.co.uk, and the answer you'll need is to be found somewhere on the website too. To make it even easier, you stay on the website to enter the competition: just send your entry on the 'Contact me' page.
Good luck to everyone who enters! It closes at midnight on 31 July so don't hang around! Sorry to say this is limited to UK residents though.

By the way, all this information about the e-books and the competition, and more besides, is on an e-mail newsletter which will be going out during the next few days. If you received the last 'Olivia' newsletter you should automatically get this one (tell me if you don't!) but if anyone else wants to sign up for it, please let me know! It's not a regular thing (or I'd never get any writing done at all!) - but there will be further mailings from time to time.

Short story news? Well I had one published in 'The People's Friend' in the first week of June, and a further one accepted last week. But I'm still waiting to hear about all the others - I think everyone's in the same boat at the moment: news seems to be filtering through very slowly. It's a tough time for short story writers - sadly, magazine readers seem to be turning away from fiction in favour of celebrity news etc. Let's hope the tide turns again before too long!

And I hope everyone else is having some success with their writing ... I'm off to catch up with some of your blogs now while Blogger is allowing me in!

£

2011-06-24T10:48:00.003+01:00

Blogger problems

2011-06-08T17:43:00.003+01:00

This post is just by way of thanking those of you who responded to my post yesterday. I wrote a fairly lengthy 'thank you' at the end of the list of comments, only to have Blogger refuse to accept it, taking me back to the sign-in page half a dozen times before I lost my patience with it!

I've heard that lots of people are having problems with Blogger at the moment. I don't write on my blog too frequently at the best of times, and I'm afraid life's too short to mess around trying to get Blogger to do what I want it to!

So thank you to Jarmara, Frances, Lydia and Karen for your sympathetic comments - and to anyone else who might, like me, be trying unsuccessfully to make a comment!

Hopefully normal service will be resumed in due course but meanwhile I'm staying away!

Feeling miffed

2011-06-07T19:45:00.002+01:00

I've always been a bit too trusting. I tend to think people are nice until proved otherwise. And if they do something thoughtless or unexpectedly selfish, I always think they must have a reason, and give them the benefit of the doubt, until eventually I suddenly wake up and think: No, hang on a minute - they should not have done that, and I'm not happy about it, and I feel a fool for believing in them!

It's happened to me this time with someone who, while not a personal friend, I've known for quite a long time. Someone who asked to buy some copies of one of my books from me (and I let him have them cheap) and then didn't pay me. Simple as that. It was my own fault for handing them over without payment - he didn't have the cash on him but promised it a couple of days later. The days passed, I saw him again, nothing was said. I hated having to ask for the money but figured he must have forgotten, so reminded him in a friendly manner and got another promise. And so it went on. Each time I saw him, there was a different excuse; he'd forgotten, he'd been away, he was skint. I sympathised, laughed it off, said there was no hurry - because I knew him. Or I thought I did.

Eventually I went from sympathising and laughing it off to feeling miffed and upset. Why did he think it was OK not to pay me? Did he assume I'd got those paperbacks for nothing myself? I'd had to pay my publisher for them, and sold them on to him for little more than they cost me. And even if I hadn't been making such a small margin of profit, he'd agreed the price happily and I was entitled to the money! Writing is my business, part of my livelihood. Would he take something from a shop and say he was too 'skint' to pay for it? Or 'forget' to pay his gas bill?

My reminders changed in tone from gentle to serious. His excuses went on. He'd lost his cheque book, he'd meant to post me a cheque but he forgot my address, he'd been mugged. You get the picture. And at long last, so did I. He had no intention of paying me.

As I say - he wasn't a friend, so it isn't exactly a personal hurt. But while I'm as capable as anyone of forgetting something once or twice, I can't imagine doing something like this to anyone - ignoring continual reminders - and I just find it inexplicable when someone does it to me. It's not actually about the money at all - the sum involved is small, and although I don't make much money from my writing I can afford to say I'd rather forget it, write it off, than upset myself any further by continuing to chase it.

I'd like to say I've learnt my lesson, and as far as this particular person is concerned, I obviously have! And yes, if I find myself in a similar position again, I'll ask for the money before I part with the goods. But will I stop expecting people to be nice, and trusting them, and making excuses and allowances for them? Well, no, I think I'd prefer to carry on in that vein, actually! I don't want to become suspicious and distrusting of everyone, and I'd like to think people will make allowances for me if I'm genuinely forgetful, or if I'm not always very nice.

So to the guy who rang my doorbell today and tried to sell me a cleaning treatment for my driveway, I'm sorry I pointed out that we have a 'No Cold Callers' sign on our door, and I'm sorry that when you said 'Well everyone has those signs so we take no notice', I pretty much shut the door in your face.

At least, you know, if I did ever agree to have any work done by your company, at least I'd bloody well pay you!

E-Books: E-sier than it looks!

2011-04-27T14:00:00.003+01:00

Well, the new novel (the Huge Gamble, the Complete Departure from everything I've ever written before), having been read and approved and edited by my three daughters, has now been submitted for the first time. I feel too superstitious to say much more about this, but let's just say it's gone, in the first instance, to someone whose judgement I trust a lot, and who has actually expressed an interest in seeing it. More than that, I won't even speculate on. It could, as we all know, still be touted around for years and end up as another failure. Or it could, just possibly, be successful, and without that tiny flame of hope, none of us would ever bother to pick up a pen or tap another sentence onto our computers, would we!

Meanwhile, and partly to take my mind off the Huge Gamble, I've been embarking on another project. For some time, I've been considering trying to self-publish my older books - the five novels I wrote under my real name (Sheila Norton) - as e-books. The rights in these books have reverted to me, so I can do what I like with them, and they were never published electronically by my publishers. I've read loads of stuff on forums, in magazines and on other writers' blogs, about doing this, and to be honest it looked so difficult and complicated, I kept putting it off. I was even considering paying someone to do it for me.

Well, I decided I'd have a go, first, at creating my own 'cover' images. The cover illustrations of the original books are copyright, so I couldn't use them. None of my own photos really seemed suitable, so someone suggested buying images on the internet. I spent a pleasant day browsing various websites, finally settling on one that had thousands of images available on all possible subjects. It was fun choosing pictures to suit my books, and wasn't too expensive - at least, I thought it was money well-spent. I then had the problem of putting the title and my name onto the images I'd downloaded. I haven't got Photoshop and didn't want to have to fork out for it, but with the 'Paint' programme I managed to (eventually) work out how to add text to the pictures, and had some more fun deciding where to put the text! I was a bit disappointed that I couldn't make the text quite as large as I'd have liked, but all in all, I was pleased with the results.

Before I did anything else, I had to go through each book, checking my original file copy against the published books. There had been editorial changes made at the proof stage, and as these changes were made on paper, they hadn't been transferred to my file copies on computer. This was a bit of a long job but it's been quite nice to read the old books again, and it also gave me the opportunity to make any very little changes that I felt could improve them in the light of experience.

When I'd finished reading/correcting the first one, I suddenly thought - why am I being such a wimp? I know other writers who have done this. OK, so I might find it too hard and have to abandon the attempt, but why don't I at least give it a try? So I logged onto the Kindle self-publishing site at https://kdp.amazon.com/self-publishing/signin and just started following the steps. I had to write my own 'blurb' for the e-book as I was worried that the blurb on the 'paper' version of the book might have been copyright to the original publisher. And when it came to choosing a price for the book, I was a bit stumped as I had to price it in dollars, for it to be automatically converted to sterling on the UK Amazon site, so that was a bit of guesswork! But apart from that, the whole process seemed so straightforward, I was convinced I must have missed something or done something wrong! But within 24 hours, my first e-book was there on Amazon for Kindle. I couldn't believe I'd been contemplating paying someone to do it for me!

I wanted to show off about it straight away, but I was still nervous that the first book had been a fluke and that something would go wrong with the next one. (Lacking techno confidence? Me?!).
But last night I was ready to upload the next book, and this time I had the blurb written ready, and the price already decided, and knew how to go through the various steps, so the whole thing took about ten minutes! And I now have two e-books up there for sale! You can see them on
http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=node%3D341689031&field-keywords=Sheila+Norton&x=14&y=19

The other books will follow in due course, when I've read them, checked them, finished designing the cover illustrations etc. But I thought I'd share my experiences with you because I know there are other authors wanting to do the same thing, who like me were hesitating on the brink, worried that it would be difficult. Eventually, I'd like to put the books up on other websites as well as Amazon (I can't buy e-books from Amazon myself, because my e-reader isn't a Kindle), but I'll attempt that later, after I've finished creating the Kindle editions for Amazon! One thing at a time!

Meanwhile, I'd love to know what you think of the two I've uploaded. (And, of course, if you have a Kindle and haven't yet read the books ... I think they're a bargain!).

Other writers' kindness

2011-04-06T19:43:00.009+01:00

It was just a bit of a long shot, I thought - posting on this blog about the fact that I hadn't received the copy of 'The Weekly News' with my story in it. I was hoping someone would know how I might be able to get a back issue (and they did - thank you Bernadette!), but I certainly didn't expect Suzanne at http://suzanne-sj.blogspot.com/to come up with a copy of the very issue I needed, and to post it off to me so that I've received it already! It was such thoughtful thing to do, and I'm really grateful to have my copy of the story now. 'An Italian Wedding' was inspired by hearing about my friend's son's wedding - in a castle in Italy - and the fact that the castle was reputed to be haunted. I'd revised the story a couple of times after it was rejected by other magazines, and cut it quite a bit, so it was very gratifying that it ended up good enough to sell. I shouldn't have been surprised at the helpful responses to my query on the blog, or at Suzanne's kindness. Every time I give a talk about writing, I always tell people how generous and supportive I've found the writing community in general to be to each other. There's always a murmuring of surprise at this, and a few raised eyebrows. I guess a lot of people imagine that we're all jealous of each other's successes and are fiercely guarding our own 'territories'. If I'm honest, this is slightly what I expected when I first joined the RNA (Romantic Novelists' Association) when my first novel was published. I was a little in awe of the more successful novelists and 'famous names' on their internet forum, and sure they wouldn't waste their time talking to me or take any notice of me. I couldn't have been more wrong. Over the years I've had such an amazing amount of encouragement and advice from so many people: from the RNA, to other local writers in Essex, from other bloggers, to writing 'friends' on Facebook. One of the first writing blogs I ever read was http://womagwriter.blogspot.com/ where Kath has always so generously shared her advice and information for short story writers, including the latest requirements for all the magazine markets and any pertinent news about them. I think most of us have consulted her blog at some time or another and benefited from her postings. It took me a while to wake up to the fact that none of this should really surprise me. After all, it gives me a lot of pleasure myself, as a slightly-successful writer, to help new writers wherever I can with bits of my own advice and experience, such as it is. And if I don't find it irksome to do so (far from it - I'm flattered to be asked!), why would those far-more-successful writers feel any differently? So this is just a big pat on the back to all of us, for being (on the whole!) such a friendly, generous, mutually encouraging bunch of people, and thereby giving such a surprise to the audiences at my talks!

The Weekly News

2011-04-02T15:02:00.003+01:00

A quick plea today - for help from anyone who writes for 'The Weekly News'. I had a story accepted by them last June, which was very pleasing as I'd tried them for a while without success. In February, I had an e-mail from the editor Jill, explaining that she'd had computer problems and listing all the stories whose contributors may not be aware that they'd already been published. Apparently mine was published in the 1 January edition. Jill promised that any outstanding contributor copies would be posted shortly. I haven't received a copy yet. I politely queried this with Jill a couple of weeks ago, but still haven't had a reply. I realise it might still be 'on its way', but rather than wait and risk not getting a copy, I've been searching the internet to see if there's anywhere I can buy a back issue, but I'm not having any luck. I feel quite sad about it as, in over 20 years of having short stories published I've never missed having a copy of one for my file before. I'm quite happy to pay for it, but as I wasn't aware of when it was published I'm afraid I might have missed out. Has anyone else had a problem? Any ideas how I can solve it? Thanks for your help!

Endings - and beginning again

2011-03-01T17:28:00.003Z

Well, finally, I've finished the first draft of the new novel. Although it's always a relief to write that last paragraph, (especially if you're pleased with the ending!), this time I feel slightly apprehensive. Is it any good? Well, we always ask ourselves that, don't we - but my confidence has taken a bit of a knock, and this book is so different from my others that I'm finding it hard to judge, hard to know how much editing I need to do before taking that scary step of sending it off 'out there'. It's a bit like submitting my first novel, all over again - but this time I feel more wary of getting carried away with excitement. Times are harder. Rejection is all around us. Will anyone be interested in my new idea ... and even if they are, will they be willing to take a chance on me this time around?

Of course, there's only one way to find out, as we all know: edit, improve, submit. I'll feel better once I've taken the plunge and sent it out for the first time. Onwards and upwards!

Meanwhile, to bolster the flagging ego, I've had THREE short stories accepted by the same magazine within a week! (Thank you, lovely PF!). Two of these had been under consideration for quite a long while and I now have very few short stories 'out there' as I've been concentrating on the novel. So I'm looking forward to getting back to the shorts again soon, for a change. I've also heard from Jill at The Weekly News that the (only) story I've had accepted by them was actually published in the 1 January issue! She's had computer problems and some of us didn't receive notifications, but she's promised to send a copy. I hope I do receive one - I'd hate to miss seeing the first story I've sold them!

And I gave a successful talk yesterday to another U3A group, in Harlow - a lovely, large, receptive audience. I work hard at preparing my talks, and try to make them interesting and fun as well as informative, but I realised yesterday that I don't even get nervous about them any more - which is quite amazing, as I'd never have imagined myself giving talks at all, years ago, and certainly wouldn't say it was something that comes naturally to me! Like most writers, I prefer putting words down on paper than speaking them! But it just goes to show - as we get older, we can get used to anything! Yes: even the rejections!

Stats - and worldwide readers!

2011-02-12T10:01:00.003Z

Thanks to my new blogging friend Frances (on http://francesgarrood.blogspot.com/), I've just discovered how to see the stats on my blog - you know, all the stuff about how many hits you get, and when, and where they're coming from. I know, I know - you'd think it was obvious, wouldn't you: there's a big tab there with 'Stats' on it, but needless to say, I'd managed not to see that and had to be directed to it! I did know how to look at the stats for my websites (I've got two: one for Olivia and one in my own name), but I actually think the Blogger stats are more comprehensive. So I've now spent a silly amount of time studying them when I should have been doing other things (you know how it goes!) - and I'm fascinated by what I've seen.

For instance: obviously most of my hits are coming from the UK - cheers, mates! And after that comes the USA - thanks, guys! (waves!). And third in the list is Russia, and then Holland - both countries where I've had translations published so it does give me a nice feeling to think that there might be people in those countries reading my books in their own languages and bothering to look me up. Germany features too, where one of my newest translations has just been published - but also France, Ukraine, and several other countries where I'm not aware of any of my books appearing.

But of course, there are lots of other reasons for people finding, and looking at, a blog or website - and I'm not so vain that I don't realise most of these hits are probably accidental. One of my websites' stats-page gives the phrases people have put into their browsers when they end up on my site - and often they have only a very tenuous connection to me or one of my books. For instance, I've had a lot of hits on the Olivia website from people planning hen weekends, weddings or honeymoons - something to think about when you choose a book title, perhaps! I always imagine them sighing with impatience when they see that they've landed on an author's website instead of what they were searching for, and clicking straight back to their search again!

I've also been told that some of the hits are from marketing companies looking at websites to see if they're worth targeting. And I know, too, that the name Olivia is very popular now (which is why my editor and I chose it, of course!) and people will inevitably be stumbling upon me when they're looking for other, younger, prettier, maybe new-born Olivia Ryans! Sorry about that!

I'm always thrilled when I receive e-mails, or messages via my websites, from genuine fans who are contacting me to say they've enjoyed one of my books or short stories. I think we authors often suffer from insecurity about our work (not surprising, when the odds are stacked so highly against us and we tend to get rejections like other people get hot dinners!) - and personally, even knowing someone is actually out there reading something I've written makes me feel a whole lot better. The thrill of fan mail from overseas can't be overstated - I've had readers contact me from India, for instance, as well as the States, Australia and various European countries. Taking the trouble to contact an author is such a huge compliment - now that I know how it feels, I sometimes do it myself when I've particularly enjoyed a book.

So - as Frances said on her own blog about her hits - I'd love to know who all these mysterious people are, who 'hit' my blog. Of course, we realise that not everyone wants to become a 'follower', or wants to leave comments - but I'd love to know if any of them are actually reading the posts, or whether they're all just accidental hits. In the absence of any proof to the contrary - I'll choose to imagine them all hanging on my every word, even those from South Korea and Slovenia. I know I'm probably fooling myself but ... well, it does my self-esteem a power of good!

Our blogs and our identities

2011-02-08T19:21:00.003Z

I've just finished reading a book I heard about quite a while ago - 'Petite Anglaise' by Catherine Sanderson. It's the true story of an English working mum who lived and worked in Paris, and how she started writing a blog in order to alleviate her boredom and her dissatisfaction with her relationship. I won't give away too much of the story in case you want to read it, but if I didn't know that she was among the very earliest bloggers, I'd have been staggered to read how her blog snowballed so that she had thousands of followers - mostly other English ex-pats living in France, but even so!! - and the blog became so popular, even famous, that she eventually got the book deal because of it.

If that sounds like a dream come true for most of us, don't forget that nowadays everyone seems to be writing a blog and I don't think blogging now has the novelty appeal that it once did, nor do individual blogs have such a chance to stand out from the crowd. Nice dream, though!

Catherine Sanderson called herself 'Petite Anglaise' in her blog, and admitted in the book that her alter ego developed a personality of her own, quite different from the 'real' Catherine. When she met people in the flesh, who had followed her blog, she would wonder whether they found her lacking - less confident, less interesting than 'Petite Anglaise'.

Do we all hide behind our blogging identities? Some of you may remember that I first started blogging in the name of 'The Write Woman'. I can't remember now why I wanted to keep my identity secret. I think perhaps it was just because I was a bit nervous of the whole blogging business. Once I got going and got used to it, I decided it'd make a lot more sense to write the blog as myself. But at that time, I had novels being published under the name of Olivia Ryan, so my editor suggested the blog should be in this name. Hence 'Olivia's Oracle'.

Until the third Olivia Ryan book came out, I was asked to keep quiet about the fact that Sheila Norton and Olivia Ryan were one and the same author, so my real name didn't feature on the blog for a while, either.

So am I different in real life from the person addressing you in this blog? Well, I don't think so - but that would be for those of you who know me in person to decide! I've never been very good at pretending to be anyone different from myself - which is why I'm a lousy actress and didn't last very long when I joined an amateur dramatic group!

But I do think - and certainly hope - that I probably come across as more articulate and eloquent when I'm writing, than I am in real life. (It wouldn't be difficult!). I suspect that's true for most of us whose main interest in life is writing! When I was younger, I'd spend hours on end writing letters to people for pleasure, so when we got a computer and I discovered e-mail, I felt like it must have been invented with me in mind! In 'real' conversation, especially now I'm getting on a bit - I find myself forgetting words, repeating myself, droning on and needless to say, like all of us, using bad grammar and syntax that would make me flinch if I read anything like it in print. And of course, as I use a lot of dialogue in my books, that's how my characters often speak too. It wouldn't be natural to have them all chatting away in grammatically perfect English without any hesitations, expletives or colloquialisms.

I'd be interested to know whether other bloggers write as yourselves in your blogs? Or do you feel as though you're acting, presenting a face to the world that isn't really your own? It's a fascinating thought.

Oh, and I did enjoy the book, although I thought the heroine came across as a little bit self-obsessed. But then ... maybe we all do. Maybe that's what blogging (aka writing about yourself) is all about!

Cats & kittens

2011-02-02T10:54:00.003Z

I mentioned in my last post that I'd had an article accepted by 'Your Cat'. It's the story of how my two Burmese cats went missing when we moved house 6 years ago, and writing it was quite an emotional task as it brought back memories of that difficult time. It ended 50% happy, by the way: we were reunited by Charlie, but sadly not with his brother Oscar.

Charlie is now over 14 and looking his age. He doesn't want much out of life apart from his meals, and to lie in one of three favourite places: on my lap (preferably while I'm at the computer - he's with me now!), on a blanket on top of the radiator in the kitchen, or under the radiator in the lounge. He does occasionally take to his proper bed, too, as long as it's next to the radiator! In the summer, though, he will still meander outside and find a sunny spot to doze in, and might even be encouraged by his much younger, half-Burmese friend Billy from next-door-but-one, to run around and play a bit!

So it's a pleasure that my youngest daughter and son-in-law now have two cute kittens: Fred and Wilma. Seeing them scampering around, playing with their toys and jumping over each other has brought back memories of Charlie and Oscar at that age. They grow up so quickly!

Fred and Wilma, being brother and sister, were taken to the vet last week for surgery to prevent any unfortunate episodes of incest. Wilma returned home in the obligatory head-collar to stop her pulling out her stitches - and I laughed out loud when my daughter described how she was running around the house trying to knock the collar off, while Fred kept going up to her and licking her head!

I felt quite sad to realise we're unlikely to see Charlie frolicking around like that any more these days ... but the other night he did prove there's life in the old cat yet, and that he can still surprise me. I walked into the bathroom, turned on the light and nearly jumped out of my skin. The toilet lid and seat were up (yes, I live with a man!!) and there was Charlie, perched precariously with all four paws on the rim, head right down, lapping water from the bowl! He's lucky he didn't overbalance and fall in, especially when I shrieked in surprise!

I immediately checked his drinking bowl - full of water. I have no idea why he suddenly decided it'd be a better idea to drink from the toilet, and to my knowledge he's never done it before (or since) - although we did used to have a Springer spaniel who made a habit of it! It's a dog thing!
Perhaps Charlie had a sudden memory (as we all do) of his younger days, watching Sophie-dog do just that, and wanted to give it a try. Or perhaps he's just getting old and silly, like his 'mum and dad'!

He's still good company and it's nice now, too, to see Noah toddling around after him, and then sitting down and very gently patting or stroking him. So good for children to learn, early on, to be kind to animals. I'll let you know when the piece in 'Your Cat' is published.

Confession time!

2011-01-26T09:54:00.002Z

So: how are you all, and how was your Christmas? A long time ago? Yes, and I know I haven't written anything on this blog since November. It's been a long, difficult winter, and without wanting to sound sorry for myself, I've had such a lot of physical pain since October that I really haven't done much with my time. I've had a slipped disc, but the worst of it was the horrible, unrelenting sciatica that went with it. When I finally got to see a consultant, after Christmas, he said it should clear up on its own and normally does so within 3 to 6 months. I'm still waiting for a physio appointment. But ... fingers crossed, the pain is easing, and I can actually walk a little way down the road now. And spring might be on the way soon. So: onwards and upwards! And with that in mind ...

I had a really nice fan message through my Olivia website this morning, from a reader saying how much she enjoyed my books and asking when the next one would be out. While I can't pretend I'm inundated with fanmail, I do get messages like this every now and then, and they really do cheer me up. I normally respond that I'm working on the next book and will let them know when it's out. But today, for some reason, I felt like being a bit more honest. After all, it's been 18 months now since 'Tales from a Honeymoon Hotel' was published and perhaps I owe my readers a little more than this half-truth, and keeping them hanging on. And perhaps I owe all of you that, too!

It's a common tale in publishing now. 'Mid-list author' produces several books that sell OK but not brilliantly; editor likes her books and is keen to keep publishing her, but eventually the editor is overruled and the author is dropped by the publisher. When it happened to me, I was devastated. Rejection is part of our lives as writers; I'm so used to having short stories rejected, I barely even blink now when it happens, and my first novel was rejected by so many agents and publishers before Piatkus accepted it, I thought I was dreaming when I got that first contract!
But this was a far bigger blow - it actually hurt my pride and made me feel exactly the way I did when I lost my job, all over again. Or even worse!

