Last year at about this time I prepared blog posts for this site and for my Fairytales with Bite one, happily scheduling them to appear while I was in Scotland. Sorry, no time this year at all, for both happy and sad reasons.
The sad reason was I lost my Dad in May (not unexpectedly). The happy reason has been the publication of my flash fiction collection, From Light to Dark and Back Again as a lot of my time has been taken up (and will continue to be) in "spreading the word". I am so glad Dad got to see the book though. He was very pleased and always had to have a copy of any book my stories were in. My late mum got to see my first printed story. Dad got to see my first book. There is a nice kind of symmetry about that I think.
So sorry for not having been posting so much lately. I do hope later this year to revamp my websites, and finally get out a regular newsletter, but, in the meantime, I hope to get back to much more regular posting.
I interviewed Anne Wan, local children's author, for Chandler's Ford Today and I share Parts 1 and 2 here. Anne shares some great tips and why she loves and loathes editing. Do you agree? I love editing. I like the feeling of my story improving as I get rid of the words I suddenly realise I don't really need! Anne also talks about some of the joys of writing children's fiction and I hope to interview other writers in different genres later in the year to discuss some of the joys and problems they face.
I am also going to have my first "physical" book signing at Chandler's Ford Railway Station on 8th July. You can never know in advance how these events are going to go so I am both looking forward to it and feeling a bit nervous all at the same time. Not a comfortable feeling!! Many thanks to the Three Rivers Rail Community Partnership for their support here.