Detail-Oriented Debbie

This year, I’ve been having monthly calls with Claire from CP’s Day Off. They are designed as an accountability mechanism, to help writers define their goals, identify obstacles to progress and work towards achievement. All of that is good stuff, though Claire and I are both aware that I’m probably more organised and productive than […]

Weeknotes – S05E16 – Just Getting On With It

Summary: Reasonably steady progress throughout the week, with particularly good sessions at the start and end. Glad to have finished a first draft of a long-ish short story that’s been in my head for weeks.   Monday: There was a whole lot of faffing about with booking holidays, sorting admin, updating websites, reading online articles […]

Weeknotes – S05E15 – Weird But Exciting Times

Summary: I have no idea what else happened this week (writing-related or non-writing-related) because contact with a publisher on Thursday and over the weekend pushed everything else into the background.   Monday: I got feedback on my TL;DR Flash Fiction Competition entry so I tweaked it a bit and then submitted it. The final version […]

Weeknotes – S05E14 – Go, Crew, Go!

Summary: Awesome week on the writing front, with the subconscious crew going absolutely above and beyond on the novel, a longish short story and a flash fiction piece – all without waking me up before 8:30am! Go, crew!   Monday: I started out with my Hour of Writes marking for this week’s competition. Then, after […]

Weeknotes – S05E12 – Progress on All Fronts

Summary: Lots more progress on the third novel, and even a draft of a new flash fiction piece as well, not to mention another podcast episode completed. Go, me! Monday: The subconscious crew started the week with a ton of new ideas for Safeguarding, filling in small (and huge) holes in the plot, working out […]

Weeknotes – S05E11 – Third Novel Well Underway

Summary: Good progress on the third novel, with some other bits and pieces thrown in – though I really want to dedicate some time to a new short story next week.   Monday: I broke my usual rule this morning and started out with several submissions and a Bear post, rather than Safeguarding. But, in […]

Sticking With It

Fantasy author, Juliet McKenna, wrote a fantastic review of my debut novel, The Defiant Spark, recently, including some very interesting thoughts about reviewing in general. She also invited me to write a guest post on her blog and here’s what I came up with:   I first met Juliet as one of my tutors at […]