It did help that I knew my lovely editor had been 'on my side'; she took me out to lunch a few months later and we've stayed friends. And it also helped that, by a stroke of good luck, I'd acquired an agent for the first time just a couple of months before this happened. At least, I thought it was good luck! My agent seemed almost as devastated by the news as I was, and appeared to be fired up with enthusiasm on my behalf. 'Don't worry,' she said. 'I'll find you another publisher.' So, when just another couple of months later I received a very short e-mail from her saying she was leaving the business, giving up being an agent, and wishing me all the best - I was shocked to say the least! I don't think it was anything I said!

For a long while, I only told my family and closest friends about all this. Then I started noticing that I wasn't alone: other writers were freely admitting that they'd been 'dropped', and there was a lot of discussion going on about the economics of publishing, and how the current situation was hitting those of us who were neither 'big names', nor exciting new talent. It wasn't just me! I began to realise it wasn't personal - I shouldn't feel a failure. I've had eight books published, and even if it never happens again, I've achieved my dream.

However, of course, I do want it to happen again! And knowing that I've got fans, readers out there who want me to be published again, really helps to spur me on. So after months and months of fruitlessly submitting my completed novel in all directions, with the 'overcrowded market for this type of women's fiction' being mentioned in virtually every rejection, and after completing the second novel in that series but having nowhere to send it, I decided it was time to change direction. I'm now working on a completely different type of book. It's slow going, because I'm out of my comfort zone and I have no idea whether what I'm writing is any good or not. It's not so much that my confidence was knocked by what's happened (although of course, it was!) but that I haven't yet acquired any confidence in writing this type of book! I'm a beginner all over again.

But I'm a beginner with the advantage, now, of some experience. I'm still being asked to give talks about writing - and in those talks, I usually describe some of the realities of being a writer in today's world - including the fact that the majority of published authors earn peanuts, which is a big shock to some audiences! And in between working on the new venture, I'm still having short stories published (as Sheila Norton, as always) - having been thrilled (not to say amused) to be described as one of 'This Month's Big Names' on the front cover of a recent fiction special! I'm also selling some features - currently working on another one for 'Writers' Forum' and have just sold a short article to one of the cat magazines! I'm also trying to find an e-publisher for my out-of-print titles.

So this isn't a whine, or a complaint: I've been very fortunate to have the success I've had so far, and I never forget that plenty of writers might give a lot to be in my shoes, despite what's happened. On the contrary: the reason I've decided to 'go public' with this story is that I've realised it's more helpful to show how things really are, than to try to pretend everything in the garden is lovely and coming up roses! The reality is that people seem to enjoy my books when they actually get to read them - but like those of most less well-known authors, they're usually tucked away at the back of the shop (if they're in them at all) and only promoted by one person - me! I do my best ... but I can't generate the sort of sales the big publishers are looking for.
But thank goodness for libraries! And that's the subject of the next feature I'm writing for 'Writers' Forum', so I'll let you know when it's due to be published.

Perhaps I should write a new feature about 'how to survive being dropped by your publisher'! Well, thanks for 'listening' and sorry I'm so bad at being a regular blogger. Must Try Harder!

China: the whole story! (Part 2)

2010-11-10T12:46:00.012Z

So - now we were in Chengdu - another major Chinese city. Like the others we'd visited, it was busy, vibrant and modern: frantic traffic (bikes as well as cars etc!), sky-scraper buildings, and - most surprisingly to us - the shops were crowded with people spending their money on expensive consumer goods, especially clothes.

The pic shows a typical scene of cyclists crossing a busy junction!

From Chengdu we had a day-trip to Leshan where we took a boat trip to view the Grand Buddha carved into the river bank. You can see how massive it is, from the relative size of the people in this picture!

But for many of us, the Panda Centre was the highlight of our time in Chengdu. It was wonderful to see the pandas so close-up - and to see how well looked-after they are. The Chengdu Panda Centre is the world centre for panda breeding, and it was amazing to see the tiny, tiny baby pandas being cared for in the nursery - lying in incubators on pink or blue blankets like little premature human babies. We weren't allowed to take photos of those, though, sadly.

From Chengdu, we flew to Guilin, and the next day we had a lovely cruise on the Li River, from Guilin to Yangshuo. The scenery on the Li was spectacular, made even more atmospheric by the weather, which was misty and drizzly. The main feature of the scenery in this area is the strange shaped Karst hills - formed from weathered limestone.

We returned to Guilin by coach the next day, and had the opportunity to see some countryside around the Yangshuo area - rice paddies, water buffalo, and people working in the fields.

That evening at Guilin was spent watching the fishermen on the River Li, fishing with cormorants. You might have seen this in a TV advert! Some people think it's cruel because the cormorants have their necks tied so that they can't swallow the fish they catch - but they are untied afterwards and fed some fish from the catch. And (although I'm vegetarian and detest fish in particular!) I don't suppose it's any less kind to the birds than it is to the fish! The only negative, for us, was that the fishing we saw was just a display for the tourists. I'm sure that when they do it for a living, they choose quieter places on the river, don't have two boatfuls of tourists taking photos, and catch a lot more fish!

Before leaving Guilin the next day, we climbed Brocade Hill for a view over the city and surrounding hills.

Then we took our final internal flight - to Shanghai, and transferred by coach to Suzhou, 'The Garden City'. Here we had a cruise on the canal, seeing the old part of the town, before visiting the two famous gardens, strangely named The Master of the Nets Garden and the Humble Administrator's Garden! The latter was the bigger, and was very beautiful - with all the usual Chinese garden features of bridges, pagodas and lakes, as well as plants and trees including Bonsai trees.

We returned to Shanghai by coach the next day, and spent our final three days there. It was quite a relief to be in one place for three days after all the travelling! And there was so much to see in Shanghai, which was of course even busier and more modern and vibrant than any of the other cities!

As well as visiting the museum and spending time at the famous riverside area (The Bund), we went to the top of the Jinmao Centre Tower to enjoy the views over the city, and also had a ride on the amazing new Maglev train - it runs at incredibly high speed by magnetism! (Sorry, I don't understand the physics - but it was certainly fast!).

We also had an evening cruise on the Huangpu River to admire the night scenery.

The last day of our tour was 1st October - which was the beginning of the Chinese National Holiday - lasting a whole week. This meant the city was even more crowded with tourists than usual, because people from outlying parts of China came to spend their holidays in Shanghai (especially as the Expo exhibition was taking place). Some of these Chinese nationals from more rural areas obviously weren't used to seeing Western tourists, and we got plenty of attention from people staring and laughing at us (good-naturedly, but very openly!) and even taking photos of us. Apparently the Chinese refer to Western people as 'Big Noses' or 'Long Noses' - because of the obvious difference in our facial features! Those of us with fair hair, and those who were particularly tall, got the most attention. I began to wish I'd taken some of my business cards with me to hand out ('Yes, you can take my photo. Did you know I'm an author'?)!

The crowds made it quite difficult to move around: the sea of people in the main shopping areas was quite intimidating, especially as so many of them carry umbrellas - both when it's raining, and when it's sunny. We were glad the timing of our tour had avoided the rest of the National Holiday!

Nevertheless we enjoyed the whole tour and would definitely recommend it - and also the tour company we used (Wendy Wu Tours). Our tour guide Maggie was absolutely fantastic - she was with us for the whole three weeks and as well as giving us so much information, she looked after us like a little mother hen, especially when people were sick (unfortunately, about 90% of our group caught a nasty virus, some being more ill than others). The tour was very good value for money, including three meals every day and the hotels we stayed in were all good.

Would I go back? Probably not, as I feel that I've seen everything I wanted to see, and there are lots of other places in the world I'd still like to see, (given the time, health and money!). If you want to visit China - I'd say go sooner rather than later, as it will only become more crowded, more expensive, and more tourism-driven as they become an even bigger world power.

China: the whole story! (Part 1)

2010-11-07T11:34:00.016Z

Some of you asked me to tell you more about our tour of China. I've waited till now, as it took me a long time to go through the hundreds of photos we took ... and having chosen the best ones, I made them into a photobook which has now been delivered. So, with my book open in front of me to remind me of everything we did and saw, I can now take you through the tour and show you some more pics!

We started off in Beijing. It was mid-September and very hot - about 35 degrees - but most of the time it was overcast. This is a feature of the weather there, because of the pollution apparently.

However we did see some sunshine on our first day, visiting the Temple of Heaven

and then the Forbidden City.

Everywhere was very crowded. Tourism in China has become very popular during the last few years - not just with overseas visitors but also Chinese people, now they are becoming more affluent, wanting to see the sights for themselves.

One exception was Tiananmen Square, which is so huge it didn't seem crowded! There's very heavy security in the square, police very conspicuous, and our guide told us that no discussion of (as they refer to it) the 'incident' in 1989 is allowed.

One of the most striking things, was the cleanliness everywhere: not a scrap of litter, no graffiti anywhere. (Our tour guide was bemused when we asked about graffiti - she couldn't understand what it was). I'm sure there would be very heavy penalties for litter dropping!

On the second day in Beijing we visited the Great Wall of China. There are apparently several places where the Wall can be accessed from the Beijing area, so I don't know how they compare in terms of difficulty etc. We started out early, with the aim of beating the crowds - and I certainly wouldn't have liked to be there later in the day! - as in places where the steps were narrow, there was quite a bit of pushing and shoving through the crowds. This is another feature of life in China which surprised us, by the way: the people are so very polite in so many ways, and yet we were shocked by the way they push and shove! - not caring who is elbowed out of the way, old or young, man or woman. I guess it comes from living in such crowded cities but I was nearly knocked over on several occasions, finding it hard to stand my ground and push back!

The average age of our tour group was probably 60+, and our guide warned us to take the climb steadily and not go further than we could manage. The steps up the Wall were uneven and many were steep. I'm normally reasonably fit but had a bit of a bad back at the time, so didn't climb right to the top.

Himself went on ... only to turn back soon, saying the view wasn't much better from the top because of the cloud/mist.

Nevertheless it was an impressive sight and an experience I wouldn't have wanted to miss.

Later that day we were taken to the old area of Beijing (the Hutong), where we were driven around on a rickshaw. I just felt sorry for the guys pedalling the bikes. We're not particularly massive people but bigger than most Chinese! - and pulling the weight of two of us must have been really hard work. Of course, this was all laid on specifically for the tourists, including a visit to a 'typical' home. I felt a little uncomfortable as we all crowded into this lady's tiny house and nosed around ... but I suppose she is being well paid for opening her home to the likes of us.

The third day in Beijing, we visited the Summer Palace. It's situated in lovely gardens on a lake, which made a nice contrast from the crowded city streets. Later we were taken to see the Olympic Village - and in the evening, saw a very impressive acrobatic show. There were several shows during the course of our trip - some included in the schedule, others 'optional extras', and all were different and definitely worth seeing.

From Beijing, we flew to Xian, famous for the Terracotta Warriors. This was definitely a highlight. I'd seen photos, of course, and had naively believed that when the warriors were first discovered, they'd looked exactly the way they do now - but no, they were lying in pieces and have been painstakingly put together ... a process that's still ongoing. The ranks of completed warriors in the pits is an absolutely amazing sight. Every one's face is different! The hairstyles and various features indicate their rank. I particularly liked the cavalry men, and the kneeling archers which are preserved under glass in the museum.

We had a hot sunny afternoon for our stroll on Xian city walls, which are decorated with all manner of flamboyant animal and flower illuminations: I'd like to have seen it at night. We also visited the Muslim quarter of Xian, including the Great Mosque which was a peaceful oasis in the city.

On the last morning in Xian -which happened to be our Ruby anniversary! - we visited the Little Wild Goose pagoda - again, set in beautiful gardens. The Chinese love their parks and public gardens by the way - because most of them live in apartment blocks in the cities and don't have any open space of their own. We were astonished by the crowds of people in all the parks, often doing tai-chi or impromptu line-dancing or keep-fit in big groups! They also sit in the parks to play mah-jong or cards, to chat together, knit or play music together. Our guide explained that the retirement age is 55 and retired people enjoy their social lives in the parks, which benefits their physical and mental health.

That afternoon, we took our next flight, to Wuhan, and from there we had a long coach journey to the beginning of our Yangtse River cruise.

We boarded our boat in the evening. Himself and I had decided to splash out on an upgraded cabin - as it was a special occasion - and the facilities and comfort on the boat were very good. We spent three days on the Yangtse; each morning there was a shore excursion, and the afternoons were spent resting on the boat, watching the scenery, which was quite a pleasant break in an otherwise hectic schedule!

The first morning, we visited the Three Gorges Dam, which was an impressive sight, probably far more interesting to those with technical minds (!).

But the next day's trip was more up my street - a cruise to the Shennong stream (a tributary of the Yangtse), where we were 'loaded' onto 'pea-pod' boats and rowed along the stream by a team of very strong guys (again, I felt sorry for them!). The scenery was lovely and we enjoyed such things as the music of a pipe being played by a goat-herd on the bank of the stream ... until we were told that he was actually a government employee who was there purely as a tourist attraction! There was quite a lot of this kind of thing!

The final trip on the Yangtse cruise was to the riverside town of Fengdu, known as the City of Ghosts, where the many shrines and statues depict judgement day and the tortures of hell. Actually a lot nicer than it sounds!! This was a drizzly day, and as the ghost city was at the top of a mountain we went up there by cable car rather than walking up in the rain. That afternoon, it rained properly for the first time, putting an end to our afternoons of sunbathing on the boat! The weather became much more unsettled after this, with less heat and some showery days.

We ended the cruise at Chongqing, another huge Chinese city and major port, from where we were driven to Chengdu for the next part of our tour. Which seems a good place to pause ...

To be continued!

Writers' Forum feature - and an event last night

2010-10-27T11:36:00.005+01:00

The December edition of 'Writers' Forum' has just landed on my doormat - and I'm pleased to say it contains the feature I wrote back in the spring, about novelists who start off as short story writers. I found it a really interesting piece of research to do - and many of you helped me by telling me about your own experiences. So if you want to read my findings ... get your copy of the magazine as soon as you see it in the shops! And thanks again of course, to all those who helped with this project.

The various ways we arrive at our destination as published novelists is always one of the topics discussed when I'm part of an author panel at a writing event. I took part in one such event last night at Gants Hill Library, near Ilford - with fellow authors Sue Moorcroft, Jean Fullerton, Juliet Archer and Heidi Rice (in that order in the picture). Believe it or not, the colour co-ordination of our outfits was completely accidental: great minds must think alike, or we were all in purple moods last night!

It was a really nice evening, although sadly the attendance was depleted by absolutely horrible weather. As always, though, 'the show must go on', and I think those who braved the rain and wind to turn up were interested and appreciative. Those of us on the panel always enjoy ourselves, and for me it was a great opportunity to meet, and chat with, those of the group who I'd only known by name before.

In between my writing projects at the moment, I'm spending a bit of time going through the hundreds of photos that Himself and I took on our trip to China. I'm trying to make a photo-book from the best pictures, and as you can probably imagine it's quite a lengthy job, editing, choosing, deleting, arranging - but it's enjoyable too, especially as it's helping to keep the memories sharp in the ageing brain! I haven't forgotten that I promised to post some more about China on the blog, and I'll be doing that, together with a few more pics, when I've finally finished going through them all.

But for now - back to editing a new short story for People's Friend - the editor likes this one and just wanted a small change made to the ending, so fingers crossed it's a happy ending for me too!

China ... and life in general!

2010-10-16T11:37:00.004+01:00

SO! Here we are, back from a very special holiday, planned to celebrate our 40th wedding anniversary. Well, it had to be special, didn't it - I think we both deserved a bit of a treat for putting up with each other for all these years! The destination was China. I don't quite know how that happened. I'd professed an interest in Canada, and when Himself came back from the travel agent with China brochures I presumed he'd suffered some momentary dyslexia or bad eyesight.

'I've always fancied China,' he explained with a pleading look.

Me? I hadn't, particularly. But then I started looking at those brochures, and I was hooked. So much to see, so many different and exciting places. We swiftly booked a 3-week tour, which we both agreed was great value for money as it included 4 internal flights, two river cruises, all 4-star hotels, 3 meals every day and all admissions to the sights and attractions. We'd never have been able to afford it if we'd done the trip independently.

OK, so I don't like flying (I get horribly air-sick unless I take drugs that make me even dozier than usual), but I just have to get on with it, otherwise we'd never go anywhere. And we'd never done a tour-group type of holiday before (apart from a week on the Nile, which we loved so much we did it twice!) - and we weren't sure whether we'd actually like it. Also I was a little bit worried about what I'd eat and the effects on my digestion (I'm a vegetarian and I - correctly, as it happens! - imagined three weeks on a diet of rice and vegetables). But nothing ventured, nothing gained! (Oh, and I lost half a stone so it wasn't all bad!)

Well, the result was an amazing holiday - and yes, the sights were spectacular. Everyone's asking us what were our favourite places, and it's so hard to choose. I think I particularly enjoyed the scenery on the Li River - very atmospheric, especially as it was misty. The Terracotta Warriors were an awe-inspiring sight. And I just loved seeing the baby pandas at the panda breeding centre. Oh, and the Great Wall, of course!

Our group of 28 people - mostly (ahem) round about our own age-group - were great company. The group was about two-thirds Aussies, one New Zealander and the rest Brits. But I must admit, although a tour is definitely the only way to do a trip like this, it's not the sort of holiday I'd want to do every year. It was a very busy tour, moving on from place to place with a lot of long journeys by coach as well as the flights - and I suppose I missed not having any time to ourselves.

Also, (and obviously), everywhere in China is very crowded!! - the traffic in Beijing, for instance, is the busiest we've ever seen, anywhere in the world. Makes the M25 look like a country lane! And the crowds in Shanghai, especially when they all have their umbrellas up, are actually quite frightening! It was definitely one of the most interesting countries we've visited, but the one I'd least like to live in!! I'd never have the courage to cross a road, for a start! But everywhere was spotlessly clean, with no graffiti or litter to be seen. In fact our tour guide was astonished when we asked about graffiti - we had to explain what it was.

Unfortunately, about 25 of the 28 of us fell victim to a virus that swept through the group like wildfire, affecting some worse than others - and leaving us all with a hacking cough. It didn't spoil the holiday for us: I only felt ill for one day but because I'm asthmatic the cough has really taken a hold - especially as the pollution in China is bad for asthma anyway. Himself didn't go down with the virus till the last day - he rarely gets ill so naturally he thinks it's the end of the world that he's still got a cough, but I think he'll survive!

I'd definitely recommend the trip, and the company we went with (Wendy Wu). It was a very different way of celebrating a special occasion - and we took full advantage by upgrading our cabin on the Yangtse River cruise, as we were on the river for both our anniversary and my birthday! We were treated to cards from all of our 'gang', and a cake, which provided a welcome addition to the rice & veg! (Seriously, the food was actually very good, and it wasn't till the third week that I began to fantasise about cheese sandwiches!).

Sadly, we came home to a horrible shock ... our middle daughter had been admitted to hospital while we were away, and has since been recovering from major surgery. I fully understand why the other daughters didn't tell us: I'd have tried to get a flight straight home. But the upset of this kind-of wiped out all thoughts of the holiday for a while, as you can imagine. I'm only now, two weeks after our return, looking through my photos and remembering it all. Pleased to report she is on the mend, although it's been a horrible time for her and her little family - especially for little Noah who at only 13 months has had to cope with mummy being away in hospital, and since then not being able to pick him up. Luckily his daddy is a great dad, and I know his two aunties did lots to help too, while we were away.

Writing has taken a back seat, needless to say ... but there isn't much to report, apart from the fact that the editor of 'Yours' was frantically trying to get in touch with me while I was away, to accept a Christmas story - which I'm really pleased about as it was a favourite of mine. Meanwhile still waiting to hear back from an agent who requested the whole of my new novel some months back ... trying not to think too much about that.

Tonight we're getting together with our group of close friends - two of whom have also done a tour of China so we'll have a lot to discuss and compare! And tomorrow we're having a quiet lunch in a local pub-restaurant with the immediate family as a delayed Ruby anniversary celebration. We're so lucky to have such a lovely family - they're more important to me than anything in the world. We don't tend to come out and say it. But we all know it's true!

Birthdays

2010-09-06T19:51:00.007+01:00

Well, hello! I haven't 'set foot' in this blog for quite a while. I suppose that's because there hasn't been too much to report, writing-wise. I've been concentrating on short stories recently, and my success rate hasn't been bad. Of course, a fair proportion have come winging back, as always - but quite often they end up being accepted elsewhere after changes. And then there are the others - those that eventually get 'shelved' - given up on, after being rejected by everyone. If the message is that clear, I can take the hint! Recent acceptances have been with The People's Friend and Woman's Weekly (my best two markets), and a nice surprise was an acceptance - my first! - with The Weekly News. Even after all these years, it's exciting to be accepted by a completely new (for me) market. Publications recently have been (again!) in The People's Friend and in Yours. My next one will be in the 18 September issue of The People's Friend.

During the past few weeks, we've started looking after our little grandson Noah once a week, now that his mummy has gone back to work. It's been lovely to see him so regularly - and this week is very special, as tomorrow will be his first birthday. We had a family gathering here yesterday to celebrate. Of course, Noah has no idea what all the fuss is about, but it was a good excuse for all of us 'big people' to get together to sample some of the delicious chocolate hedgehog cake his mummy had made (as well as some wine and other goodies!).

Here he is with his mum and dad and The Cake!

And here, with his two lovely aunties - what a lucky boy.

As always, yesterday I found myself remembering similar occasions when the three girls were little themselves. Our first daughter was born in the summer, and her first birthday was in July 1976 - those of you old enough to remember will know that it was the hottest summer for decades, and we took her to the seaside on her birthday, setting the pattern for years to come. Her birthday parties were always held in the garden, with barbecues being the thing as she got older!

Then the second and third babies both came along at Christmas time - so their birthdays inevitably became part of the family celebrations: especially for the youngest daughter, who was born on Boxing Day. We always gave her a party just after Christmas. When they were toddlers they enjoyed having a big joint party between their two birthdays, but of course, once they were at school and making their own friends this wasn't fair, so with two birthday parties just after Christmas, it became a very busy and expensive time in our house!

None of our girls ever had to go to school on their birthdays - one being in the summer holidays and the other two in the Christmas holiday. But, as a September baby (like me!), Noah will be one of the oldest children in his class. But I think it's important to look for the advantages, whatever time of year a baby arrives, and not focus on the negatives. Our Christmas babies could have felt that they missed out in some ways - but on the other hand their birthdays were always at an exciting time, with so much going on and all the family together to celebrate with them. Equally, I don't think our summer baby was disadvantaged from being one of the youngest in her year, despite dire warnings about it: she still did really well at school and got a good degree too, which is a lot more than her September-born mum ever did!

So that's our first year of grandparenthood gone past already - and we decided he's now old enough to buy him his first car! Happy birthday little man!

Well, the next big celebration is our Ruby wedding anniversary, and we're off on an exciting holiday very soon in honour of that. So, as well as some great experiences, I'm hoping to have some good inspiration for my writing! I'll keep you guessing about where we're going ... and promise to write about it on the blog, with some pictures, when we come home.

See you soon -
Olivia/Sheila

Mums, daughters, and good advice!

2010-07-23T12:21:00.004+01:00

Tomorrow would have been my mum's 90th birthday. Sadly she passed away three years ago, exactly a week after her 87th birthday. Needless to say, I still miss her, still wonder (as we always do) if I could have done more for her, still feel sad that she didn't live to see her granddaughters' weddings. But this isn't going to be a maudlin post. I just want to tell a story. I know I don't write on this blog very often so I realise there's probably nobody reading it - but that's OK. It's just something I wanted to write!

Mum was born in the East End of London and left school at 14 with a fairly basic education. But she had a determination to 'make something better of herself', and attended evening classes and day-release classes from her job, to get qualifications in English, French, Typing and Shorthand. She progressed to a very good secretarial post, and after my brother and I were born, she began teaching typing in the local college of further education.

Mum and Dad on their wedding day in 1943:

Mum and Dad weren't well off, but we lived in a fairly ordinary suburban semi and my brother and I benefited from grammar school educations. After my O-levels, I had what, in those days, passed as career advice: a short interview with my hated headmistress about what I intended to do. I only knew that I wanted to be a writer, so I planned to train as a journalist after taking my A-levels. But my headmistress quashed this ambition very firmly, telling me that although she believed in me as a writer, I'd never make a journalist as I 'didn't have the right temperament'. Her advice to me was to become a teacher, and use the school holidays to write my novels. I hated the thought of teaching and refused to contemplate this option, so went home in a massive sulk, feeling completely at a loss.

'There's nothing else I want to do,' I told my parents. Journalism had been my one and only idea.

'In that case, why not become a secretary,' said my mum.

I can remember scowling and making some retort along the lines of it being boring. Who wanted to sit in an office all day, typing? Of course, I didn't appreciate that for my mum, becoming a secretary had been the route out of the prospect of dead-end factory jobs - and also that it was all she knew, apart from teaching, which I'd already rejected!

I'd planned on taking my best three subjects at A-level: English, French and Geography - and we needed to be sure these were the best choice for whatever lay ahead. My school (unusually for those times) was very keen on getting as many girls to university as possible, but I decided I wouldn't go unless I needed a degree for a specific job. Secretarial subjects weren't taught at the school - but there was an option - slightly looked down upon - for sixth-formers to take a two-A-level curriculum at school in the mornings and transfer to the college where Mum taught, in the afternoons. When I still hadn't come up with any other career idea weeks later, I gave in grudgingly, dropped the planned Geography A-level and registered for the secretarial course.

Mum wouldn't have me in her typing class. I don't blame her. I was still a bit resentful about the whole thing, still not sure I even wanted to be a secretary at all. I didn't particularly like typing, found shorthand very difficult, and as for 'Secretarial Duties' (yes, that was an exam subject then!) - my friends and I called it 'Secs Duties' with the obvious connotations, and messed about in every class.

Somehow I passed all my exams. Somehow, in those exciting days of publishing during the 1960s, I got a job with Hodder & Stoughton, as secretary to the Rights manager. I didn't stay there: I moved on to work in a fashion company and then to a hospital, eventually becoming a medical secretary and finally finding my niche. To my own absolute amazement, I loved working in the hospital environment and spent almost the rest of my working life doing something that I'd never have imagined wanting to do, when I was at school!

Of course, I also, eventually, fulfilled my ambition to become a writer. Maybe if I'd followed my headmistress's advice it might have happened sooner - who knows? But over the years, I've come to appreciate Mum's advice far more than I ever admitted - or told her. If I hadn't learnt to touch-type, (quite apart from the vast amount of fast typing needed during my working life), I wouldn't be half the writer I am now. I can't imagine not being able to type my own books. Even typing this post would have taken me ten times as long. If I hadn't persevered with Pitman's shorthand, I wouldn't have been much use to my boss when he needed to dictate a quick urgent letter while holding the phone in one hand and his scalpel in the other; and I wouldn't now have the means to scribble quick random passages of prose that come to me in the middle of the night, or on a bus journey, or while watching TV. I can't say much about the 'Secs Duties' though, to be honest!

When my own daughters were teenagers, and at about the stage of choosing their careers, I remember listening to a conversation between them and some friends, when opinions were being given loudly and confidently that NO WAY would they want to work in an office - boring! - and certainly not being somebody's secretary. I smiled and didn't comment. After all, I'd been a lot older than them before I'd finally realised that 'an office' can be so many different things - and being a secretary (maybe not now, but certainly back then) was a good way of experiencing life in different environments before deciding what actually interests you. I never found secretarial work demeaning, either. As the PA of a consultant surgeon, I wasn't in the least subservient: we worked together as a team and he treated me as an equal.

The three girls now (like most of us, really!) all work in offices - all in completely different careers, all happy and successful, and none of them secretaries! Many more options are open to girls now, despite the economic climate. But it worked for me, so thanks, Mum!

There's a nice PS to the story. My first baby was due on Mum's birthday; she arrived three days late, but we often had family gatherings to celebrate their birthdays together. As often seems to happen, Mum and I became much closer when I got married and had my own children, and she adored her granddaughters. And so it's fitting that when I remember Mum at this time of year, I also remember the excitement and pleasure of our lovely eldest daughter's arrival. Happy birthday, baby!

Me with No.1. daughter.

Career, Job, Occupation or Hobby?

2010-06-30T09:48:00.003+01:00

A few weeks ago, we had an interesting debate on the Romantic Novelists' Association forum, about whether we consider our writing to be a hobby or a job. I've often discussed this topic with fellow writers and it seems to be something that some of us can get quite hot under the collar about, so I thought I'd throw it open to bloggers too!

For those who are really successful and earn their living from writing, I can quite see how they would be offended to have it called a hobby! In their case, there isn't any doubt in the matter – it’s their career, obviously.

But what about the rest (the majority) of us? Personally, before I was published, I thought of my writing as a hobby – simply because I had a full-time, stressful job, three children and everything else that had to be fitted in – how could I possibly think of my writing as another job? I’d have felt even more stressed. It was a hobby that I enjoyed whenever I could, it relaxed me and then brought me in a bit of extra money occasionally when I started getting short stories published. To be honest, at that stage I'd have also thought I was being a bit 'up myself' if I'd referred to it as anything other than a hobby - (but perhaps that just showed my lack of confidence as a writer!)

That certainly changed when I had my first novel published – but I still needed the day job, and with eight books behind me now, I still would need, at the very least, a part-time day-job, if it wasn’t for the fact that I’ve since acquired both my State and my NHS pensions. Anything I earn now from writing is the icing on my financial cake but it certainly isn’t a proper income – and never was. I know I’m not a best-seller, but nor are the majority of authors. The Society of Authors' figures bear this out: a pitiful few of us earn a living wage from our writing. We obviously all have some other means of support – whether that’s a day-job, a pension or a rich partner! So can this underpaid majority of us really call writing our job?

Don’t get me wrong – I love the kudos I get from telling people I’m an author, a writer, whatever - yes, I'm proud of it, because it's what I've wanted to 'be' ever since I was a small child, and I'm thrilled that I finally achieved it after years and years of trying. I love putting it down as my occupation on forms. But before I retired, I tended to put down 'medical secretary' even though I was a published author - because it was my day-job that actually kept me financially afloat, paid my Tesco's bills and helped to put my kids through university, not my writing. (Ironically, the only form where I needed to write down both of my occupations was my tax return!).

Yes, part of me does bristle if my husband sometimes refers to my writing as my hobby, as if it’s a bit of knitting. So, personally, ‘occupation’ best sums up the way I think of it now. To be honest, thinking of it as a ‘job’, for me anyway, would make it a lot less attractive! A job is something you have to do whether you like it or not. Something you only do because you need the money. I realise that for some successful authors who don't have (or need) any other form of income, and are contracted to write book after book, it must start to feel like a chore. In a way -although I would obviously dearly love to be that successful! - I think it must be quite sad to feel like that. Half the pleasure must be gone.

Of course I agree with those who say they want everything they write to be published. So do I, desperately! I'm sure it's the aim of nearly all writers. Sadly, it’s often unrealistic, but surely the whole point is that we keep on trying, and live in hope. But I DO advise would-be writers, whenever I give talks, to think of their writing FIRST as a hobby – in other words, do it first because you enjoy it, rather than having some wholly unrealistic plan of giving up the day-job and earning pots of money.

In a perfect world we’d all be paid pots of money for what we do, but I don’t want to be miserable about the thing I love doing the most! If I had to think of it as a job, I'd say the pay is abysmal, the prospects very limited, but the working conditions (hours completely flexible, come and go as you please, work with glass of wine on desk and cat on lap, or in garden on laptop, stop to read e-mails and look at Facebook whenever you like, etc etc etc!) - absolutely amazing!

Ten bits of scrap!

2010-06-20T10:42:00.003+01:00

Colette over at The Pink Pen (http://withinkfromthepinkpen.blogspot.com/) has passed this on to me:

And apparently it means I have to tell you ten bits of stuff about myself.

I found Colette's snippets really interesting and feel like I now know her better!

But I'm not too sure I can tell you anything half as interesting about me.

Come along now - it's a well-known fact that all writers love nothing better than talking about ourselves, isn't it? So surely I can dredge something up!

1. I didn't learn to drive until I was in my thirties and was so scared, I used to come back from lessons crying and needing a drink. I passed the test on my fourth attempt and didn't stop being scared of driving for years.

2. The first time I went abroad was at about 15/16 on a school trip to France. Some friends and I went out of the hotel on our own at night and got chatting to some French boys, but we were caught by one of the teachers and spent the rest of the trip in disgrace.

3. I drink pints of real ale - but not as many as I used to! I also like red wine but too much of it can give me an asthma attack.

4. I met my husband when I was 17 and still at school. We'll be celebrating our Ruby Wedding this year.

5. I wasn't allowed to take 'O' level maths because I was so bad, the school didn't want a failure to mar their reputation. Instead I had to sit an 'easy' arithmetic paper - and failed, badly. But I got A-levels in English and French.

6. After a bit of a wait to get started, we produced three daughters within three and a half years. Their time at university overlapped, with all three of them being at uni in one particular year (at different ends of the country) - and they all got married within just over a year of each other.

7. My first 'books' were teenage romances handwritten in sixpenny notebooks and passed round the class. But my first actual publication was a letter to 'Essex Countryside' magazine when I was nine-and-a-half, about a bird I thought I could identify.

8. I'm a vegetarian, with a particular aversion to fish - the sight and smell of it makes me feel sick - but I cook meat with no problem.

9. I love Shakespeare, and I'm going to the Globe to see Macbeth today!!

10. My favourite band is Bon Jovi, and I'm going to see them at the O2 on Wednesday!! I also like Coldplay and Queen and most rock and pop music.

** Sorry to be a spoilsport but I just can't do the thing where I have to nominate three more people to do this ... they would probably be the same people that have been passing it on already!

But if anyone reading this wants to have a go at this on their own blog - let me know, and I'll read yours - hope you can find something more interesting than mine! **

BBC Radio Essex interview

2010-06-17T10:08:00.003+01:00

At quite short notice, I was interviewed on BBC Radio Essex yesterday afternoon. We'd originally applied to be interviewed as a panel, about our 'Essex Writers' Panel' library events - but because of the short notice I was the only one available, and in fact when it came to it, I was asked to just talk about my writing in general. Fortunately I did manage to get in a quick plug about the panel, though!

It's about six or seven years since I was last interviewed on BBC Essex. That was my first experience of live radio and I was terrified! I remember telling someone afterwards that it was worse than going to the dentist. But (whether it's a good thing or not!), yesterday I found it a really enjoyable, and even relaxing, experience. Maybe it's because of all the talks I've been giving ... but maybe it's something to do with age, too ... I sometimes think that the older we get, the less we worry about making mistakes, making a fool of ourselves or what other people might think of us. Life's too short!

Anyway, here's the BBC I-Player link if you've got time to listen:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p001d7wy
It seems quite long because, of course, the time I was 'on' (less than an hour) was broken up with music, and also with chats with the other guest - an energy-saving expert!
I particularly like the fact that they played 'Paperback Writer' by the Beatles as a kind of introduction to my interview!

Local radio, like the local papers, is another great way for authors to reach out to their local community and get our names into people's consciousness. OK, I don't for a minute think the listeners are going to rush out and buy all my books - but they might remember the name if they see my books in libraries, for instance. It all helps. So I'm really grateful for the opportunity and would certainly do it again!

Feature on short story writers becoming novelists

2010-06-14T11:59:00.002+01:00

Just wanted to let you all know that the feature I wrote for Writers' Forum about short story writers who go on to become novelists (and novelists who never write short stories!) has been accepted for publication. So thanks again to all those who helped by contributing - I know lots of people who follow other blogs came over here to 'vote', and I had a great response - couldn't have done it without you.

I haven't got a date for publication yet but I'll let you know when I do. It might be worth mentioning, for anyone considering writing for WF, that the editor, Carl, has told me he's using less stand-alone features now and filling the mag more with series. He's also absolutely snowed under, and isn't likely to need any more features this year.

This is the third feature I've had accepted by WF but it looks like there won't be any more for a while! But this one did involve a lot of work and research so it's particularly gratifying to know it's not going to be wasted.

A talk? or just a friendly chat?

2010-06-10T09:24:00.003+01:00

If you've read my ramblings on this blog before, you'll know that I always enjoy the opportunity to give talks about writing ... either on my own (which takes a bit of preparation and thought, planning a talk of the required length and targeting it for the type of audience), or with our recently formed panel of 'Essex Writers' - with my friends Fenella Miller, Maureen Lee, Fay Cunningham and Jean Fullerton. The panel events are a lot more informal and because of audience participation, tend to be fairly 'ad lib' - a comparatively relaxed experience for us!

I've given talks on my own to audiences of all sizes ... well, OK, not to anything the size of a stadium! - but from a packed hall where people were standing at the back, to disappointingly low turnouts which turned into enjoyable cosy chats with a few gratifyingly keen and interested people. I've learnt never to mind the latter ... as long as there's at least one person there, and as long as they want to listen, I'll go ahead and hope we both gain something from the experience.

Our panel events have attracted some encouragingly good audiences so far ... so it was initially a bit of a surprise to find only a handful of people at Monday's event at Ingatestone Library. More than anything, I felt sorry for the organisers - I know Sharon there had done her very best with the publicity, and I'd done my bit too - getting a write-up in the Essex Chronicle, mentioning it everywhere I could think of and including it on a leaflet-drop in my own village for anyone who couldn't make the previous event at our own library.

But hey - these things can't be forced, and can't be predicted. It may have been a bad day for people, for any number of reasons. But those who HAD turned up were very enthusiastic ... in particular, it was lovely to see 'Jarmara' again, with her sister - we've met a couple of times before and I know how keen and interested she is in everything about writing. Take a look at her blog where she's kindly given us a write-up about the event: http://darkfantasy13writer.blogspot.com/2010/06/show-must-go-on.html
Thanks again, Jarmara, and I'm glad you found our chat helpful!

Because that, of course, is one of the benefits of a small audience ... the afternoon turned into a cosy chat between friends, where we all had time to ask and answer as many questions as we wanted to.

I ought to say, at this point, that I've never considered myself an expert on anything writing-related! I've never taken a creative writing course, I don't have a literary background and I'm not (yet, anyway!) a best-seller. So I realise people might wonder who the hell I think I am, putting myself forward to stand up and talk about writing to them. Well, I thought the same thing too, when I first tried it ... but after I'd given one of my very first talks (merely about 'how I got published'), a lady from the audience came up to me and told me how encouraged she'd been to hear about my experiences ... because I was just an ordinary working Essex mum who had been lucky enough to have some success with my greatest dream. Since then, so many people have made similar comments that I now feel able to speak with confidence about my own experiences ... and that includes the agonies and disappointments as well as the joys and triumphs!

As Jarmara mentions in her blog ... we discussed these at some length on Monday and I suspect people are often surprised that even after becoming a published author, the rejections, sadly, aren't always a thing of the past! Nor are the re-writes, the long waits for responses to submissions, or the days when everything you write is rubbish. BUT, of course, the excitement of an acceptance - any acceptance, however qualified ('We like this story but please re-write the entire second half, cut it to a third of its size and change the tense and the names of all the characters ...') never fades. The thrill of receiving messages via my websites from people who have not only read one of my books, but taken the trouble to get in touch with me and say they've enjoyed it, is still like manna from heaven. Seeing copies of one of my books in a bookshop and in the libraries is a joy I never really expected to experience ... and every magazine containing a short story I've written is a precious gift. If those things didn't outweigh the serious disappointments, we probably wouldn't soldier on!

My friends on the panel and I, are a mixed bunch of writers: some more experienced; some more successful; some writing novellas as well as novels, others writing short stories too; some writing historical, others writing contemporary. But between us we seem to have a lot to say about our writing lives! So don't ever be put off from attending events like ours, by the potential size of the audience - large or small. It doesn't put us off, and we hope everyone gains something, regardless of how many turn up.

PS: On the subject of successes, I've a short story in this week's 'The People's Friend' (12 June issue), and two more on the way: one in 'Woman's Weekly Fiction Special' issue 6, and one in 'Yours', 13 July issue. So who cares about the four that have just been rejected!

Every picture tells a story

2010-05-25T20:26:00.003+01:00

One of my stories (written, as usual, under my real name, Sheila Norton) is appearing in the 12th June issue of 'The People's Friend'. (Yes, the magazine that's still my best friend! I REALLY can't imagine why I seem to be best at writing stories for the ... ahem ... more mature ladies, but there it is, can't deny they take more of my stories than anyone else does!). This particular story ('Buttons and Bows') was the result of an interesting experiment for me. My friendly editor at P.F. had asked me if I'd liked to have a go at writing a story to 'fit' a spare illustration. They apparently had several . This was my first attempt, and it was great fun! The picture I was given, happened to be quite an obvious theme: a little girl dressed in what could have been a party dress but I decided was definitely a bridesmaid's dress, and a lady who just had to be her mum, also dressed in a nice satin number - so I made her a bridesmaid/matron of honour, too, and wrote a wedding story, from the child's point of view. It went down well, pleased to say, and was accepted straight away.

The whole exercise reminded me of being at primary school, having my favourite lesson ('composition' as we called it back then) - being given a theme, or maybe a choice of themes - or sometimes just a title - by the teacher and having to write a story around that. It was the one thing I really excelled at, at school, and I decided very early on that I was going to become a writer so that I could sit around all day having that kind of fun! Well ... maybe things didn't turn out quite like that (something called earning a living got in the way), but yes, in the end I did become a writer and yes, the best thing about it is that it's still (most of the time!) great fun!

Being given a theme by someone else is a really good way to kick-start your writing if you're in the doldrums. That's why I've always recommended writing competitions to new and aspiring writers. I won two of the short story competitions in 'Writers' News' magazine myself, back in the 1990s, and apart from the confidence this gave me to keep going, I think I also learnt a lot from the experience. You can't expect to get anywhere in a competition unless you stick strictly to the word count, the given theme or title, and any other instructions - and this is all good practice for following the magazines' fiction guidelines.

I enjoyed the experience of 'writing around a picture' so much that I've recently asked to have another go - and needless to say, just to make sure I don't get too sure of myself, I found this one a little trickier, so the jury's still out on whether it gets accepted. Fingers crossed ...

So if I get stuck for ideas in future, I might just pick a random picture from a newspaper or magazine, without reading the story it accompanies, and make up one of my own to fit it. Give it a try!

Essex events

2010-05-16T20:53:00.003+01:00

Just a quick reminder for anyone living in the Essex area - book now if you'd like to come along to our Essex Writers' Panel next event at Galleywood Library (near Chelmsford). It's from 2.30pm this Saturday (22 May), and will be an afternoon with authors Maureen Lee, Fenella Miller, Jean Fullerton, Fay Cunningham and myself - talking about our writing and answering questions from the audience. There'll also be time at the end for informal chat and the opportunity to buy signed copies of our books.

Anyone who'd like a FREE place at this event, please contact the library on 01245 259042. It's only a small library, space is limited so don't delay!

And if you live in the area but can't make this date, our next event will be at Ingatestone Library on the afternoon of Monday 7 June, again from 2.30pm. The number to call for this occasion is 01277 354284.

Fingers crossed, no fire alarms going off this time ...!

An alarming experience at the library event!

2010-05-08T14:30:00.002+01:00

Our panel of Essex Writers gave another appearance this morning, at Chelmsford library. This was an event arranged specifically for the book groups attached to the library, and once again we were made very welcome by the library staff, and by a lovely audience who asked lots of interesting questions.

With five of us on the panel, it's a very relaxed way to conduct an event. When I give talks on my own, I always spend quite a while preparing my talk, making sure it's appropriate to the type of audience I'm going to address, making notes and then practising it aloud to make sure the timing's right. I enjoy giving these talks, and now I'm used to them I'm fairly relaxed about them - but with our panel, it's a different thing entirely, and it doesn't really need any preparation at all. After each of us introducing ourselves and chatting a bit about what we write, etc, we ask for questions from the audience and there's then a lot of inter-locution amongst the five of us. Fortunately it works well because we're all good friends!

This morning was a little more exciting. Just as I was answering the usual question about 'where I get my ideas from', there was a loud jangling of bells and it was 'Everybody out!' - the fire alarm had gone off. We obediently traipsed out of the fire exit and into the street, where it was cold and raining but several of us managed to get under a bus shelter! We thought at first it was a fire drill (we'd all been carefully instructed before the event kicked off, about fire regulations - but of course, that's all a necessary part of Health & Safety now). But when (after thankfully only about 10-15 minutes) we were allowed back in, we were assured it wasn't a drill - the alarm had actually been activated so the whole building had needed to be checked.

Chelmsford Central Library is a large building in itself, and it's under the same roof as County Hall - the main Essex County Council premises. Everyone from there also had to be evacuated, including a bridal group! The poor bride was shivering outside the hall, her little bridesmaids sitting glumly on the steps waiting to be allowed back inside. How awful if the alarm had gone off just as she and the groom were about to make their vows!

But of course - being writers - by the time we were allowed back into the library, the five of us had started inventing stories around the situation. Those who write romantic fiction were concocting scenarios where the bride's ex boyfriend had turned up and set the alarm off to stop the wedding so that he could run off with her, or where the bride and groom had been turned out of the hall but were determined to marry at all costs so repeated their vows on the steps outside; whereas Fay, the crime writer of the group, was determined to get a murder in somewhere and had ideas of someone being deliberately run over as they left the building ... It would be quite interesting, in fact, if we were all to write our own version of one of these stories and see how differently they turned out!

It was a relief to get back inside and continue answering our audience's questions. We ended up overrunning our time slightly to make up for it - but then again, that might have had more to do with the fact that we were fed, along with the tea and coffee at the end of the morning, with a choice of delicious home-made cakes (thanks again, ladies!).

Our next event will be in two weeks' time - 22 May - at Galleywood Library on the outskirts of Chelmsford. This is my own village library, a much smaller venue, but I'm looking forward to it because it's my 'local' and I think it'll be another nice friendly event. I've made some leaflets to 'canvas' my neighbours about it - I didn't want to deliver them until this weekend, as I didn't want people throwing them away assuming they were election leaflets! - and I've been promised a piece in the Essex Chronicle about our panel too.

All good PR, and a fun way of showing our support to the library service as well as meeting new readers who we hope will go on to buy our books - or at the very least borrow them from the library! All that, and inspiration for fire alarm stores too!

Old friendships being renewed

2010-04-16T20:21:00.003+01:00

Off on another jet-setting break on Sunday (well, only to Yorkshire and Northumbria, actually, which is probably just as well, given the current problems with flying!) - isn't life great when you're retired from The Day Job! Sometimes I almost feel guilty that we are starting to have such fun in our lives, popping off for short breaks (and long breaks!) whenever we fancy it - but then I think: Nah, to be honest I don't feel guilty at all! While I'd never want to imply that we had a tough time when we were younger, we did choose to have three children quite close in age when we were averagely young (for those days) - and so we never had much in the way of holidays, and certainly never went abroad until when the kids were a bit older we started going to caravan camps in France. We didn't used to have a car, or a lot of the mod cons we now enjoy - but that wasn't unusual back then. So now we haven't got to worry about the '9 to 5' and we've still got reasonable health and fitness, we're going to do our best to enjoy ourselves before we get old and decrepit! Yay!

We'll be staying for a couple of nights with an old schoolfriend of mine, and her husband, who we haven't seen for quite a few years so we're looking forward to getting together again. Jen and I were only at school together for one year - when we were about 13 - but it's an age when deep friendships are forged, and when her family moved back 'up North', my other friend Sue and I continued to get together with Jen during the summer holidays. I think it was a good experience for all of us - travelling between Essex and Chester by coach, staying with each other's families for a couple of weeks at a time. My best memory of those years was the evening we travelled from Chester to Liverpool for a night at the Cavern Club! No, the Beatles weren't performing there then, they'd recently become famous, but I was a huge fan and it made a great impression on me, just being there!

From Yorkshire we're going on for a few days of exploring the wilds of Northumbria - just cos it's there! and we've never been there - and then staying another night in Yorkshire on the way home to Essex, getting together with my 'penpal' Dawn and her husband. This is where the 'writing' part of this blog post comes in!

Dawn and I met back in 1993 (I think that was the right year anyway!) when we both won first prizes in the Writers' News short story awards. I think it was their first year of running their competitions. Anyway, up till then I'd only written children's stories - but I entered a story in the adult story competition and won first prize. Dawn, it turned out, had already been writing short stories for the women's magazines, but had entered the children's short story competition - and won first prize in that! We were invited to an awards ceremony in London and presented with shields and cheques, and it was while we were chatting over a glass of wine afterwards that we discovered our 'role reversal'. Dawn very kindly gave me the contact details for 'Woman's Weekly', and I began to submit stories to them straight away - being lucky enough to get an acceptance very quickly, which really got me started on my writing career.

We've kept in touch ever since - by letter to begin with, and then when we both got the internet, by e-mail. In those days I didn't know any other writers, and it was so good to be able to share hopes, dreams and frustrations with somebody else who understood. And it still is! Because we go back quite a few years now, we've shared the ups and downs of our writing careers with each other and Dawn has always been so supportive. When I got the contract for my first novel she was so excited for me - and when she acquired a really good agent I was over the moon for her. Whenever we've had disappointments we've been there with the sympathy and understanding. Nowadays I've got lots of other writing friends - through the RNA, blogs, Facebook and the lovely group of Essex writers I meet up with - but the 'pen friendship' with Dawn has always been a bit special.

This will be the first time we've met since that awards ceremony in 1993 - and as Dawn said to me in a recent e-mail: Do you think the husbands will get a word in edgeways?!? (Husbands? Oh, are they going to be there too?!)

Charlie the Cat is sadly being sent off to his Holiday Home (local cattery), but we know he'll be looked after and as he'll be 14 this year, was very ill last year but has this week been pronounced to be 'in the best of health' by our vet, we think he won't suffer any harm!

On the writing front I'm still waiting to hear about my feature on novelists who start off by writing short stories ... and still waiting for any luck with the new novel ... but have had one short story acceptance and one 'please change a few things and then we'll have another look', recently.
So it could be a lot worse, couldn't it.

I'll report back on the trip after next weekend and meanwhile hope you all have a good week.

Thanks to Julie

2010-04-07T19:26:00.020+01:00

Julie at Julie's Quest http://jlpwritersquest.blogspot.com/ has awarded me this 'Beautiful Bloggers' award - how nice! Thank you Julie. It's probably the first time I've ever earned the word 'beautiful' - ha ha!

Now, I'm supposed to nominate ten other blogs to receive the award . It reminds me of when my children were little and they used to insist on me choosing which of them had painted the best picture/made the best Playdoh model/baked the best jam tarts ... etc etc ... and I always refused to choose. 'I like them all the same,' I used to say, and they'd get really upset and insist that I had to choose, so I had to compromise and say that one daughter had chosen the best colours, another had chosen the most unusual subject, and the other had applied the most paint (or managed to get the most actually on the paper!) ... they weren't impressed!

But mums can't be expected to choose between their children! And likewise, how can I choose between the blogs I enjoy reading? I'm not the most prolific blogger in the world: I sometimes don't look at my blog (or anyone else's) for days or weeks at a time (do I really deserve the award?!) - but when I do, I enjoy catching up with everyone's news, even if I don't always take the time to comment. I often pick up on comments from other bloggers, and have a read of something I find interesting on their blog, without becoming a Follower - but those I've chosen to follow must be those I'd nominate, mustn't they? So I'm nominating as many of those as possible. Here goes:

1. With ink from the pink pen

2. Bucolic Frolics

3. Kate Hardy

4. Sue Moorcroft writes

5. Strictly Writing

6. Romantic Novelists' Association Blog

7. Women's stories: read, write, enjoy!

8. Quiller's Place - The View From The Spire

9. Sarah Duncan's Blog

10. The Long And The Short of It

I purposely haven't checked my list against Julie's as I didn't want to be deterred from nominating the blogs I wanted to: but I'm aware that I've probably duplicated some of her selections and that just goes to show what good taste she has! Thanks again Julie!

Joanne Harris at the Essex Book Festival

2010-03-31T20:42:00.003+01:00

My eldest daughter and I went to see Joanne Harris last night, making an appearance at a school in Great Dunmow as part of the Essex Book Festival. The large school hall was packed to capacity, and Joanne proved to be an amazing speaker. She mostly talked about her forthcoming new book 'Blue Eyed Boy' - which sounds like yet another brilliant novel from her! - and also read a couple of passages from the book.

It was interesting for me, having given quite a few 'author talks' myself now, to see how a true expert does it! I always make notes, but try to use them only as a guide, to keep myself on track and make sure I don't forget things I want to say. Joanne had some notes with her but barely glanced at them at all - even though she started off by saying that this was her first talk promoting this new book so she expected to ramble slightly! Not a bit of it ... she was extremely eloquent and there certainly weren't all the 'ums' and 'ers' I find myself so guilty of uttering!

She talked at length about how she got the idea for 'Blue Eyed Boy' and developed it into a story, and also about the characters and their relationships with each other. Somehow she managed to do all this without giving away very much of the plot - afterwards I found myself wondering how on earth she talked about it for over half an hour without doing so! She then took questions from the audience, and when she was asked about her own favourite books as a child, my daughter and I exchanged raised eyebrows! My own responses would have been something along the lines of 'Heidi' or 'Wind in the Willows', (and of course, Enid Blyton's Famous Five books!), but Joanne's were far more serious and intellectual and made me aware of how different her upbringing must have been from that of, perhaps, the average reader. Obviously a very clever child who grew up to be a very clever lady!

Well, we're all different, aren't we, and thank goodness for that. I love Joanne's novels and I loved listening to her speak; but when I give my own talks, one of the things that gives me great satisfaction is that people often remark that they find it interesting to hear about my life as a writer, and how I got published, simply because I'm from a fairly 'normal' background, without a degree or any writing qualifications. Perhaps it gives hope to other aspiring writers.

I was thinking about everyone being different, and enjoying different types of books, when I read a feature in yesterday's paper, too - about the lack of 'real men' as heroes in modern romance novels. The feature focused on the short-listed books for the Romantic Novel of the Year Award, and has inevitably led to a lot of discussion among my fellow members of the Romantic Novelists' Association. Apparently the writer wasn't keen on the sensitive, 'New Man' type of heroes, or stories focusing on problems in people's lives - although it's been pointed out that the feature has of course been edited and cut so that the writer's opinions aren't being represented quite the way she intended. Anyway, I reckon it's just another situation of 'horses for courses'. If you don't like certain types of books, with certain types of heroes, you won't buy them. If they're selling well, then lots of people obviously do like them!

If only I had been as gifted as Joanne Harris and could write the type of novels she writes ... ah, if only! But we're all different in our capabilities, as well as in our reading tastes, and we have to be realistic. I hope to continue to have books published and to have readers who enjoy them; that'd be good enough for me, and I'd be very grateful too!

Responses to my survey - thanks again!

2010-03-24T20:02:00.003Z

When I started writing my feature about novelists who start by writing short stories, I hoped to ask perhaps a couple of dozen writers how they started. I know everyone's busy with their own work so I thought I'd keep it simple and just ask for a 'yes' or a 'no' ... never anticipating the generosity of SO many writers, who took the time and trouble to send me e-mails or messages on the blog, Facebook or the RNA forum - and SO much valuable information!

As someone has so wisely pointed out to me - I should have known that a load of writers * would not be able to stop at one word answers - don't we all just love the opportunity to write about our writing!

Well, it's certainly been fascinating reading all your comments; and it's lovely to welcome some new people to the blog too. My feature is now virtually finished; I even managed to do percentages (with the help of an on-line percentage calculator!). I'm not going to reveal all the statistics that will appear in the feature - if/when it's accepted - but I CAN at least tell you that those who wrote short stories before progressing to novels are in the majority. You'll have to wait to find out the rest ... hopefully until the magazine publishes the feature!

The short story I was expecting to be in the last issue of 'Yours' wasn't: it's in this week's. And I've just had another one rejected. Which just about sums up a writer's life, doesn't it!

* What should the collective term for a lot of writers be? A scribbling of writers? Any thoughts?

Our Essex Book Festival event

2010-03-17T20:18:00.008Z

Here's my lovely group of Essex writing friends at our first Essex Writers' Panel event, this afternoon at Halstead Library as part of the Essex Book Festival.

From left to right, Maureen Lee, Fay Cunningham, myself, Fenella Miller and Jean Fullerton (who did a great job as our chairperson, keeping us all in order and making sure none of us did more than our fair share of yakking!).

The event went really well: Halstead is a lovely library in a beautiful small Essex town, and the people were all so friendly and welcoming. We all chatted a little about ourselves and our writing, and then answered questions from the audience.

In fact we could have gone on answering questions for the rest of the day, they were all so lively and interested!

As you know I give quite a few talks to various groups on my own, and I enjoy it, but being part of this panel is a whole different experience - great fun, especially as we all get along well together (it does help!) and we all write different types of books so each of us brings something different to the discussions. Actually although we advertise ourselves as a panel of five, I think they are getting real value, as I am there both as Sheila Norton and Olivia Ryan!

We all enjoy giving something back to the libraries, as they provide such an important service - and an important part of our income through the Public Lending Right payments. Now we've done our 'inaugural' event as a panel, we're looking forward to further events we've got booked, after the end of the Book Festival. If they're all equally successful, I think we'll be very happy!

Short fiction to long: can you help with a poll?

2010-03-15T16:17:00.004Z

As I've probably said dozens of times on this blog already (sorry, is it a sign of old age - repeating yourself? Hope not!) - I started out as a short story writer before becoming a novelist. Winning two short story competitions was what really made me believe in myself as a writer, and spurred me on to getting published.

I often mention this when I give talks, too, as for me, it really helped : I don't think I could ever have written a 100,000 novel without first having mastered the art of the short story. But everyone is different, and I know there are plenty of published authors out there who went straight into writing novels without trying short fiction first.

Well, this is what I'm trying to find out - and I need your help!

For a new feature I'm writing for 'Writer's Forum', I want to find out how many novelists (the percentage of those who respond to me) started off as short story writers, and how many plunged straight into writing novels. The more responses I get from any authors out there, the better - so I'd be really grateful for just a quick 'yes' (if you started with short stories) or 'no' (if you didn't) via this blog, or straight to me via e-mail (olivia@oliviaryan.com) if you prefer. Thanks so much, in advance! Oh - and if you've got time, and don't mind copying this request to your own blogs, to reach even more writers, I'd really appreciate that too!

That's just the first and most important question. There are others ... for instance I'd be interested in hearing from short story writers who never switched to writing novels because they prefer short stories. And in following up some of those who did make the switch, to find out whether they found the transition difficult, and whether (like me) they're still writing short stories alongside the novels. So if you're willing to be quizzed further I might come back to you.

I'll be repeating this request on Facebook and forums to get as wide a coverage as possible. Hoping the results will be interesting! Thanks again for any help you can give.

'Yours' magazine

2010-03-05T09:38:00.002Z

Any short story writers amongst you who might have submitted to 'Yours' during 2009 and haven't had a response - please take note! I queried one of my stories that had been out with them since June last year, as the wait seemed a bit excessive for them. Marion Clark has got back to me saying it must have gone astray because they've now returned all submissions received before December 2009. I was glad she let me know, because I had another one outstanding since August, so presume that one's gone astray too!

Marion has invited me to resubmit, but has also warned me that their story length requirement has now changed from 1000-1500 words, to 1000-1200. Quite significant as I find it enough of a challenge to keep below 1500 words, so mine will both need to be cut before resubmitting!

Good luck anyone submitting there. I've got a story out with them next week as it happens!

Essex Book Festival

2010-03-04T16:34:00.002Z

This morning I've been along to Chelmsford Library for the launch of this year's Essex Book Festival. It was a superb event - quite a few of us local Essex authors who are taking part in the Festival were there, and other big name authors including Barbara Erskine and Penelope Lively. It was a lovely opportunity to mingle and chat with local librarians, as well as people from reading groups (there are 500 groups in Essex!) - and the whole thing was live on BBC Essex.

I'm excited to be appearing in this year's Festival as part of a panel of Essex writers, together with some good friends of mine from the Romantic Novelists' Association: Fenella Miller, Jean Fullerton, Fay Cunningham and Maureen Lee. Don't be fooled by the term 'romantic': in fact we all write completely different types of books. Maureen is a hugely successful 'Liverpool saga' writer who now lives in Colchester; Fay writes crime novels and has been shortlisted three times for a Crime Writers' award; Jean writes historical novels set in East London and has recently been shortlisted for the 2010 Romantic Novel of the Year award; Fenella writes historical romance novels and novellas; and I write contemporary relationship stories, both as Sheila Norton and as Olivia Ryan.

As a group, we were delighted to be given the venue of Halstead library, on Wednesday 17th March at 2pm, for our event. We will be 'five for the price of one' - what value! - and as a panel, will be there to answer questions from the audience, to meet, chat, and offer signed copies of our books. If anyone from the Essex area would like the chance to buy a ticket (£4, or £3 for concessions), please visit www.essexbookfestival.org.uk or call Halstead Library on 01787 473431.

Following this, we're taking our panel 'on the road', to appear at various libraries in Essex after the end of the Book Festival. The idea has been very warmly received, and already we have bookings for the libraries at Chelmsford, Galleywood, Ingatestone, Harwich, Frinton, and Chipping Ongar - with others in the pipeline. Some of these will be 'closed' events for local reading groups, others will be open to the public: so if anyone's interested, let me know! I'll be posting details, and dates, on the Blog after the end of the Book Festival.

It was great, today, to have coffee and cakes with the rest of the group, after the Festival Launch, and discuss our forthcoming events. We've organised all this ourselves between us, and feel very optimistic and enthusiastic about it. We all appreciate the income we recieve from library readers, via Public Lending Right - and these appearances, as well as being a good PR opportunity for us all, are a chance for us to 'give something back' to the libraries. Without them, we'd be a lot less read, and a lot worse off! I'll look forward to reporting back on the Halstead event in due course but meanwhile, please do pass this on to any friends in the Essex area! Thanks. x

Talking ... about rejections

2010-03-01T15:57:00.005Z

The talk I was supposed to give last week to a creative writing class was postponed because the class tutor had the Flu. In a way it did me a favour because I had a croaky sore throat myself (not that I'd wish the poor woman the Flu, of course!) ... and I'm now due to give the talk tomorrow.

It's quite timely. One of the things I always stress when giving talks to any group of writers or would-be writers is the importance of anticipating rejection, not taking it personally, treating it as part of a writer's life and taking it on the chin. And so on. Of course, we all know it isn't always easy to follow that well-worn piece of advice! - but it's important to recognise that rejection goes with the territory and that it's possible to recover from it.

I'm aware that, because I've had a small degree of success over the years, some of the people listening to me spouting this stuff might think, "It's all very well for her to talk!" Of course, I tell them about all the rejections I had before I finally had a novel accepted - and about all the short stories I've had rejected over the years, and still get rejected now - and I like to think that this gives some of them a bit of hope: I did get lucky along the way, and it could happen for them too.

But I certainly never got complacent! I often quote Graham Greene's very depressing statement that 'For a writer, success is always temporary. Success is only failure delayed.' ! Of course, there are those writers who find success easily, and go on to be successful for the rest of their lives ... but these are the minority. For most of us, we're only ever as good as our last contract, and those contracts are increasingly difficult to secure.

My recent writing career hasn't exactly gone swimmingly. I had an agent briefly last year, who having been enthusiastic about my work and professed herself optimistic about getting me a good publishing deal, worked hard with me for a few months and then abruptly left the agency, informing me that none of the other agents there were interested in handling me, and leaving me wondering if it was something I'd said! So I was back on my own again, unagented as I'd been throughout most of my writing life, and (to be honest) thinking maybe I'm better off that way.

As some of you know, I've recently had a stab at writing a serial for one of the women's mags. This was my first attempt and I knew it wasn't going to be easy, but the editor was really helpful and encouraging, and I tried my best to follow her advice - ending up doing two complete re-writes. I can honestly say it was the hardest thing I've attempted to write - and I've just heard that the third version hasn't been successful - so that's the end of the road with it. Maybe I can eventually adapt it and try it elsewhere, but for the moment the thought of doing that is quite overwhelming and I'm just going to sink back into the comfort of writing some more of my new (as yet unsold) novel!

I found writing the serial a tremendous challenge - and quite a humbling experience, not that I needed one! - reinforcing my admiration of those writers who do write them successfully. Of course I'm feeling disappointed, but (always looking for the silver lining), I'm now in exactly the right frame of mind to talk to the creative writing class about coping with rejection!

Today I've visited my ex-colleagues at the hospital where I used to work, and as always, found myself wondering if I wished I was back there. The answer is always NO - although I still miss them all, and have some great memories of my years there, I know I'm happy with my life now. I refer to myself as a full-time writer but in fact, I think it's important for those of us who aren't MEGA successful (!) to have lots of other things in our lives as well as our writing, so that the disappointments don't feel like the end of the world.

And yes, I'll be telling the creative writing class that, too!

Here's one of the other lovely things in my life!

Thawing out!

2010-02-20T16:26:00.012Z

Himself and I are just back from a short break in Tallinn (Estonia). Don't ask why we decided to go away in February to a place where the February temperature never gets above freezing point - especially as I hate the cold. If I just say 'Air Miles' and 'Free', you might begin to understand, but I still can't quite work out why we opted for February! However, we bravely decided to look on it as an 'experience' and an 'adventure'. When we arrived in Tallinn, our taxi driver told us it was currently Minus 5 degrees ... and trust me, it got colder! And at night ... more like minus 14.

However, Tallinn was very pretty, and we decided that visiting this sort of place in the winter has a lot to recommend it (can you hear my Positive Thinking ticking over?). For one thing, it wasn't crowded! (most tourists have more sense, and go in the summer!). And for another thing, the snow-topped roofs did add a certain charm to the place. OK, I give up, I can't think of any other reasons! We went out wrapped up in so many layers of clothes we could hardly walk. Whenever we went into a nice cosy cafe to have hot chocolate, which I can assure you was often, it took ages to get all the top layers off - but every cafe and restaurant had cupboards or coat-stands, as everyone there is wearing loads of clothing!

Me, dressed very fashionably, Tallinn-style!

On the third day we went on a day-trip to Helsinki ... 50 miles across the FROZEN sea: yes, frozen all the way across! We could hardly believe it, but the ferry just ploughed through it. It was even colder in Helsinki but we just had to say that we popped over to Finland for lunch!

And this is the interesting thing, coming at it from a UK point of view: no matter how bad the weather, they just keep going. There was heavy snow yesterday morning and we wondered if our flight home would be affected - but no, all planes were still taking off as normal. Nothing stops, nobody turns a hair. Of course, they are totally used to it, and it would be ridiculous if they threw up their hands in shock at the snow, when they have it throughout the winter - but it was certainly a contrast with the fuss we all made this winter. It felt positively balmy here when we returned to Heathrow last night!

In future I will definitely be more appreciative of our very temperate climate. I enjoyed the break but I would hate to live in that sort of climate, I'm sure it would make me very miserable.

Just to add to the whole thing, I wasn't feeling in the best of health - have had one rotten virus after another since Christmas and just before setting off for Tallinn I completely lost my voice! Some people might have felt it was a blessing, but my throat was so painful too, and I felt quite rough into the bargain. Fortunately my voice is back - husky but audible - which is a good job as I've got another talk scheduled for this Tuesday. And luckily it's only a small one, to a creative writing class! They might have to strain their ears!

I seem to make a habit of having something wrong with me whenever we go away. It's becoming annoying now: as soon as we get the suitcases or passports out, my body seems to start plotting how best to upset me. I'm not going to let it beat me. But what with my regular asthma and thyroid medication, and all my anti-sickness, anti-headache, anti-everything-else-that-might- strike tablets, I do seem to get some suspicious looks when my hand baggage goes through the security check. At Tanninn Airport they actually had dogs climbing over all the baggage on the carousel, sniffing it for drugs - as well as sniffing around everyone as they walked through! Never seen that before. I did worry that they might find something to bark about, in my 'medicine supplies' - but thankfully we got through unscathed. If I carry on like this, nobody will want to come on holiday with me!

The best that can happen ...

2010-01-31T11:18:00.009Z

I've got a short story in the next Woman's Weekly Fiction Special (due out on 5 February) - and flicking through my copy, I'm delighted to see that my 'blog friend' Teresa Ashby has got no less than THREE stories in the same issue - fantastic achievement, Teresa, not that it's anything too unusual for you!! - and Geraldine Ryan from Strictly Writing, and Lydia Jones - all bloggers whose blogs I enjoy reading - have got stories in there too. Exciting to be in such good company, and if I've missed anyone else who's in there, give me a shout!

Well, I'll tell you something about this story. The title is 'The Worst that can Happen' and it's a humorous story about a girl who always fears the worst. The idea came from something I always used to say to my daughters when they were children, and were worried about something: 'What's the worst that can happen?'. It was meant to make them realise that even if they'd lost their homework or got into trouble at school, they weren't likely to be expelled or thrown into prison for it! But they'd often reply dramatically: 'The teacher will kill me!' Fortunately of course it was never as bad as that!

Facing up to the worst possible scenario can make us feel braver sometimes ... but it can also have the reverse effect. As a parent, it presents us with horrible possibilities that have to be put out of our minds, otherwise we'd never manage the job. We'd be forever wrapping our kids in cotton wool, scared to let them out of our sight, afraid every childhood fall means a fractured skull and every sniffle is the plague. These fears are part of being a parent, of course, but we can't let ourselves focus too much on them.

And just as you get to the point where your kids are all grown up and you think: hooray, they're adult, they're settled down, married or whatever, they're safe - I can relax ... (not that you ever, entirely, stop worrying about your children - as every mum knows!) ... along come the grandkids, and all the old anxieties return! Is he OK, is he too hot, too cold, sleeping too much or not enough, is he crying because he's hungry or has a pain, or just because he feels miserable? I'm re-living all this now along with my daughter ... but, of course, the pleasure and joy of seeing little Noah growing up far outweigh any of the natural concerns of parenthood/ grandparenthood! I wouldn't change it for the world!

Here's Noah with me at Christmas, and a couple of pics from recent weeks.

Believe it or not he'll be 5 months old next week - where has that time gone? He smiles, laughs, rolls over and is almost sitting up on his own. He loves his bath and has already been taken swimming ... and best of all he loves bouncing on his feet in his new Christmas-present bouncer - so much so, that he now wants to bounce on our legs whenever we hold him on our laps: his poor mum has bruises! He's absolutely gorgeous and a credit to his lovely mum and dad - not that I'm at all biased, obviously!

Having brought up three gorgeous daughters, we never had any regrets about not having a son ... but now we've not only acquired the three nicest sons-in-law we could have asked for, but also a (literally!) bouncing baby boy. And that's why, despite the title of my story, I've called this post 'The Best that can Happen'!

Enjoyment: the whole point of reading

2010-01-28T14:08:00.003Z

I've just been reading an excellent post over on Sarah Duncan's blog (http://sarahduncansblog.blogspot.com/) about individual tastes in reading, and why some people think it's shameful to admit to liking 'certain types' of book. It's so true - I know a lot of people look down their noses at anything that could be classified as 'light' fiction - whether it's romantic, or just easy beach-reading stories, or 'chick-lit' ... my books have been referred to in all those ways, and sometimes accompanied by a definite sneer!

Coincidentally, I mentioned this at the talk I gave on Monday. By the way, it was very successful, thank you to those of you who asked, and who wished me luck! I was staggered by the size of the audience ... we worked out that there were over 160 people there - there weren't enough chairs in the hall so about a dozen were standing in the aisles! Don't get too excited, they weren't just there to hear my pearls of wisdom (!) - it was a meeting of a new U3A group and obviously they had other business to attend to at their meeting, but as I was their first 'professional speaker' (as I was introduced ... no pressure there, then!), it was very rewarding for me!

I often bring up this subject in talks: the fact is that most of the very successful authors out there write genre fiction (romance, crime, paranormal, chick-lit etc) rather than 'literary fiction'. And I always point out that 'literary fiction' is a very new concept (and actually I think the term is meaningless!). The New York Times apparently published an article a while back in which it was pointed out that the distinction between highbrow and lowbrow fiction has only recently been invented, and that in fact, Charles Dicken wrote crime novels and Jane Austen wrote chick lit. Nobody sneers at them, do they! And their novels are certainly considered 'worthy'.

I write the type of books I do because they're what come naturally to me - what (I hope) I'm good at. If anybody ever asked me (as I once read that another author was asked) why I don't write something 'better', I'd find it hard not to say that it was an incredibly rude question! - but I'd also have to say that I write the best books I can ... maybe they're not 'good' enough for some people, but presumably those people won't buy them or read them. And my consolation is that, if they're 'good' enough for an editor to have accepted them for publication, then that's good enough for me!

Because a book is easy to read, it doesn't mean it's easy to write. If that were true, we wouldn't have such brilliant books published for children who are only just learning to read. I had a lovely message on my Olivia Ryan website today from a 19 year old girl who has reading and writing difficulties, had never read books before, but had read my 'Tales From' books and enjoyed them so much, she wanted to know if I'd written any more books. Of course, I told her about my Sheila Norton books! - but her message meant so much to me, because surely this is what it's all about: the enjoyment of reading.

And of course, the enjoyment of writing, too. I'm having a good time working on my attempt at a serial ... a steep learning curve, but I think I'm finally getting the hang of it! I'll keep you posted. And next time, I'll also update you all on how my lovely little grandson Noah is progressing!

Happy writing ... and reading! (whatever you enjoy).

A double dose of blogging!

2010-01-20T11:04:00.004Z

What's this ... two blog posts in two days? Surely not!

Well actually it's three posts in two days, because yesterday I took up an invitation from Julie over at Julie's Quest, to contribute to her blog. You can see my 'bit' on : http://jlpwritersquest.blogspot.com/2010/01/thanks-julie-and-talking-about-talking.html

It was an honour to be asked to contribute, as I've always enjoyed Julie's blog. And I finally got around to it yesterday because I've been stuck at home feeling a bit poorly this week - so (every cloud has a silver lining) - I haven't felt like doing anything other than writing. Which is great in lots of ways: I've finished, and submitted, the first part of my serial (fingers crossed), written another chapter of the new novel (not even at the fingers-crossing stage with that yet), and for once in my life, caught up with all the e-mails, blogs, forums etc that I often get so behind with.

But of course, being laid low with a bug isn't a pleasure so - having got rid of the snow and having got my car back on the road (another story, for another time!) - I'm itching to get back to some sort of normality.

Meanwhile thanks again, Julie, for giving me 'space' on your blog.
PS: The post has just arrived - one of my SAE's ... but NOT a rejection (quite) ... an invitation to re-write a short story for a second time: they still like it but want more changes! OK - back to work ... hope it's worth it!

Letters to the Editor

2010-01-19T10:07:00.000Z

I had a letter published in the Daily Mail yesterday. (Yes, I admit it, I'm a Daily Mail reader - I know, I know!!). It wasn't anything earth-shattering: it was just in response to an article in there last week about the re-publication of the 'I-Spy books' so popular with those of us who were children in the 1950s and 60s. The article only told half the story; the original books were issued in conjunction with the old News Chronicle, and were part of the culture of the 'I-Spy Tribe' - the kids who joined were called Redskins and earned feathers for their headbands by completing the books. Simple pleasures, eh! I found an old black & white photo I took of my friends from primary school when we were all members of a Redskin patrol - holding a pow-wow in my back garden - and sent it to the editor with a brief letter about it all. I didn't really expect it to be published, especially as it finally appeared (with the photo) almost a week after the original article, with my reference to it edited out so it seemed a bit 'appropos of nothing'!

I don't write to newspapers very often, but strangely enough, only the day after I'd sent that letter, I was being urged by other writers, on Facebook and internet forums, to write (again to the Daily Mail) in response to a reader whose letter appeared in the 'Debate' section of the letters page. He'd written in defence of self-publishing, which was fair enough - I've nothing against it, and who knows, might well end up doing it myself one day! - but he took the opportunity to have a sour-grapes-type dig at mainstream publishers, declaring that a lot of books published by them are rubbish and used an expression along the lines of 'formula type books like chick-lit'.

My books are often referred to as chick-lit; my editor doesn't agree; I don't know, I don't really care what anyone calls them as long as they enjoy them! And - well, what a stupid comment. If there's a 'formula' for writing them, I wish someone would tell me what it is! We all know that getting a book accepted by a mainstream publisher these days is incredibly difficult, no matter what genre. I decided NOT to retaliate to that reader's letter; it was ill-informed and best ignored ... if we'd all rushed to defend ourselves I think we'd have looked hysterical and 'protesting too much'.

But you know what? I actually started off my writing career at the age of nine-and-a-half, with a letter to the editor of 'Essex Countryside' magazine. It was in response to another reader's letter about a bird he'd seen in the fields, which he couldn't identify. My Dad (who taught me all I knew, back then, but have sadly mostly forgotten since, about nature in general and birds in particular), suggested I looked through his bird book and tried to identify it from this guy's description. Whether my diagnosis was right or not, I decided I'd write up and give him the benefit of my nine-and-a-half-year-old's wisdom. I was overjoyed that the letter was published, and decided there and then that I wanted to be a journalist when I grew up. In fact I did nothing of the sort, but that's another story!

Since then, I've only occasionally felt moved to send a 'reader's letter'. A previous one published in the Mail (several years ago) was in response to someone who'd written that 'mature people' shouldn't wear trainers, have holiday romances or eat microwave meals (amongst other things!). Isn't it amazing how some people think they can decide what other people should do! And a letter to one of our local papers about my hospital's no-smoking policy was given almost a full page and a huge headline ... they obviously didn't have much news that week!).

I know writers who have really got their career off the ground by writing letters to newspapers and magazines. It's a good way to get writing, and publishing, experience - and some magazines pay for readers' letters so it can pay off, in more ways than one. I certainly look for names I recognise in the letters pages of writing magazines, for instance - so it does get your name 'out there', too. But if you get embroiled in serious issues, I think you need to be prepared for retaliation. And with some people, like the writer of the 'mainstream publishing is crap' letter, it's just not worth the aggravation!

Next Christmas?! - and serial possibilities

2010-01-10T11:53:00.000Z

OK, so Christmas was over much too quickly for my liking but it surely is over now - isn't it?
The tree's been taken outside, the decorations have been taken down, and we've even found the usual remaining bauble hidden under a chair and the red-nosed-reindeer that I forgot was sitting on the windowsill in my study. We've swept up pine needles for the second time and finished the last piece of Christmas cake. It's over.

So imagine my surprise when I had an e-mail from one of my favourite magazine editors the other day, offering to buy the Christmas story I'd sent her in August! I'd assumed by now that they didn't want it, and I'd planned to submit it elsewhere during the summer. I guess they're keeping it for next Christmas! I know they like to plan ahead, but this is amazing, and makes me think that maybe we need to submit Christmas/winter stories even earlier in the year in future!

So that's two short story sales since Christmas - a lovely start to the new writing year. I've now written about 15,000 words of the first draft of my new novel, (regardless of whether or not it ever sees the light of day), and have also been approached about writing a serial.

Hmm. Hands up if you write serials? I've tried before, but I must admit I gave up ... I found the length very awkward - to say nothing of needing cliff-hangers at the end of each part. I guess I just need more practice. I'm so comfortable writing 2000 word stories, and 100,000 word novels - I 'feel' my way through those lengths of story almost instinctively now. But now I've got the opportunity to try a serial again, I've got the urge to rise to the challenge. It won't be easy, and it'll certainly get in the way of getting on with the novel ... but after all, I'm fortunate to have no real restraints on my time any more. Should I give it a go? Any tips from successful serial writers out there?

Well, the weather is giving me the perfect excuse to stay indoors and write. Warm and snug, with my cat purring away on my lap and a nice hot cuppa on the desk ... I'm SO grateful I don't go out to work any more. Like Christmas, it was good at the time, but it's over now! Good luck with all your writing and may all your snow be melting soon!

Happy New Year

2010-01-03T19:33:00.000Z

So: Happy New Year to everyone - yes, I know it's already three days old but I'm very behind with everything and trying not to mind! I've been a Bad Blogger, haven't been keeping up with anyone's blogs - sorry, all my favourite bloggers! - normal service will resume, probably, hopefully, any time now! No excuses - I haven't been any busier than anyone else at this time of year - I've hosted some dinners, been out for some, had some fun, had too much to eat and drink, had lots of lovely presents, had a filthy cold and a couple of anxieties .... and that was Christmas, over again already. Unlike some people, I'm never in a hurry to take down the tree and the decorations and 'get back to normal'. Perhaps that stems from the fact that I don't like starting Christmas shopping and preparations too early, so I'm not fed up with it when it does arrive and I do like it to last the full traditional twelve days. Wednesday will be Twelfth Night and that's when we'll take everything down, hoover up the bits of tinsel, the pine needles and the inevitable mince pie and Christmas cake crumbs that seem to have got into the corners - and (sigh) start Being Good again.

Being Good means different things to different people, doesn't it. I've learnt, over the years, not to make outlandish promises to myself for New Year resolutions - they're just begging to be broken before the end of January. But like most of us, I've totally let go of any personal fitness I had before Christmas (not a lot, believe me!) - and although I won't be going on a diet, I will certainly be cutting back on the wine, beer, chocolates, biscuits, cakes, wine, beer, puddings, pies, sweets, wine, beer, crisps, nuts ... all those nice things .... at least until I feel a bit less bloated and can do my jeans up comfortably again!

Today was the first day I actually sat down at the computer and did some Proper Writing - another chapter of the new novel. But I had a nice surprise a couple of days ago - a phone call from a magazine editor who was apparently working from home on her pile of submissions and called me to accept a story I'd submitted back in July. So that was a good way to round of the Old Year. Now, not being greedy, but I'd really appreciate something equally nice to start off the new one ... otherwise I might have to consider some other means of supplementing the pension, perhaps making and marketing my own soup (as one kind friend suggested on tasting my home-made Parsnip, Leek & Ginger yesterday!). There could be worse ways of making a few bucks I suppose!

As usual I've rambled longer than I intended. This post was supposed to be, purely & simply, to wish everyone 'out there' a happy, healthy and successful 2010. Don't forget to let me know how your year goes!

Christmas Wishes

2009-12-23T11:33:00.000Z

Just a quick message to wish everyone who's been kind enough to follow my ramblings this year, a very happy Christmas and a specially good New Year. To those who write - I wish you all the success you dream of. It's a difficult time for writers, but we must accept that it's a difficult time for just about everyone, and just hope things will improve soon.

I've surprised myself, in the run-up to Christmas this year, by finding the time to start the New Novel, which I hadn't expected to do until New Year; so I've now got a nice buzzy feeling of anticipation about getting back to it after Christmas, instead of that dreaded 'blank screen anxiety'!

But wherever you are with your writing - whether you're plotting something, revising something, mid-story or mid-novel or just trying to come up with some ideas - give yourself a break over Christmas. Most of us surely need to, especially if we're hosting Christmas, cooking for families etc - but I never fail to be amazed (and not sure whether to be impressed or just slightly puzzled!) by those writers who say they can't bear NOT to do their thousand words, or their next chapter, or whatever - even on Christmas Day. OK, so most of us are a bit fanatical about our writing but surely we can 'let go' once in a while! Don't you think so? Apart from anything else, I'm sure my husband and family would object, and think I'd completely lost the plot, if I took myself off to do some writing in the middle of the festivities - and they'd be quite right!

So let's all give ourselves a well-earned break - and enjoy it. Have a lovely time everyone.

Freebies for OAPs? (or maybe not!)

2009-12-17T17:11:00.000Z

I still haven't quite got used to being an Over-Sixty. In fact I keep referring to my recent birthday as my fiftieth - by mistake of course, I'm sure I'm not fooling anyone! In fact my fiftieth birthday only seems like a couple of years ago, which is a bit scary. However, I'm a positive-thinker by nature, and I'm also aware that I have a lot to be grateful for: I'm still in pretty good health, have a wonderful family and lovely friends, and I've achieved my dream of becoming a published author.

AND I'm determined to enjoy whatever perks come my way for the privilege of reaching the age of maturity! I can't understand those of my contemporaries who feel insulted by being issued with their bus pass, for instance. I'm lucky to live in an area where the bus routes are good, and already I've saved myself a lot by taking the bus into town - especially at this time of year when the car parks are so full, as well as being expensive. OK, so it takes a little longer, and I've had to get used to not buying too much Christmas shopping in one go, or I can't carry it all home! - but after all, I have a more relaxed lifestyle now I'm not working in a day-job so why worry?

When I realised I was also (apparently) entitled to Free Swimming at my local pool, I was very excited. I like to swim a couple of times a week when I can - it's the only form of exercise I enjoy, so I'm keen to keep it up. So I applied (on-line, as suggested) within days of my birthday back in September. Heard nothing for weeks, but I'd been busy with Daughter's Wedding and then went on holiday, so eventually presented myself at the pool again and asked what was happening about my Free Swimming pass.
Receptionist: Oh, if you applied on-line, you won't hear back from us.
Me: But it said, on the website, that I'd get a letter.
Receptionist: Sorry. That might have happened once, but it doesn't any more. You just have to turn up here and collect your pass.
Me: OK. So here I am. Can I collect it?
Receptionist: Give me your name and address and I'll see if your details have got into the computer system yet. (Looks on computer). No, sorry, you're not on the system.
Me: But I applied over a month ago!
Receptionist: Well, I don't know what happened there. OK, I'll enter you on the sytem now.
(Puts my details into the system.) OK: have you got your proof of ID?
Me: Sorry? What proof of ID?
Receptionist: We need two proofs of ID - your driving licence and a utility bill.
Me: That wasn't mentioned on the website either. I don't have them on me.
Receptionist: Sorry. You'll need to bring them next time, then.
Me: OK. I'd better pay for today's swim, then.

Next time, I went along duly armed with proof of ID, and explained what had happened before.
Receptionist: Right. That's all fine. So I'll just get your pass for you. That'll be ten pounds, please.
Me: What? Ten pounds? What for?
Receptionist: The free swimming pass costs ten pounds.
Me: Then it's not free, is it?
Receptionist: Well, no, but you get in free every time you come, once you've paid for it.
Me (sighing): Well, I haven't got ten pounds on me today. So I'd better pay for today's swim again.

Next time, I made sure I'd got ten quid on me. This time I was definitely going to get a free swim!
Me: Here's my ten pounds for my 'free' swim pass.
Receptionist: Thank you. Here's your pass.
Me: And here's my parking ticket. (The cost of an hour's parking at the swimming pool has always been refunded to users of the pool).
Receptionist: Oh, sorry. We don't refund your parking if you're having a Free Swim.
Me: What! Why not?
Receptionist: Well, you're not paying for the swim, so you don't get free parking.
Me: But I've just paid ten quid!
Receptionist: Sorry. And you do know the pool is closing for refurbishment at the end of November, don't you? (This was the middle of November).
Me: Yes, but now I've got my pass, I can carry on using it after Christmas when you reopen, can't I.
Receptionist: Yes, until the end of March.
Me: What! I thought it lasted for ever!
Receptionist: No. It's for a year, from April to March.
Me: So I have to pay another ten quid in April?
Receptionist: I'm afraid so. But as long as you come back in January and swim at least once a week, it'll still be a bargain.

A bargain? I thought it was supposed to be a freebie! I get my swim free (for £10), but I now have to pay to park? How's that a such a bargain?? I'd go by bus (of course!) except that the bus route doesn't go to the swimming pool. Honestly, it's enough to make an OAP swear!

However, continuing to look on the bright side, I did get my pension at 60, and I realise this is something to be very grateful for. I'm one of the very last bunch of women to still be entitled to the State Pension at 60, before it's gradually phased up to 65, the same as men. As several people have pointed out to me, it's totally unfair, in this age of equality, for women to get their pensions earlier than men. Oh yes.

BUT ... I'd like to point out, in defence of all those of us born back in the 1940s and 50s, that in the era we were born into, raised and educated, we were NOT equal to boys or men at all. Things have changed so rapidly in this respect over the last few decades that our daughters have grown up not just expecting to be treated the same as boys, but not even understanding why there should be any question about it. And thank goodness for that. But when I started work, women's salaries were certainly not equal to men's, and lots of career opportunities were still closed to women. We were also expected to leave our jobs when we were having babies - we certainly didn't get maternity pay - and most mothers I knew weren't able to find decent jobs afterwards that they could fit around their young families, unless they were teachers. We mostly made do with part-time work that typically paid us only 'pin-money': a few pounds a week, to help out with the family budget.

I'm not complaining, because I loved bringing up my children, but that was the way things were. When my kids were older I went back to work in the NHS and paid into the NHS pension scheme as well as paying my National Insurance for many years - ending up paying double N.I. because I was self-employed as a writer, as well as working at my day job. My expectation had always been to retire at sixty with a full pension - and maybe it's not fair, but I am very relieved and grateful to do so. And whilst I agree that it's only right to phase the retirement age gradually up to 65, I feel sorry for those of my contemporaries who have just missed out by a few months and will have to wait a little longer for their pensions. I also feel very sorry for younger people - including our own children - who will have to work until they are even older. I just hope that they are compensated for it by having a better lifestyle, better jobs with good salaries, and all the other benefits to life that we didn't have when we were young. The trouble is, in this current economic recession with everyone's jobs being so uncertain, I don't know whether that's true.

So I'm quite happy really about having entered the ranks of the Senior Citizens. I certainly don't feel old, and I certainly hope to keep enjoying life for a long time yet. Whether I have to pay for my swimming or not!

My Weekly story research

2009-12-15T15:16:00.000Z

I promised Julie over at 'Julie's Quest' blog a while back that I'd join her in doing some research into the magazines I have trouble getting published in. Typically of me, I bought the magazines, read a few stories, for pleasure, and didn't get any further ... so I felt quite guilty when I read Julie's excellent post about 'Take a Break' (http://jlpwritersquest.blogspot.com/2009/12/take-break-research.html) - because 'Take a Break' is the magazine I most need to get to grips with, and what have I done? Nothing!! I'm really grateful to Julie and sure I will find her research very useful - I certainly hope so as I have never managed yet to get a story in TAB.

So to make up for it, I sat down last night with My Weekly's 'Bumper Issue' (No 5000) from 28 November, and did some proper research on the stories in that. Sadly, 'My Weekly' has become a closed door for many writers, since they recently decided to stop considering submissions from anyone who hasn't had a story published there before. I can only hope they'll change their minds again in due course; but I haven't found it an easy market to target recently anyway, although I have had stories published there in the past.

The first thing that struck me about the Bumper Issue was that, out of only four short stories and one serial, TWO short stories are 'Exclusives from best-selling authors'. So it does seem as though 'My Weekly' are concentrating their efforts on not just previously published writers, but very successful writers!

The second immediately obvious point is that, although this is only a 28 November issue, ALL the stories have Christmas themes. So the scope for Christmas stories, at least in this mag, is wider than I'd realised.

The two best-selling authors in this issue are Jacqueline Winspear and Rosie Harris, and their stories of course are both great.

Jacqueline Winspear's story, 'The Scent of Love', a one-pager with a full page illustration, is about a blind girl who spends Christmas with her family who find her disabilty difficult to deal with; but the person who understands her best (apart from her faithful guide-dog), is her driver ...
What struck me about this story was that it was written from the point of view of the dog, was told in the first person and the present tense. I like writing in the first person myself, and often in the present tense, but some of the other mags discourage both of these - as they also discourage stories told from an animal's viewpoint! So it was good to see that 'My Weekly' had no such qualms - at least, not where a bestselling author is concerned!

Rosie Harris's story, 'The Christmas Wallflower', a longer 3-page story, is about two sisters, illustrating their differences (one quiet and shy, one outgoing and confident), and how at a Christmas ball, the quiet one ends up getting the man, which was a nice satisfying ending, although not altogether unexpected! This is more traditionally written in third person and past tense.

There are two other short stories in this issue - and as per My Weekly's stated requirements, these fell into specific and labelled categories: the first a 'Twist in the Tale', the second a 'Coffee-Break Tale'.

The 'Twist' story, 'An Absolute Treasure', by Deborah White, is a two-pager and again, I was pleased to see that it has some unusual elements: It's told from a male point of view, and concerns a mixed-race relationship, with a baby given up for adoption before her parents marry.
The daughter then comes into their lives again by chance as an adult. A nice idea, presented really as a love story - and worth noting that 'My Weekly', unlike 'The People's Friend' for instance, isn't afraid of stories involving babies born out of wedlock!

The 'Coffee-Break tale' is 'Clowning Around' by Stella Whitelaw - a one-page quick read, again told from an unusual point of view - that of a child, whose parents are separated and who unwillingly has to play the part of a clown in the school Christmas play - but manages to make her parents smile.

The serial is a 'Christmas Murder Mystery' - called 'The Blue Rinse Brigade' by Douglas McPherson. This 4-page instalment is the first part, and is a good, lively read about some pensioners who decide to act as civilian volunteers to help the police. I've only ever tried writing serials a couple of times - many years ago! - so this isn't really my field but it seems a good market for those who do write them.

To sum up: for those of us still currently eligible to submit to 'My Weekly', I think it's still going to be a hard nut to crack, as they obviously seem to have their pick of well-known writers.
However, I was heartened to see the variety in these stories: particularly the different viewpoints being used, indicating that the editors are more interested in a good story than in sticking to any particular rules about tense, POV, etc - and that they're publishing stories with sensitive themes like the blind girl, and the mixed-race baby given up for adoption.

So all I need to do is come up with some new ideas, presented in an unusual way, make them into cracking good stories, fit them into one of My Weekly's standard categories - and I'll still probably get nowhere, but at least I might be giving myself a chance! Good luck to anyone else targeting My Weekly in 2010 - and let's hope their submission policy gets reversed soon, to give everyone else a fair chance.

Have I got another problem?

2009-12-11T16:10:00.000Z

OK, don't answer that - I know I've got problems, haven't we all!

But this time it seems my blog is causing grief - Colette over at http://withinkfromthepinkpen.blogspot.com/ has just kindly let me know that she can't seem to post comments on this blog recently.

So this is a trial. If anyone would kindly like to try to post something (just 'Yes!' will do!) on this one... I'll guess I'll know the answer if I seem to get ignored, won't I!

Thanks for your help. I suppose I'll have to find a kind (or otherwise) helpful Help person on the Blogger Help, if it's not working - unless anyone more knowledgeable has any ideas! x

Strictly Writing - and strictly for computer dummies.

2009-12-09T17:48:00.000Z

Phew - deep breaths ... I'm just calming down from the excitement of coming back on line after yet another frustrating computer problem, to find that my guest blog post has been published on the Strictly Writing blog (http://strictlywriting.blogspot.com/2009/12/guest-blog-by-sheila-norton-thousand.html ) - fame at last! Thanks, guys for letting me have my shout on your brilliant blog. Only sorry I was late finding out about it.

Does anyone else feel like crying and throwing their toys out of the pram when they have computer problems or is it just me? I'm the first to admit that I'm technologically challenged, but we have other friends of our generation (pre-computers, almost pre-typewriters really!!), who never seem to endure the sort of frustrations we keep coming up against. It makes me feel like we must be doing something wrong! And being without the internet, even for a few days, is such a horrible experience these days, isn't it - how did we all become so dependent on it! I managed a quick visit to our village library (only open for half days on alternate days) yesterday to have a brief check of my e-mails, but it just isn't enough time to do all the things I need to do. I've now got to catch up on all my favourite blogs and writers' forums etc! Sigh!

And one of the worst things about computer failure is the way some of the experts on the Help lines speak to you. They either babble away in computer-jargon so that you haven't got a clue what they're on about, or else they adopt a really patronising attitude as soon as they realise they're dealing with someone who knows next-to-nothing. This can be even more annoying. OK, I might not understand the workings of a computer but that doesn't make me an idiot! I'm the customer, and I'd like to be spoken to with respect and a little sympathy, to have my problem taken seriously and discussed in layman's language. If a doctor can manage that when dealing with his patients (I'm on home ground here, as I worked for doctors for most of my life), then I'm sure computer technicians can manage it too. After all - for all these very superior-sounding so called Help people know, I could be a brain surgeon or a brilliant linguist or a world-famous scientist - (or even a novelist, ha ha!) - and computers could be the only one thing I'm not clever at! (I wish!).

Having said that - we do sometimes come across really helpful, polite, people on the help lines and we spoke to one recently at PC World, too, who obviously knew his stuff and was prepared to talk to us like we were human beings despite the silly questions we were asking. So if there are any IT technicians reading this - please remember all this when dealing with computer dummies! We do need your help but that doesn't make us thick!

Feature in Writer's Forum - and a successful talk

2009-12-02T20:08:00.000Z

Like all of us, I get my share of rejections and disappointments! - so it's specially gratifying when a couple of better things happen in my writing life in fairly close succession, making me feel a bit more successful again!

Hot on the heels of the publication of my story in last week's Woman's Weekly, I've now had my feature on pseudonyms published in 'Writer's Forum' magazine ('Name Games' on p44).

It's the January 2010 issue, which is out this week - weird thinking about January already when I can hardly believe it's December yet!

Several lovely fellow members of the RNA (Romantic Novelists' Association) contributed their thoughts to the article, so I hope everyone will find it interesting and informative! My 'real' photo appears on the page together with the 'young me' one that I used when I was first reinvented as Olivia. Quite amusing to see them both side by side!

I've also got a snippet in the 'Members' News' pages of the new issue of 'Writers' News', revealing my 'Olivia Ryan' identity as Sheila Norton ... I sent this in a few months ago when I first 'came out', but it's taken a while to be published! Still, it includes a bit about the latest book so I'm hoping it might catch a few readers' eyes.

The other thing might not sound particularly glamorous or amazing, but I gave a talk one evening last week to a local Rotary Club. Being an all-male club, and as the books and short stories I write tend to be quite female-oriented (although I must point out here before they contradict me, that I do have male fans and I'm dead chuffed whenever I hear from them!) - I was wondering how to target my talk and whether they'd find it interesting or if they'd all doze off after their dinner! I decided to talk about the realities of life as a writer - good and bad! - including various facts & figures, and quotes from better-known authors. And I'm pleased to say they were very appreciative and - always a good sign - I got asked lots of questions at the end. And sold some books too! So, together with the lovely meal provided for myself and the husband, it made it a successful evening for me.

I've given quite a few talks since having my books published; it's not a natural thing for me, and at first I was very nervous. But I'm a lot more confident now and actually enjoyed last week's one so I'm keen to continue building on that - it's all good PR and I hand out business cards and/or handouts about my books, as well as selling a few books if I can. I never would have thought, years ago, that I could cope confidently with this type of thing (I much prefer writing to talking!), so I'm quite chuffed to have gained a new skill at my advanced age!

And I've just seen that I've got a nice five-star reader review on Amazon for 'Tales From a Honeymoon Hotel' - which has really cheered me up!

Now to concentrate on the magazines I'm failing to 'hit'. Julie over at Julie's Quest (http://jlpwritersquest.blogspot.com/) and I, have made a joint challenge to ourselves to go back to basics by studying the relevant mags again, and trying to work out what sort of stories they're accepting and why ours aren't hitting the mark. I've just bought my first couple of 'research' issues ... so I'll be back soon with my thoughts!

Stories - old and new!

2009-11-25T10:28:00.000Z

My short story 'The Lamp' is being published in Woman's Weekly 8 December issue. I've just received my complementary copy and feel pleased with it - the illustration is lovely and the story reads OK. Do you have favourites amongst your own stories? This was one of my faves from this year - because it was inspired by the trip to Marrakech we went on, last May, with our group of friends. Re-reading it, I remembered other stories I've written, over the years, that were inspired by holidays: some of them, I know, turned out better than others! Sometimes the idea was too weak, and wasn't enough to make much more than a rather dreary 'holiday' story. Other times, there was something different about the holiday - or something different that occurred to me - that made the story a bit more special. Those, of course, were the ones that got published!

Thinking about this, yesterday I got out the file where I keep copies of all my published stories, and started looking through them. During the early 1990s, before I started seriously trying to write a novel, I had stories published quite frequently in 'Woman's Realm'. It was actually the fact that this magazine folded, that spurred me on to write the novel that eventually got published first. 'Woman's Realm' had been my best market, the editor was lovely, they paid me well - so losing it was a terrible blow, and I began to think I'd never have any short stories published again: so I became more determined to try being a novelist. At least I have them to thank for that!

Of all the stories I had published back then, I have a few favourites - stories I was really pleased with at the time, and still feel pleased with now when I re-read them. One was inspired by a holiday in France; another by a trip to the Yorkshire Dales. Travelling definitely seems to do the trick! On the other hand, lots of stories back then were also inspired by my day job: working in a hospital does give you access to lots of stories - some funny, some sad, some romantic!

It occurred to me that some of my best stories from a decade or more ago, could easily be rewritten slightly, brought up to date where necessary, and made into completely new stories to be submitted elsewhere. I've been feeling a bit short of ideas lately, so I got quite excited about this, and chose one straight away that I thought would lend itself to a re-write. With the original story out in front of me, I started tapping away at the computer. New names, new places ... the heroine would now have two young sons instead of a teenage daughter; the hero would be a doctor instead of a lawyer. A new twist occurred to me; the plot took a different course ... and suddenly, I realised something strange was happening. I wasn't just changing the original story as I went along ... I was turning it into a something completely different!

I worked on that story until quite late last night, and I'm still feeling somewhat shell-shocked. I've gone from idly wondering if it was worth changing and resubmitting some old favourites, to feeling quite fired-up at the thought of using LOTS of my old stories to simply provide some much-needed inspiration for new ones! Why hadn't I thought of this before? When the creative spark feels like it's started to flicker and die a little, it needs feeding ... so, if going off on another jaunt abroad is out of the question right now - I'll get back to looking at some more of my old favourites!

Doing what comes naturally

2009-11-22T09:39:00.000Z

I've just been reading Samantha's excellent post over at Strictly Writing ( http://strictlywriting.blogspot.com/ ) giving her Top Writing Tips. It set me to thinking about how often I've been asked, when giving talks to writers' groups etc, for tips and advice. Of course, we all have our favourite tips: I often tell would-be writers, for instance, that the best advice is just to make a start! - as so many people tell me they'll become a writer at some imagined point in the future - when the kids start school, or when they retire, etc - and I really wonder whether they ever will, if they're not motivated enough to get started right now!

But I often also repeat a quote I've seen, by Somerset Maugham, who said: 'There are three rules for writing. Unfortunately, no one can agree what they are."!

I love writers' magazines, books about writing, forums inhabited by writers, etc - and over the years, I've gleaned some wonderful advice from all of them. Just as you're never too old to learn, you're also never too experienced or successful to find out more about the inexhaustible topic of writing for publication. Not that I'm particularly succesful! - but I have been going at it for a long time - and yet I read Jane Wenham Jones' 'Wannabee a Writer' earlier this year, and found loads of helpful advice in it - presented in an easy-to-read and amusing way.

But as Samantha points out in her post, we all need to be able to filter the massive amount of advice we read, to take on board the bits that apply to us (and which work for us), and ignore the rest. Sometimes that's difficult when it seems that all the so-called 'experts' out there are saying stuff that seems to go against what comes naturally to you.

For instance, I don't think anyone would disagree that when you're fitting in your writing around a full-time job, you just have to write whenever you have the time and the energy - but it seems that once you're a full-time writer, almost everyone advises you to work to a routine. I have to keep reminding myself not to feel guilty or to feel like I'm not a 'proper writer' for completely ignoring this advice! It just doesn't suit me - since not having a day job, I like to be flexible and write at whatever time I feel inclined on different days.

I'm giving a talk at a Rotary Club this week and I've no doubt I'll give out some of my so-called pearls of wisdom about becoming a writer! - it's what people usually want to hear. But since reading Samantha's post and mulling all this over, I'll definitely also add the caveat that my tips might have worked for me - don't necessarily expect them to work for you. Writing isn't an exact science, where you can learn the 'rules' like a maths lesson (God forbid!) and expect to get 10 out of 10 or a gold star (showing my age, there!) for getting them all right. So if you like using adverbs, for instance, or you think you might be doing a bit of Telling instead of Showing - but it seems to work, and feels right - don't beat yourself up. Trust yourself to break or bend a rule or two and see what happens!

A Rainy Living Library Day; but good news on a feature

2009-11-15T18:10:00.000Z

Well, the 'Living Library' Day yesterday could not possibly have been on a worse day, from the weather point of view, could it! The rain was beating down and the wind was blowing a gale as I drove there - and the library was pretty much deserted all afternoon! I felt sorry for the organisers as it could have been such a nice event.

There were only three of us 'living books' for the afternoon session: the fourth, a dog breeder, had dropped out because his staff were off sick - presumably he needed to be there to breed the dogs! Pity, because it would have been interesting to talk to him. Apparently there were four 'living books' for the morning session too, including a nun and a funeral director! Hmm. Well, the other afternoon people were a man who worked for the Royal British Legion, who was responsible for distributing money from the Poppy Appeal in Essex, and a lady who makes willow sculptures, and also lectures at a local college, running courses in working with willow and other horticultural subjects. The three of us did manage to find plenty to chat about all afternoon, which was just as well! - as we only had two genuine 'readers' (who we shared between all three of us). And one of those hadn't actually come to the library to talk to us - we just saw him looking lost and called him over, and he was too polite to refuse!

Well, I hope they decide to try it again, (perhaps in the summer!) - as I'd certainly agree to take part again and see if we can get it some better publicity next time. I suppose I'm quite used to taking part in events where only a handful of people turn up so it didn't seriously disappoint me!

On a more positive note, I finally had confirmation on Friday from the 'Writers' Forum' editor that he's going to use my feature on writing under a pseudonym in the January issue (due out at the beginning of December). I'm looking forward to seeing that published as I spoke to lots of authors about their experiences, for it, and I'm hoping people will find it interesting. I'll let you all know when it's out.

The new novel is finished and I've started the submission process; and meanwhile I've got a few rejected short stories to 're-work' and send out again. And a talk to prepare for a Rotary Club booking next week. Hopefully there will be more than two people there!

A Living Book - me???

2009-11-08T10:31:00.000Z

I've taken part in quite a few library events since I've written my books - mostly giving talks about how I got published and so on. But this coming Saturday, I've been invited to take part in a rather unusual event at one of the libraries near me (Ingatestone Library in Essex). It's a Living Library Day. The idea is that I, and other so-called 'experts' - (which is very amusing in itself as I don't think I'm an expert in anything, except perhaps drinking too much beer and managing not to fall over) - will act as 'living books' on our subject. My subject of course is writing and getting published, not drinking beer unfortunately! We 'books' then get 'borrowed' by readers, who 'read' us by sitting with us, asking us questions about our subject.

I don't know who the other 'living books' are, but the Readers' Guide says 'books may represent prejudices, stereotypes or experiences', which sounds intriguing. And apparently we 'books' are encouraged to chat to each other while we're sitting on the shelf waiting to be borrowed! So it could be interesting. Sounds like it could end up with books arguing amongst themselves!

The rules include the fact that 'living books' may not be taken out of the library - bit of a shame if I happen to get borrowed by any fit young men, or anyone who'd like to take me to the pub to read me! - and also that 'living books' may return themselves to the shelves if they should encounter any rudeness or aggression from readers.

It sounds like it could be fun - hope so, anyway! My only real concern is that I might end up 'on the shelf' for the whole afternoon with nobody borrowing me, which could be a tad humiliating - but then again, no more humiliating than book signings I've done in the past where I've sat on my own the whole time, chewing my pen!

Well, it's all good PR if nothing else. And back when my first Sheila Norton book was published, I made a promise to myself that I wouldn't turn down any opportunities like this if I could help it.
I'll let you know how it goes!

Coming to The End

2009-11-05T12:30:00.000Z

Which part of writing a story, or a book, do you enjoy most? Looking at the blank screen in front of you, deciding where to start? Oooh no - that may be exciting but it can also be scary and overwhelming, especially at the start of a novel. The middle - if it's all going well and you're enjoying it and have a bit more idea where it's going? Yes, that can be exhilarating and even quite surprising when ideas come out of nowhere and characters sometimes do things you didn't even plan!

But for me, the lead-up to the end is often the most exciting. Not that I'm particularly good at endings - sometimes, especially with short stories, I change the last couple of sentences lots of times before I'm happy that they're snappy enough. But approaching the final chapter of a 100,000 word novel can be a great adrenalin rush. I've been at that stage this week, and I could hardly bear to be away from the computer - I knew exactly how I wanted to finish the story, and how I wanted to get there, but of course, it couldn't be rushed ... and the very last words of the last chapter had to be just right. Typing them made me want to shout Hooray!!

But then ... oh dear. That very first chapter, that I've been worrying about all the way through but was determined not to go back to until I'd finished the book, now needs some attention - and I've got no excuse for putting it off any more! Not so good.

And then ... the dreaded submission process to 'look forward to'. Enough said!

Ah well. 'The end' isn't actually the end at all, of course!

Lovely Blog!

2009-11-03T17:17:00.000Z

I'm very excited and proud to say I've been passed this 'Lovely Blog' award by Teresa Ashby - whose own blog 'A Likely Story' at http://www.teresaashby.blogspot.com is one of my favourites, and who is such a successful writer I can't think how she has time to write such a lively and interesting blog! I'm very honoured and surprised that Teresa has chosen mine. Thank you, Teresa!

It's now my turn to pass the award on to someone whose blog I admire. Oh dear. I feel like I used to when my children were little, and they asked me to choose the best one out of their works of art or stories, etc. How to choose, when you love them all? I'm sure this is why I'm now such an indecisive person - all those years of saying 'Well, yours is the nicest drawing, but she's used the best colours, and she's chosen the most unusual subject ...' etc!

I'd like to nominate so many of you - everyone whose blogs I follow - because obviously they're all my favourites. But I'm going to settle for Julie of Julie's Quest, at www.jlpwritersquest.blogspot.com , because I've been so impressed by the progress she's been making as a writer during the time I've been following her blog, by the sheer amount of work she puts in, and by her lovely attitude. Julie - I'm afraid I can't remember if you've already received one of these! - if you haven't, you should have done! And if you have, then my apologies for doubling up but it's obviously well deserved! The procedure seems to be that you now choose someone else to pass on the award to. Well done Julie and keep up the good work with your Lovely Blog!

Back to reality!

2009-10-27T19:38:00.000Z

I seem to have been away from the blog for ages. Well, I've been away from everything for ages!
Ten days in Northern Cyprus - and it felt like I was away for ever. It was such a relaxing place, and there were no computers at the hotel (they had WiFi, but I don't take my laptop on holiday with me - a notebook and pen is all I allow myself!). So I decided to be brave, stay away from internet cafes etc, and NOT check my e-mails, Facebook or anything else for ten whole days. It felt quite strange. How on earth did we manage before the internet, mobile phones, etc?

When I got home and looked at the hundreds of e-mails that had accumulated while I was away, I found one offering me a date to speak on a panel of local authors at the Essex Book Festival next year. Luckily my writer friends who are also going to be on the panel knew that I was on holiday and not just ignoring this fantastic opportunity! And luckily the date looks fine - well, it's not till next March, and I don't tend to be that much in demand! Last time I was booked to do a talk at the Essex Book Festival, a couple of years ago, the event was cancelled due to lack of support. I was pretty mortified, although I know this is just the sort of thing we not-well-known authors have to expect. So this time, having the support of a group of friends on the panel, I'm hoping we'll attract more of an audience! We all write different types of books so I think it should be fun. I'll tell you more, a lot nearer the time. (Fingers crossed!).

Since then I've been invited to talk at a local Rotary Club meeting next month, and am already booked to talk at a U3A meeting in January. Makes me think that maybe I'm more popular for giving talks than I am for writing books!!

Of course, by now the holiday seems like ages ago. It didn't help that when we got back, we found out that my mum-in-law, who was staying here while we were away (she likes to have a change of scenery from her little flat, and also cat-sits for us), had a fall almost as soon as we left, and broke her arm! What with Eldest Daughter breaking her wrist just before her wedding - I hope we're not making a habit of this as a family! Luckily, Middle Daughter and son-in-law were kind enough to come and stay, with baby Noah, the whole time we were away, to look after poor Mum-in-Law. She'll now be with us for some time, as she can't manage on her own, one-handed.

Fortunately Eldest Daughter's wrist seems to be mending well and she & New son-in-law had a wonderful honeymoon in Mauritius. Meanwhile Youngest Daughter & other son-in-law (keep up!!) went to Turkey for a week to celebrate their first anniversary - and all of us had beautiful weather and stayed in lovely places.

And the nicest thing about coming home from holiday - apart from seeing the family of course! -
is that NOW, I don't have that sinking feeling any more, about going back to work. My work is my hobby, my hobby is my work, and I know I'm so lucky. All I need is to earn a little money from it now (please!) to make it perfect! So - back to work. A book to finish, more short stories to write, and a talk to prepare soon. In between visiting my gorgeous grandson!

Re-writes - and a welcome break

2009-10-10T10:34:00.000+01:00

We're off for a quick holiday in Cyprus on Tuesday and I'll be taking with me, for 'relaxation', two short stories recently rejected by one magazine, printed out so that I can take my red pen to them, chop them about and re-write them sufficiently to re-submit elsewhere when I get back. Am I a bit strange for actually enjoying this process? Of course, it goes without saying that I'd prefer every short story I submit to be accepted by the first editor I send it to! But as that's unrealistic, the next best thing is to have a rejection accompanied, as these two both were, by a nice letter from a lovely editor who has taken the time to explain why the story wasn't quite suitable for them. Even better, a letter (or e-mail) saying that they liked the story but would like a few changes made before reconsidering it. This, too, has happened to me twice recently, and I've spent most of the past week doing the necessary re-writes. I think the reason this is enjoyable is that the actual creative work has been done, and this editing and re-writing is improving the story or giving it another shot at acceptance - so it's a hopeful situation and takes the dejection out of rejection!

I'd intended to work on my new novel this week, as I'm at a nice stage (80,000 words plus), where I can see the ending in my mind, know the main 'happenings' I want to include on the way, and can't wait to get there - but the short story re-writes seemed an easier job to get done before going on holiday. Of course, finishing the novel won't actually be the finish of it at all - I'll then be going back to the beginning, reading, editing, hopefully improving - before presuming to send it out to be read by anyone. And yes, if I get to the stage where any agent or editor wants me to re-write it, just as with the short stories, I'll be very willing to do so. (I've done it before, it was a huge undertaking, but it was definitely worth it to get the book published!).

This holiday will be a welcome break after all the excitement of our baby grandson's arrival and our daughter's lovely wedding last week. I don't know whether it's all part of getting older, but even happy, exciting occasions seem to leave me feeling shattered these days! I know I'll be anxious to get home again, though, to see how much baby Noah has grown while we're away - at one month old now, he's already a big bouncy boy! and I'm looking forward to his first smiles!

Here he is sleeping his way through the wedding reception!

The wedding was just perfect. We haven't got any 'proper' photos yet of course, but here are a couple of our own.

I know all brides look lovely and I might be slightly biased (!) but my daughter did look stunning. I only cried a little bit! Should be getting used to it by now - the third and final wedding! The bridesmaids - our other two lovely daughters and the bride's best friend - looked beautiful too in lovely shade of royal blue. So that's it now - all three happily married, job done! Cyprus, here we come!

Fame at last!

2009-10-06T15:42:00.000+01:00

One of the stories I sold earlier this year to Woman's Weekly ('Nothing To Wear') has just been published in the October/November Fiction Special - and to my surprise, I'm mentioned in big green letters on the front cover! (along with Simon Brett, a great and very funny writer who I heard speaking a few years back at a writing event and who also has a story in the same issue). In case you should see a copy of it, it's my own name (Sheila Norton) you need to look out for by the way - I write my short stories as myself rather than Olivia!

Simon and I are described on the cover as 'This Month's Big Names'! - wow! I've been called a lot of things in my time, but never before have I been called a big name! I did a lot of whooping and exclaiming about it while unpacking the shopping this morning and heating up soup for lunch, and then nearly spilled the soup when I looked inside the magazine to see my story and Simon's described in the index as the 'Bestsellers Collection'. Well, this is really very nice of Gaynor and Clare at WW, in fact I feel like kissing them both, as I'm not exactly a bestseller, but just for the little while that this issue of the Fiction Special sits proudly on my desk, I can pretend and dream that I am!

It's nice to see that I'm also sharing this issue with Teresa Ashby of 'A Likely Story' blog, whose story 'Always' is in there too. I feel very privileged! This has taken the sting, a little, out of yet another rejection that also arrived today - hey, can't be a big name and a bestseller ALL the time! Wouldn't want to get too used to it, would I! (or would I?)!

I'll write another post very soon about the wedding, with some pictures - it was fabulous. But meanwhile here's the picture of my Waterstones book-signing that I couldn't download before.

Book signing - and story flopping

2009-09-28T21:19:00.001+01:00

My signing at Waterstone's on Saturday went well - I sold about a dozen books, which was a definite improvement on another occasion some time ago when I sold one! Several of my customers were lovely friends and acquaintances who had turned up to support me, but I did also manage to chat to lots of people who were browsing in the shop, gave them handouts about my books and websites, and a couple of sales resulted from this. (I've tried four times to insert a picture here, but it keeps crashing the site and I've now lost my patience as well as the will to live, so this will have to go out picture-less!).

Sadly, the good writing news stops there, as today I came home to the news of THREE rejected short stories in one e-mail - a bit harsh, I thought, although would it have been any less disappointing if they'd all been rejected separately? Probably not!

But family news is more promising, with the wedding now only days away, and the bride-to-be has had the plaster cast taken off her wrist today so she's very happy!

I promise to write more on the blog after the wedding!

I'm going to be at Waterstones!

2009-09-23T14:09:00.000+01:00

If any Essex girls (or boys!) are reading this, and you happen to be in or around Chelmsford on Saturday (26th), please do pop in to Waterstones in the High Street between 12 and 1pm to give me some moral support for my first book signing there!

I'll try to explain why this is such a big deal for me.

As soon as my first Sheila Norton book was published in 2003, I did as much as possible to promote my work, especially in my local Essex area. I held my own launch/book signing parties, gave interviews to local papers and magazines, gave talks at libraries, writing groups, book groups etc, and (scarily) had interviews on local radio stations. I even starred in Boots 'Health & Beauty' magazine in a feature about women who had achieved something special 'later in life' (I tried not to feel insulted (!), as it was great publicity, and involved a photo-shoot at a country house in Surrey, being made up and dressed up and given a free lunch. I was terrified by all of it apart from the free lunch!).

All of this had to stop when, after my fifth book, I became reinvented as Olivia Ryan. My publishers wanted the Olivia books to be established in their own right before anyone knew Olivia's identity, so I could only reveal my pseudonym to my family and a handful of close friends. I couldn't tell any of the local shops, papers, etc about my new books or make any public appearances. It was quite difficult and frustrating although I had to trust my publishers that this was for the best in the long run. The exception was my local independent bookshop: I entrusted them with my secret because they had been so fantastically supportive to me - so when they closed down, earlier this year, it was devastating.

With the release of 'Tales from a Honeymoon Hotel', I've been given the go-ahead to reveal my identity - so I've once again been able to appear in the local press, give talks, and have contacted all my local bookshops asking for their support.

Most authors who aren't in the best-selling bracket will know what I mean when I say that it can be quite demoralising looking out for your books in the big book chains, and even more demoralising asking if they're intending to stock them! I'm sure most local branches would love to support their local authors, but are often restricted to what they are told to order by their head offices. So it was with great excitement that I heard back from my local Chelmsford Waterstones, a few months back, that they would indeed like to give me a Saturday lunchtime slot for a book signing.

Yay! At last!!

Now, all I need is Rent-A-Crowd so that I can get one of those mile-long queues in the High Street, like we see when the likes of Jordan are up there signing their books. If they sell out of books, so much the better - they'll have to take orders!

I know, I know - dream on, girl! I've done a book-signing in the past (in a little shop in Leigh on Sea that doesn't exist any more), where the only two copies of the book I sold were to the owner of the shop and the other author sharing my slot!! So I know I'm far more likely to be humiliated by the turn-out than overwhelmed by it! But dreams are good, dreams keep us going - and my dream, this time, is that the event is so successful, Waterstones head office will order mega-loads for all their other branches and I'll get a new publisher offering me a huge contract for the next book.

Or maybe I'll just write a short story about someone who has very exciting and unrealistic dreams!

Real life dramas

2009-09-16T21:38:00.001+01:00

My writing continues to be neglected - for all the best reasons. Baby Noah is now one week old - actually I don't think I've recovered yet from the angst and eventual excitement of last Monday, in fact I think my daughter has recovered better than I have!!

Added to which, we've also just had the excitement of Eldest Daughter's hen weekend. I feel very grateful that I was invited on all three of my lovely daughters' hen weekends. I know these occasions are mostly for their own friends, and would not have expected an invite but was hugely honoured. All three of them have been fantastic fun and despite being (very nearly) an OAP, I wasn't treated as an old fogey by any of the girls! On this occasion, we stayed in a big house in the outskirts of Bath.

It was a beautiful place, with lots of rooms, a big kitchen and dining room, big garden with a sauna - just perfect.

On the Saturday night we dressed up the 'Hen', as you'd expect, and as we were going into Bath for the evening, it had been agreed we should all wear the appropriate headgear - bath hats!

Unfortunately during the course of the evening the Hen took a bit of a tumble on the dance floor and ended up with a painful swollen wrist. The next day we made her a sling out of a scarf, gave her painkillers and suggested ice and elevation - all of us convinced she'd sprained it.

When we got home it was still painful so her fiance took her to A&E to have it checked out. It turned out to be fractured - and was put in a temporary cast. My poor daughter was distraught, as the wedding is now only two and a half weeks off and not only was she facing the prospect of getting married with her arm in plaster but the possibility of her honeymoon being postponed. Apparently some airlines won't fly anyone wearing a cast because of DVT risks.

Well, after a worrying couple of days, we've been back to the fracture clinic today and although she's now in a proper cast, on hearing the circumstances, the doctor immediately agreed it could come off before the wedding and be replaced by a splint, which in turn can come off for the wedding ceremony. I feel almost as worn out by the trauma of all this as the bride-to-be does!

I'm sure this will all find its way into a story before too long ... what a shame I wrote 'Tales From a Hen Weekend' a few years back. Hmm. 'More Tales from more Hen Weekends'??

I've had one short story accepted by People's Friend recently, and one rejected, so my score for the year hasn't changed much! The rejected story has of course been turned around and sent back out again.

Meanwhile ... I'm busy with preparations for my Big Special Birthday party this Saturday, and praying hard that it won't be a cold, wet evening as there will be about 40 people here and we need to open the doors onto the garden or we'll be sitting on each other's laps. And there's yet another exciting piece of news - on returning from the Hen Weekend, my daughters announced that their birthday present to me from themselves and their 'other halves' is: tickets for the Coldplay concert at Wembley this Friday!! I am SO excited - I've wanted to see Coldplay live for ages - what a fantastic present.

What with all the form-filling-in that seems to be necessary for the privilege of becoming an OAP - pension claim forms, forms for the Taxman (over and above the usual annual tax return, which I haven't faced yet), bus pass form (good one, that!), etc, etc, it's probably just as well I no longer have a Day Job, or I'd never fit in the time I need to see my baby grandson!

One more photo of him ....
... and that's me finished on the computer for tonight. Normal service will be resumed after things have calmed down a bit!

It's a Boy!

2009-09-08T21:15:00.000+01:00

Right now, I don't care about whether my stories are going to be accepted or not. I don't even care, right this minute, whether I'm going to get my next book published. And before you faint in shock or ask whether I've finally flipped, take a look at this picture and you'll see why!

This is our beautiful new grandson, Noah George, who arrived safely (and finally! nearly 2 weeks late!) at half past eleven last night. He's my middle daughter's baby - and she was only 6 and a half pounds when she was born all those years ago ... so we were all pretty shocked that Noah weighed in at a hefty 9 pounds, 6 ounces!

Yesterday was the longest day I've had to endure since ... well, since my own three babies were born. In fact I think in some ways it was harder (well maybe not! But emotionally harder) than having a baby myself. Knowing what my own 'baby' was going through, but not being there to help her and wondering, all day, how her labour was progressing but not wanting to keep bothering them with calls or messages - it was, (as even my husband said), torture! And then after we got the good news do you think I could sleep?? The adrenalin was flowing so madly I felt like I wanted to sprint round the block - not that I've ever sprinted anywhere, and certainly not round our block at gone midnight, but you get the picture!

It was a home birth - but because the baby was so late, it was looking like my daughter would have to be admitted to hospital to be induced, so they were very happy that Noah finally decided to get his act together just in the nick of time. We've been round there today of course, and although they're both tired, daughter and son-in-law are so happy and relaxed, that I can see the benefits of the whole home birth thing. My babies were all born in hospital and everything was absolutely fine - I didn't even consider a home birth, but it seems to be encouraged again now.

Sorry this post isn't about writing and sorry I've neglected following everyone's blogs, but I haven't even turned on the computer for writing - only for e-mailing family & friends etc - since yesterday morning, and I wonder how long it will be before I feel like getting back to it! Especially as I'm off on Eldest Daughter's hen weekend on Friday, and then preparing for my

Rather Special Birthday party the following weekend, to be swiftly followed by the wedding 2 weeks after that! Do other families have everything happening all at once like this, or is it just us???

OK - one last photo - here's me with the baby, and I think I look a lot more tired and unkempt than my daughter!! It's very tiring being a new grandmother, I can tell you! I think I need a few drinks tonight to get over it!

Fan mail

2009-09-02T12:27:00.000+01:00

I don't get a lot of fan mail. I'm not well-known enough, or successful enough, and I'm the first to admit that most of the e-mails I receive saying someone enjoyed one of my books, are from friends and family who know how much I need the boost!

However ... it does happen. Occasionally, and unexpectedly, I get a response from one of my websites, and I'm always terribly thrilled and excited, probably out of all proportion to the actual event. The thing is, I recognise that for somebody to take the trouble, after reading a book, to look up the author on the internet, browse their website and then go even further and send a message - they must have REALLY enjoyed the book! I treasure those messages, because (sad and desperate though it sounds!), it means there are actually strangers out there who appreciate my work - they're not all friends of my daughters who have been cajoled into supporting me (bless them) or local people in Essex who got curious after reading my 'bit' in the local paper - they're genuine fans! Whoopee!

Amongst the messages I've treasured most, are those coming from abroad, and (this might sound odd) those that still occasionally come in on my Sheila Norton website about my earlier books - because it's so nice to think that they're still being read and enjoyed.

A particularly gratifying message recently came from a 21-year-old, who said she loved 'The Trouble With Ally' (very first book - middle-aged heroine), because reading about an older woman having so much fun, made her feel better about the thought of getting older! Ha! So much for younger readers not liking to read about older heroines!

And best of all (and probably most surprising) are those - like one I received yesterday - from male readers. This nice chap - again commenting on www.sheilanorton.co.uk - said that although I described my books as women's fiction, he had loved reading them, and was pleased to see that I'd written some more as Olivia. That was another very satisfying thought - that there are men out there enjoying the books. What a pity we have to categorise all our fiction these days in order to market it!

The only other guy that ever got in touch with me out of the blue was an American, who said his wife had made him read books like mine in the hope of 'making him more romantic'. He wrote to tell me that he did identify with one of my male characters - but didn't like reading about wives leaving their husbands and hoped that wasn't going to happen in my next book. The next book was already written - and I wasn't about to change the plot. So unfortunately, I never heard from him again!

The truth about short stories - rejections and acceptances

2009-08-26T14:20:00.000+01:00

One of my fellow-bloggers, Julie of Julie's Quest (http://jlpwritersquest.blogspot.com/), has been brave enough recently to give details of her short story 'tally' for the year so far. Julie's writing output is as admirable as her attitude; she realises that we all have to accept the inevitable rejections and keep on trying, keep on submitting, if we're going to improve our success ratio.

This made me realise that it's quite helpful to hear about other writers' rejections as well as their successes! We all enjoy celebrating with each other when we've had an acceptance, a sale, a publication - but we quite often prefer to keep the bad news quiet, with the result that aspiring writers could fall into the trap of believing that those of us who are already published, don't have rejections or failures at all! And I think it's reassuring to know that - ahem! Yes, we certainly do.

So I had a count-up myself. My situation with short stories is that I was fairly widely published in magazines (under my own name, Sheila Norton) during the 1990s, but after I had my first novel published in 2002 I had to concentrate on the books, because I was still working full-time so the short stories had to take a back seat. Once I left the day job last year, I had more time and a lot less money (!) so I needed to get back into the short story market again. And this time around, after a gap of only 5 or 6 years, it's been even harder as there are less magazines publishing fiction, and different requirements everywhere.

Of course, I had plenty of rejections first time around, too - it was never easy. But it took me most of last year, while I was recovering from my operation, to get myself back into short story writing 'mode'. So now I'm full-on into submitting stories again, (alongside writing a new novel, which by the way also hasn't been accepted yet!) - what's my score?

Strangely enough, like Julie I've sent out exactly THIRTY stories this year. Of those, a mere FIVE were accepted for publication by the first magazine I submitted to. A further FOUR have been accepted following at least one rejection. Two of those were accepted on the third attempt; one was finally accepted this year, following six rejections when I was submitting prior to 2002 - and one further rejection this year! Of course - I'd been changing, updating and improving it each time it bounced back, but I'm telling you this to make the point that it does happen! Just ONE story has been put in the 'given up' section of my card-index system because after four rejections, I decided it just wasn't good enough and I couldn't do any more to improve it.

I now have TWENTY stories still 'out there'. Of these, SEVEN have been rejected by at least one magazine and are awaiting a decision from another one. The remaining THIRTEEN are still waiting for a decision from the first editor I've sent them to.

So you can see from this that, even with a reasonable track record, I'm by no means getting, and certainly not expecting, anywhere near a hit every time! I AM hoping, though, that each success will give me a little more 'credibility' with the editors, and bring my 'score' a little higher. Even if that doesn't happen - I'm working hard, enjoying every minute of it, and am thrilled to bits every time I have a story accepted. That's NINE so far this year, out of thirty submissions. But it's the twenty still out there that hold the promise ... they're the ones I focus on, because they are still possibilities. And I think it's important to have as many stories in that category as we can - to keep us hopeful.

The main points I wanted to get across, from this, are:
Firstly, don't give up too readily - send out those rejected stories again. What one editor hates, another might love. But of course, make sure the story is adapted for each different market. And do be prepared to give up eventually, if you've flogged it to death and realise it's never going to happen.
Secondly, please don't think, if you feel like you're getting more rejections than you were prepared for, that it's just you. It is par for the course - part of a writer's life - and not only beginner writers - we ALL get rejections; we all hate them, they're disappointing, and frustrating, but they are an inevitable part of it.

I hope this helps someone, somewhere, to feel just a little bit reassured! Good luck with those submissions - we need it!

Hospital Stories

2009-08-17T20:40:00.000+01:00

How much do you use the experiences of your own working life in your writing? The reason I ask is that I've been saddened by all the criticism of the NHS coming from people in America who don't know much about it - because I spent most of my life working for the NHS and although I'd be the first to admit it's not perfect, I do believe in it passionately and feel aggrieved that people don't appreciate how lucky we are to have it.

What's this got to do with my writing? Well, I've often used hospital life as the background to my short stories: it was obviously easy for me to do so, being surrounded by it all day every day! - and (as is evident from the popularity of TV programmes like Holby, ER, Casualty etc), I think most people enjoy a good 'hospital story'.

Why? Well ... for a start, the range of characters is fantastic. All human life is there - and that's just the staff! Doctors, nurses, technicians, secretaries, porters, cleaners, kitchen workers, radiographers, therapists ... I won't go on, but you get the picture. One of the things I loved about my job was the mix of people we worked with - young and old, all backgrounds, all nationalities, creeds, origins - I learnt such a lot, over the years, just working with so many amazing colleagues.

And then there are the patients: a never-ending source of interest! There were dear old souls who were so poorly, so lonely, so bereaved or bereft it would break your heart, but they were sweet, patient and uncomplaining. Sometimes they just wanted someone to talk to. Then there were the bad-tempered ones, often suffering from no more than an injury sustained in a drunken brawl - demanding special treatment, or being rude and aggressive - but was it because they were actually nervous of hospitals and doctors? There were frightened children, worried parents, people given bad news, others making wonderful recoveries from operations that couldn't even have been contemplated a few years previously. The stories I soaked up, doing my job, were sometimes sad, sometimes heartening, often moving but sometimes funny: a perfect mental megastore of memories to revisit and work into fiction.

Once, I wrote a story about two male doctors having an argument about their girlfriends - which was rejected by the editor I first sent it to, with the words: 'I can't believe doctors would be so childish or spend their time discussing such trivial things'. The story was (very loosely!) based on a true incident, and I showed that editor's response to the young doctors involved - who fell about laughing!

Best of all, I decided to use the hospital background for my third Sheila Norton novel - 'Body & Soul'. When I proposed the idea of the book to my then-editor, she was a bit dubious. She felt that although TV hospital drama was popular, it might not translate well to a novel. But she agreed to look at the first few chapters - and I'm pleased to say, immediately changed her mind. Because I only used the hospital setting as a background - making the characters the focus of the story rather than going into too much technical detail about medicine or surgery - she agreed that it worked well. It went on to sell to an American publisher and has been translated into Portuguese and Russian.

I've written features about the hospital where I used to work for my local paper, and during my years of working there I also co-wrote and co-edited a staff newsletter, and helped to write sketches and songs for hospital shows. When I won my short story awards, and then years later when my first novel was accepted for publication, the support and encouragement I got from staff at the hospital was just fantastic. Working in a large hospital was great for promotional purposes too, as word spread around the hospital community and I was constantly asked for signed copies!

My working life was often difficult, stressful and certainly not helped by targets, rulings and regulations handed down from government, by constant changes to the organisation and heirarchy of hospital management, or by chronic shortage of staff. But on the other hand, it was rewarding and rich in experience, companionship and teamwork.

Sadly, it's the politics in hospitals that often cause their problems - and in my case, they caused my own downfall. The Trust that employed me failed to support me when a technicality in my contract put my job at risk, and sadly my career with the NHS was cut short a few years before my official retirement - so I went on to experience a whole new world of work, in a surveyors' practice, before leaving to undergo a big operation myself. I still feel cheated and sad that things ended the way they did - but I was a casualty of mismanagement at the top of the Trust, and the tactics of central government.

I don't remember the years before the NHS, which was founded the year before I was born - and I think it's a pity that so few of us do, or we might appreciate it more. My 97-year old auntie told me the story, recently, of being admitted to a hospital in London at the age of 8, to have her tonsils out. She had to share a bed (sleeping at the other end) with a male soldier who was being treated for injuries from World War 1. And when she cried for her mother, a nurse slapped her round the face. 'I didn't think that was very nice,' she told me, quite mildly. Her mother - my grandmother - would have been paying for that treatment - but in those days, nobody complained, much less sued, the hospital. My own mother had her tonsils removed by the family doctor, in the kitchen at home.

There are plenty more stories where those came from! I'll never run out of ideas - thanks to the good old NHS!

Facebook - should I face it??

2009-08-07T12:22:00.000+01:00

OK - come on, tell me, everyone - why do I need a Facebook account? I want to know, seriously.

I've been invited by lots of people to join Facebook, and yes, I'm tempted, of course I'm tempted - I don't want to be the only person in the universe left out of something that seems to be so much fun! Or does it? My husband joined recently, under pressure from some new friends (as in, real live friends!) - but having joined, says he can't see the point of it and hardly ever bothers with it.

Being a writer, and spending so many hours on the computer anyway - and having now ditched the day job so that I do have (ahem!) a little more time to explore all these brave new worlds - I'm actually a lot more interested in social networking than he is. But so far, I've held back - and the only reason is that I'm worried about ending up spending all my time on these other pursuits, and actually squeezing my writing time out of existence!

I already have two websites to maintain (one as Olivia Ryan and one in my real name, Sheila Norton), two blogs (I started http://thewritewomanblogspot.blogspot.com before this one), two e-mail accounts, a Snapfish account where I post my photos, and I belong to the RNA forum as well as following lots of other writers' blogs. I know I'm not alone - from what I hear, most writers seem to have at least this amount of 'networking' outlets, if not more - lots now use Twitter, too, as well as Facebook.

I'm not of the generation that has grown up with conducting their entire social life on the internet, and to be honest I wouldn't want that, at all. Like a lot of writers, I enjoy working in solitary confinement (!) and it would be all too easy to do this, neglecting 'real' social interaction and eventually turning into a hermit! But I hope I'm not yet old enough, either, to dismiss everything that's new, different, and technologically (for me!) complicated, as not worth bothering with.

So where does that leave me? I'd like some honest advice from others who, like me, enjoy a bit of social networking on the internet, but don't want to spend half their lives on it. Am I missing out? Should I learn to Facebook, prod, nudge, twit, etc? What are the benefits? Tell me, please!
I'll be very grateful !

Persistence pays! (sometimes ...)

2009-07-27T20:40:00.000+01:00

I've just been following Gonna Be A Writer's comments on her blog http://gonna-be-a-writer.blogspot.com/ - about how many rejections a published author might have, before getting a novel accepted. It prompted me to check back in my files, to remind myself what happened when I was sending out 'The Trouble With Ally' - the first book I had published (as Sheila Norton, my own name).

It actually took even longer than I remembered! I first sent it out to agents in September 1999, and it was accepted by Piatkus in February 2002. I didn't keep all the rejection letters - I think I probably found most of them too depressing to keep! - but I did keep a few, including one from a major publisher which stated that I had 'a bright, confident style and a gift for amusing dialogue', and that the novel was 'quite publishable' ... but it wasn't for them! Even though they rejected the book, I remember being thrilled with that particular letter! But not, of course, as thrilled as I was with the e-mail dated 13 February 02, which told me there was an offer letter in the post to me. I remember sitting at my computer crying when I read it - I could hardly believe it was finally happening.

If that lengthy time span is depressing for would-be novelists, all I can say is that I didn't give up because (having already abandoned several previous attempts at novels which I knew weren't good enough) - I always had a feeling that 'The Trouble with Ally' was good enough to make it, if only someone would agree with me! And secondly, throughout that waiting period, I continued to write short stories, so that I had some acceptances to cheer me up and keep me going, and I also wrote my second novel, 'Other People's Lives'. I was glad I did, because Piatkus offered me a two-book contract, and I'd almost finished the second book by then.

On the subject of persistence, I've recently sold a couple of stories to magazines, which had been turned down several times already. You know how sometimes you have to accept that a story wasn't that great, and file it under 'given up' - but at other times, you think that it's worth a bit of tweaking, a bit of improving, lengthening or cutting, and sending out elsewhere? Well, both of these had been revamped and re-written to within an inch of their lives by the time they finally got accepted (by different magazines) - proving that it's still possible to sell something even when you've almost exhausted all the possibilities.

I'd like to say 'don't ever give up' - but I know, as well as anyone, the angst that can be caused by disappointments and rejections. I'd been writing as a hobby for several decades before having that first novel accepted - and have had some painful rejections since, too. It never gets easier!

But sometimes, the waiting game does pay off. So good luck to everyone out there who's waiting for responses!

Writing under a pseudonym

2009-07-18T09:29:00.000+01:00

Sometimes it's such a relief to get something off your chest! That's how I feel now that my publisher has agreed it's OK to reveal my 'double life' as a writer-under-a-pseudonym.

It's been a well-kept secret for over two years now; during that time it's been fun, if at times challenging! - being two people at once. I'd already had five novels published under my real name (Sheila Norton) when I wrote 'Tales from a Hen Weekend' . My editor decided this was a particularly strong idea that could lead to a new series, so she wanted to 're-brand' me under a new name - without linking the two names, until the Olivia name was sufficiently established.

And now - with the publication of the third book in the series, I've been given the go-ahead to 'come clean'. It's good finally to drop the secrecy, and has given me the chance to do some promotion of the latest book myself, without having to wear a mask whenever I go out! (I'm joking, of course, but when the previous two books were launched I couldn't actually make any public appearances as Olivia in my local area where people already knew me by my real name).

It's been an interesting experience - one I never anticipated when I started writing, as I was always happy using my real name. But I've now given two talks on the subject of writing under a pseudonym so I have a new area of 'expertise'!

I'm sure there are lots of other writers out there who use a pseudonym - or maybe more than one pseudonym! - and probably for lots of different reasons. I'd love to hear from anyone who wants to share their experiences.

Books and Booze

2009-07-07T09:56:00.000+01:00

Last night's launch party went well - if anyone who came along is reading this, thanks again for your support and I hope you all enjoyed yourselves! Jeremy from Swan Books in Upminster - who someone referred to during the evening as my 'tame bookseller' - did a great job selling books for me, taking the heat off me as I hate having to 'think money' while concentrating on signing books and (of course) socialising!

It's great to have a good relationship with a local independent bookseller - that's him with me in the pic - as it's so beneficial to both of us. Independent bookshops will do all they can to support their local authors, and of course the more of my books he can sell, the better it is for him as well as for me.

Signing books as 'Olivia' does take some concentration, as it's not my real name, and before becoming Olivia Ryan I was writing (and signing!) books under my own name. So far I haven't made any mistakes and signed a book with the wrong name - and to my surprise, the 'Olivia' signature flows quite well now - even after a couple of beers ...

It was great to celebrate with my lovely family and friends - including ex-colleagues from the hospital where I used to work, and two of my 'writing buddies' - Fenella and Fay who are fellow Essex Girls from the RNA.

Although I've had launch parties before, for my previous books, this was the first one I've done as Olivia, so all three 'Tales From' books were available and it was nice that we sold some copies

of the first two books as well as lots of copies of 'Tales from a Honeymoon Hotel'. So I'm happy to say it was definitely a success and I'm grateful to Irene and Ted at the Baker's Arms in Stock for letting me have the party there again.

Here's a nice artistic

picture, taken by one of my daughters,

that I think sums up perfectly the ethos of the evening:

Books and Booze! Not a bad combination!

The Winner Is ...

2009-07-03T16:41:00.000+01:00

I'm delighted to announce that the winner of the competition for a signed copy of 'Tales from a Honeymoon Hotel' is Cara Leitch from Ballyclare in Northern Ireland. Cara's correct answer - which everybody got right of course! - was that Jo & Mark, and Ruby & Harold, are the other two couples in the book. There were a lot more entries than I anticipated, so thank you everyone who entered - it was a great response and it was very exciting doing the draw!

Everyone who entered will be receiving an e-mail from me over the next couple of days, and Cara's book will also be on its way to her. Congratulations, Cara, if you are a reader of this blog!
Everyone else - sorry there could only be one winner, but all is not lost, you can still get a copy of the book from the shops! - or from Amazon where (dare I say it) it's on a special offer price right now.

Meanwhile happy reading ... and writing ... everyone, and have a great weekend.

Today's the day!

2009-07-02T09:09:00.000+01:00

Publication Day! It's always an exciting feeling, waking up and thinking: Yes! Today's the day my book will actually be 'out there' for all the hordes of excited readers to queue up and buy ... well, OK, that bit might only be in my wildest dreams, but hey, what's the point of being a writer if you can't dream up a few wild imaginings!

Actually ... nothing very much seems to happen on Publication Day. My launch party is happening on Monday night, because that's a quieter night at the pub where it's being held (otherwise there just wouldn't be enough space for all those hordes of excited readers queueing up for a signed copy, you see!). My talks at local libraries are on different dates, although fortunately they are close enough to Publication Date to make it possible to give the new book a little plug! And even my lunch date with my editor has been put back from today to tomorrow - although that's nice, in a way, as it's still something to look forward to.

Believe it or not, this time I haven't even got my order of books! Having given all but two of my precious six free copies to my closest family members (as I always like to do), I was anticipating the box of further copies I ordered to have arrived well before now. I usually have them in plenty of time for publication, so I phoned the distributors yesterday and was told they'd be sent out in about a week's time! I explained that I was the author and that today was the publication date - and they're going to see what they can do and get back to me later today. A tad annoying, as I ordered them a month ago, but what can you do? Quite amusing, really, as I know that people who have been ordering them from Amazon started getting their copies through last week!

Actually - something is happening today. A photographer from my local paper is coming to the house this afternoon to take a pic for a feature they're running about me. So when I come home from my swim later on, I'd better remember to comb my hair and put on a clean top!

And there's more good news. The competition I've been running for a signed copy of the book has attracted lots of entrants - it's your last chance today, if you haven't yet entered! Details on my post of 21 June.

Also, a local branch of Waterstone's have said they might be interested in having me do a book signing, probably in August - so fingers crossed.

And today, the new book is featured on the very first posting of the new RNA Blog - http://romanticnovelistsassociationblog.blogspot.com/ - together with other RNA members' books that are being published this month. Pop over and have a look!

So for now I'd better contain my excitement, get on with writing the next book, and try not to get distracted too often by checking my Amazon ranking! Have a nice day, everyone.

Library talks

2009-07-01T10:02:00.000+01:00

It's been a while since I've given a talk at a library, so I was really looking forward to last night's one at my own village library. And what a lovely audience I had there! (If any of you from Galleywood find their way to this blog - hello (wave)! - and thanks again for coming! I didn't count the numbers, but the library ran out of chairs so that was a good indication! I mentioned last night that I once heard another writer say: 'It's always good to see more than one person at these events!' - and that's absolutely right. It's so nice that people make the effort to come out in the evening - especially a hot one like last night - to listen to a fairly unknown local author, so it really is appreciated.

I'll now tell you the original story behind the 'more than one' comment, because I think it's very funny. I heard it in a talk by Simon Brett, a very clever and funny author and excellent speaker. He described a situation encountered by a friend who arrived to give a talk in a huge auditorium in Finland, seating 500. Only one person was in the audience, right at the back. He waited until 10 minutes after the starting time, then stood up and suggested to this guy that, as there were only the two of them, it might be better if they went to the pub instead and talked in a more intimate environment. The chap responded: 'You talk.' So the author returned to the podium and began his talk. There was no reaction whatsoever from his one-person audience, so again, he suggested calling it a day and heading for the pub. Again, the response was: 'You talk.' So he carried on, but eventually, he couldn't stand it any longer and asked the guy why he really wanted him to continue to talk. He replied: 'You talk, I play piano afterwards.' He'd been hired to provide piano music at the end of the event - the audience was actually non-existent!

So you can see where we're coming from. Total lack of audience = humiliation. More than one = fantastic!

The new book's officially out tomorrow - I'll be back with a celebratory post then.

Writers' Forum feature - and the RNA

2009-06-24T21:05:00.000+01:00

The July issue of 'Writers' Forum' magazine is out now, with my feature about giving up the day job - under the heading 'Will you be happy if you write Full Time?' And if you think that's a difficult question - after all, who really knows whether they'll be happy? Who can tell them? - then you'll be relieved to know the article is fairly light-hearted, exploring the pros and cons and pointing out a few pitfalls and considerations.

But the best thing about it is that four successful novelists - Katie Fforde, Judy Astley, Christina Jones and Fenella Jane Miller - have contributed to the feature, and I'm sure you'll find their experiences far more interesting than just reading me rabbiting on!

They're all members, like me, of the RNA (Romantic Novelists' Association) - such a supportive bunch of people. Anyone reading this who's interested in writing romantic novels (and that covers a very wide spectrum, including both historical and contemporary fiction) ought to consider applying for membership of their New Writers' Scheme - which provides critique of a full novel, as well as all the benefits of membership of the society. Take a look at the website www.rna-uk.org for more info.

I didn't know about the RNA when I first started writing; it was my editor who recommended them to me, and by the time I joined I'd already been published - but I've found their on-line forum an amazing resource of advice and support - and made some lovely friends. In fact a group of us who live relatively near each other are having lunch tomorrow. Which I suppose brings me back to where I started - about writing 'full-time'. I could never have taken time out from my day-job to meet friends for a leisurely lunch ... hmm, yes, I think that's another tick under the 'advantages' column!

A competition - win my new book

2009-06-21T14:01:00.000+01:00

This week I have mainly been .... sending out an e-mail newsletter about my new book, to as many people as possible. I enjoyed writing the newsletter, but the process of sending it out hasn't been as straightforward as I hoped (nothing ever is, I suppose!). I had to teach myself a few new 'tricks' - like sending out to 'undisclosed recipients', with all the e-mail addresses in the 'BCC' line, to protect everyone's privacy. Then, of course, quite a few bounced back, either because people's e-mail addresses have changed, or their in-boxes were full, or their internet provider didn't like the look of my 'spam' message!

The newsletter includes a competition to win a signed copy of the new book - 'Tales from a Honeymoon Hotel' - which will be published on 2 July. Here are the details of the competition in case you'd like to have a go:

Q. Gemma and Andy are one of the three couples featured in 'Tales from a Honeymoon Hotel'. What are the names of the other two couples? (First names only are needed).

You can find the answer to the question on my website: www.oliviaryan.com - and to enter, you need to send a message on the website's 'Contact Me' page, before midnight on the publication date. Title your message: 'Competition', give your answer, your name and e-mail address. Also your postal address, to send your prize if you win! - it won't be used for any other purpose.

I'll send a signed copy of 'Tales from a Honeymoon Hotel' to the sender of the first correct answer, drawn at random after the closing date. (UK only). Good luck!

I'll announce the winner on this blog as well as notifying them personally of course.

Now my next important task is preparing for a couple of talks I'm going to be doing at local libraries during the next few weeks. I'm not quite as nervous about this sort of thing now as I was when I first started, and don't now need to have the whole talk written out, in case I freeze up! But I like to have some notes to refer to, so I don't forget any of the stuff I want to talk about. So that's my main job for this week.

Hope you all have a good week!

Google Alerts - and my author copies

2009-06-17T14:33:00.000+01:00

Something weird has been going on with my Google Alerts. You know - the system you can set up so that you get notified whenever your name, or any of your books, are mentioned on the internet? I hope I'm not the only one who uses them - it already makes me feel a bit vain and self-obsessed, but I'm so pathetically excited whenever one of the books gets a mention, even if it's because it's being sold for 0.1p on E-Bay and described as 'in perfect condition' (in other words, nobody's even bothered to read it!).

Anyway - I had a couple of Alerts come through today, and suddenly realised I haven't had any for ages. I suppose I'd just assumed nobody had mentioned my books for a long while! :( Well, by the time I'd finished reading those two - a whole lot more were coming through, until my in-box was almost full of Google Alerts! What was it all about - some kind of backlog? I checked my Google Alert settings (I have to admit, I had to look up how to do it), and the instruction was still as I set it up - to check once a day. Nobody had sneakily changed it to once a month or whatever. So I can only assume there had been a log-jam or some sort of constipation going on in Google Alert Land.

And yes - most of them were offers for sale on E-Bay, although there were a couple of mentions of one of the books being stocked in a library in the USA - which is always an exciting thought. Oh - and a posting about one of my books being left in a pub. Not by accident, but by someone taking part in 'Book Crossing' (where people with good intentions but no thought for impoverished authors not getting their royalties, leave their used books lying around for other people to pick up, and post the location of the 'drop' on the website). Well - I hope someone picked it up and enjoyed it, and goes on buy the others!

Never mind - I feel quite cheery today, having got my six free author's copies of 'Tales from a Honeymoon Hotel' in the post. And the cover looks even better 'in the flesh' so that's a good start!

Writing a series - that's not a series!

2009-06-15T09:38:00.000+01:00

When I wrote 'Tales from a Hen Weekend', it hadn't crossed my mind that it might lead to a series. Not until my editor pointed out that the 'tales from' idea could work really well with other situations ... and then I had a field day, listing all the things I could write about tales from! We
eventually settled on following it with 'Tales from a Wedding Day', and now 'Tales from a Honeymoon Hotel'.

The reason they're not exactly a series is that they're all separate stories, with different characters. The only thing linking them is the titles, and the fact that they tell stories of emotional discoveries amongst groups of friends and/or families.

Writing a series that's not really a series has been a challenge in some ways: I've been conscious of the fact that some readers who enjoyed the first book might expect the second to be a sequel, so I've been careful to make it clear on my website etc that this isn't the case. On the other hand, I'm not sure that I would have enjoyed writing three novels with the same set of characters quite so much. I'd love to hear from anyone who's done this, or attempted it. I wonder how difficult it would be to keep up the impetus through three books.

Writing about events surrounding a wedding has been great fun - there's so much going on, so many emotional undertones to explore. Every bride is different, every character has their own hidden dreams, memories and agendas! 'Tales from a Hen Weekend' was inevitably the most lively book, with drunken antics leading to the unintentional revelation of various secrets!
In 'Tales from a Wedding Day', while still keeping the tone light and humorous, I perhaps introduced more tender moments, and explored some depths of emotions such as jealousy, betrayal and forgiveness.

The new book, 'Tales from a Honeymoon Hotel' is different again - telling the stories of three very different honeymoon couples, who have all gone into marriage with some unresolved problems. When I started writing the book, I had to decide where to set the honeymoon hotel, and after a couple of changes of heart, eventually settled on the Croatian island of Korcula - where I'd had a holiday myself a couple of years ago. It's beautiful and romantic, and small enough for the three couples to realistically interact.

Well, I'm not going to give too much more away! But the point is that I think the three books have turned out to be quite different in tone, as well as being different stories. I didn't particularly set out with this intention - it seemed to happen automatically because of the circumstances of the characters and their stories.

Of course, it's always much more interesting to know what other people think of the books, than wittering on about what I think - which is why as a writer, we love getting feedback from our readers, isn't it! I've always likened it to sending your kids off to school and then waiting with bated breath to find out whether the teacher thinks they're well-behaved and whether the other kids like them!

So - only a couple of weeks till publication: my baby's going out into the big world and I can't wait to know whether everyone loves it or hates it!

A life of luxury??

2009-06-08T10:11:00.000+01:00

One subject I always try to explain, when giving talks etc, is how authors get paid. Perhaps unsurprisingly, given the fact that celebrities earning huge advances for their books are the only ones ever mentioned in the Press, most people seem to believe that as soon as an author has a book contract, they've 'made it'. People used to ask me why I was still working at my day job, whether we were going to move to a bigger house, and even whether my husband could now afford to retire! It's quite difficult to get people to believe that the reality of authors' earnings is normally so far removed from this fairy tale, that it's actually quite hilarious to hear it discussed in those terms. For instance, some people seem to believe that virtually the entire retail price of a book goes to the author (a typical author's royalty is actually 7.5% on a paperback).

So I was pleased to read THIS post on author Kate Hardy's blog this morning:
http://katehardy.blogspot.com/2009/06/craft-post-how-authors-get-paid.html
She's summed up the whole process perfectly, and it makes really interesting reading.

The only reason for pointing out these facts, as far as I'm concerned, is to warn would-be authors not to go into it for financial reasons. Personally I never expected to earn a living from writing (and never have done) - so whatever I earn is a bonus for me and for my family - not our sole means of support. I write, first and foremost, because I love doing so, and it was always my hobby; secondly because I'm thrilled that my books are actually being published; and only as an afterthought is the consideration of the little extra income it brings in - I'm very grateful for it, but would never rely on it. Short stories (which I also write, under another name) actually bring in a much higher rate of payment if you consider how quickly they're written, compared with the time it takes to write a novel. Of course, it's just as difficult to write them, and to get them accepted for publication, so it isn't an easy option by any means.

Having said all that - over the next few weeks I'll be telling you all about my next book - 'Tales from a Honeymoon Hotel' - which is due for publication on 2 July and I'm very excited about it - so watch this space (as they say!). You never know, this one might actually make my fortune for me and I might become one of those 'rich' authors everyone imagines! Hmmm ....

'Little Men'

2009-06-03T21:30:00.000+01:00

Since my recent computer sickness, and another minor hissy-fit it's thrown today, I've been thinking about my mum and the network of 'little men' she and her friends used to have. It's not quite what it sounds! Quite simply, all the ladies who lived on their own in her area used to share details of tradesmen they'd found to be trustworthy and to give good value for money. I'm not being sexist about this, of course - I'd be equally happy with a network of 'little women' - or big women, come to that (I'm not quite sure how the diminutive description came into it) - as long as they - men or women, big or little - knew their stuff and weren't about to charge me three or four-figure sums just to point out that I hadn't actually plugged something in or that I'd clicked on the wrong thing on the screen and turned off something crucial.

Or, as in the case of my supposed oven failure a couple of weeks ago, I'd cleaned the damned thing (always a mistake - they're much better left to sweat out the dirt on their own) - and accidentally nudged the tiny, tiny, knob that switches the oven from manual to automatic. With no times entered into the automatic controls (obviously I have no idea how to do that), it just sat there cold and sulking when I attempted to switch it on. The guy I called out because I assumed the oven had died or was at least terminally ill, looked at me kind-of pityingly and apologised for having to charge me, like a doctor writing a prescription for something really embarrassing and easily avoidable. But to be fair, he didn't charge the full whack, or so he said. How would I know?

This is my point, and this is where the 'Little Men' come in. Mum's network of trusted tradesmen was so comprehensive, and all these guys were called out so regularly by all the ladies in the area, that they were kept really busy and never lacked work, despite the fact that most of them charged much less than the average. Some of them were also prepared to do little odd jobs that some of the older ladies found difficult, for instance while they were at the house sorting out the plumbing or the electrics they might change a fuse, or shave a bit off a badly fitting door. And they knew they'd get a four-star recommendation on the Little Men Network.

Well, what I really want is a cheap and trusted network of little/big men/women for the following :
1. My regular computer tantrums. All I ask is that it works, every day, sends its e-mails without undue complaint and doesn't freeze or go off without permission.
2. Ditto car tantrums. I just need the thing to start, go, and stop. Preferably in that order.
3. Any undue peculiarities of TV or Sky-thing. I don't know how it records programmes, and I don't need to. I just need it to get on and do it, please, without telling me it's tried and failed. I can do trying and failing myself - I don't need a machine to do that.
4. Instances of things falling down or falling apart. I'm not good with mending. I can wield glue, needle & thread, pins or sellotape just fine, but the result always looks crap.
5. The worst thing of all: finance. Just the sight of my annual tax return form makes me tremble.
I think it might actually be an allergy. Can I get medication for it? I can't afford an accountant - ha! Show me a writer who can afford an accountant! So Poor Husband has to help, and put up with my trembling and weeping and gnashing of teeth. Surely there's a network, somewhere, of retired accountants who just love doing tax returns so much, they'd like to do a few as a hobby?

I'm sure there are other things to go on that list but I'm feeling faint now I've started thinking about the tax return so I'd better stop. But if anyone knows any reliable, cheap, little men/women, and wants to start a writers' network, give me a shout!

Feature in Writers' Forum - and ******* computers!

2009-05-15T15:07:00.000+01:00

One of the most enjoyable pieces of writing I've done recently is a feature I've written for the Writers' Forum magazine, on the subject of 'Giving Up the Day Job'. As I left my own job about a year ago - actually for health reasons at the time, but I then decided to make a full-time career out of my writing and family commitments - I had found out first-hand a few pros and cons of working at home as a writer, having previously spent my days in a busy office with lots of colleagues. I thought it would be interesting to get some views and advice from other authors, and I was really lucky that some lovely people I've got to know through membership of the RNA (Romantic Novelists' Association) - Christina Jones, Judy Astley, Fenella Miller and Katie Fforde - all agreed to help out by answering some questions for the feature. I was really chuffed to hear that the editor was pleased with the result, and it should be in the July issue - out towards the end of June. I'll remind you nearer the time! It's a great magazine anyway, if you don't already read it - full of interesting and helpful articles for writers.

I might have posted about this sooner, if it wasn't for the fact that (1) our ancient and very temperamental computer finally died on us, and (2) as soon as we'd installed our new (well, new second-hand!) computer, the internet connection promptly fizzled out. Having tried all the obvious solutions (we've been known to have things plugged into the wrong ports, or not plugged in at all, when phoning the helpline, which can be very embarrassing) - we had a chat to our internet provider who diagnosed a terminally sick Router and promised us a new one in the post - within five days. Five days!! Five days without the internet! The husband and I have been beside ourselves - we've had to actually talk to each other, and phone people instead of e-mailing them. Well, we have fortunately had the use of our local library to check our e-mails on alternate days (it's a village library and isn't open every day) - but not having the facility to simply go on-line whenever the need arises has been frighteningly frustrating. How did we manage a few years ago before we all had computers at home? I really don't like the fact that I've become so dependent on something I don't even really understand: I'm very technologically inadequate and to me, the fact that this blog post is going out there for anyone to read is quite frankly akin to magic. Well, on the fifth day the new router has arrived and I'm quite impressed with the husband who's managed to work out how to plug it in - and we're back in business, thank goodness, until the next time something goes wrong! It must have been so much easier relying on pen and paper ... but I couldn't go back to it now - could you?

Happiness is ...

2009-04-30T12:48:00.000+01:00

People sometimes ask me what I enjoy about being a writer. It's a good question, if only because it makes me stop and think about how much I do enjoy it, and reminds me how lucky I am to be doing what I'm doing. I'd like to say I enjoy everything about it - but that wouldn't be entirely honest, because there are moments - like when a half-written novel gets rejected! - when I feel like giving it all up and going back to a sensible job with a proper salary and proper hours. But that feeling doesn't last long, because:

* There's nothing quite like the feeling you get when a piece of writing is going well - when the characters seem to 'take over' and almost write the story themselves. It's a real adrenalin rush and I firmly believe there's some kind of magic involved - I often look back at something that's turned out well and wonder if I really did write it!

* The excitement of seeing your name in print in a magazine, or on the cover of a book, never fades. I think writers must all be slightly egotistical, or maybe just a little weird: who else Googles their own name continuously to see who's mentioned them? We stroke our own book covers lovingly, prowl bookshops looking for our own books, almost faint with joy when someone says they've read one and enjoyed it! To sum up on this point: it doesn't take much to please us!

* I've worked in jobs where I dreaded getting up in the morning; where I felt unappreciated; where I didn't even like what I was doing. Now, I'm doing what I love best - and being paid for it. OK, not a lot! - but I'm looking at the positives here, not the negatives!

* Writing is something you can do no matter what race or religion you are, whether you're male or female, fit and healthy or frail and feeble, and most importantly, no matter how old you are. There's no need to retire, at any age, and no need to stop because you have a baby (or several).

* You don't need to commute, or drive, or even get dressed, to work at your writing. All you need is a computer. Or even just a pen and paper if that's the way you like to work (as long as you're not intending to submit your handwritten scribbles to any editors!).

* Writers never need to be bored. There's never any time when I wonder what to do with myself - even if the computer crashes or there's a power cut, I can resort to that pen and paper temporarily!

* Basically, I write because I love writing - and that overcomes everything else, even the rejections. It's difficult not to be happy when you're doing what you enjoy.

Any other reasons to add to the list? I'm sure you can come up with some ....

Independent bookshops - how can they survive?

2009-04-21T11:32:00.000+01:00

I've just had some very sad news: my nearest independent bookshop is about to close. The struggle to survive in the High Street, against the competition of the big bookselling chains, supermarkets and of course internet sites like Amazon, together with the rising cost of rates on shop premises, has finally proved too much - and like so many others nationwide, they've had no alternative but to give up.

This is sad for local book buyers who'd like to buy from a shop where personal attention and individual recommendations still count for something - and even sadder for local authors! The manager of this little shop supported me all the way - gave me a beautiful window display when my books were published, together with signs pointing out that I was a local author, and then stocked signed copies of the books and recommended them to customers. It's difficult to get that kind of support from the big chains: they're tied into deals agreed by their head offices and if you're not a bestseller or a celebrity it's hard to get their interest.

I'm going to miss the shop terribly, and will cherish the photos I have, like this one, of their shop window displaying my first two books. I'll miss popping in to sign books, chat about how they're selling, and to buy books myself so that the relationship worked both ways. I know the loss of the shop is going to make a difference to my sales as well as to the community.

So if there's an independent bookshop in your area, don't wait till it's forced to close and then realise what you're missing! Support them, buy all your books there - browse around the shelves and enjoy the atmosphere of a real bookshop before it's too late.

Of course, we all get tempted by a bargain, but the massive discounting that's been going on since book prices stopped being fixed only puts more money in the pockets of the big supermarkets and chains. If you're a writer yourself, or if you're just a book lover who doesn't like the whole publishing industry being controlled by two giant retailers - there's only one way we can do our bit to try to change things. I only wish I'd done more, while I had the chance.