Where to find me

This blog is no longer regularly updated, but I am still blogging, and writing, and now I'm learning to swim in the sea.

If you'd like to learn more about me and my writing, you can follow the blog on my website, or sign up to my newsletter (and get a free short ebook).

If you're a writer and would like links to free entry writing competitions, information about submitting fiction to magazines, other writing news and opportunities, plus that chance (via the comments) to chat with other writers, then visit the Womagwriter blog.

My little, free collection of short stories is available from Amazon and Apple here, and other retailers here.

I'm over there!

This blog has now been combined with the Womagwriter one.  It's all a bit experimental at the moment.

My plan is that I'll include free to enter writing competitions, Wednesday word of the week, Insecure Writers' Support Group, information about writing for women's magazines, my own writing news, guest posts, other random stuff I think writers and readers may find interesting or useful and lots of photos. I'll use the number of comments to gauge which of those elements to continue with, and which to drop.

If you'd like to, as well as visiting the blog, you could follow me on Twitter, or Facebook, sign up for my newsletter (you'll get a free story if you do) or take a look at my website. You could even buy my books!

Art imitating art?

 Art is both human creative skill, and the results of that skill. The arts are different branches of creative activity. (Painting is an art, a painting is a piece of art, painting is one of the arts.)

The word can also be used to describe a skill or talent which doesn't produce a tangible result. For example the art of not being around when there's work to be done.

It's the first Wednesday of the month, so time for the Insecure Writer's Support Group post. You can sign up here if you're a an insecure writer, and/or would like to support those who are.

February's optional question is – Has a single photo or work of art ever inspired a story? What was it and did you finish it?

No – not a single one, but many. My grandma was a good amateur artist and my husband is a professional photographer, so naturally I have an interest in these two arts.

In my novel Paint Me A Picture, the main character learns to paint – which saves her life. She and I were both inspired by a trip to the National Gallery. (The cover artwork is by my husband.)

I've attended two writing workshops with a connection to modern art and sold the stories I started at each of them. One of my few historical works centres around a (fictitious) painting, several of my contemporary short stories involve paintings and painters.

I also use photos for, and in, my work. Leave Nothing But Footprints is a romance novel about photographers, and photographers appear in quite a few of my short stories. I also take photos when researching, to remind me of facts, views and feelings.

Ligneous

Ligneous means made of wood, or resembling wood, or just downright woody.

Trees are ligneous, as are some ladders and signposts, pencils, old ships, logs, doors, floors, church pews, garden fences, park benches and traditional Dutch shoes.

 What's your favourite ligneous thing?

Way

The word way has a lot of meanings. Way more than I want to try squeezing into this post. It can mean a path or track, a physical or metaphorical route somewhere, a plan or course of action. How we behave is our way of life. A ship makes way through the water.

An object may be split three ways, as might our attention. The way we feel is important, as can be the way we make our way in the world. Way might mean the normal course of events, or a specified state (which you'll soon get the way of). We enter buildings through the doorway, then later look for the way out. 

People can be in the way (or the family way) get out the way, or . We can even have it both ways.

For a long time I've liked to think I have a way with words – and now I can prove it's true! My latest short story collection is currently available at the introductory price of 99p (99c).

Can you think of more meanings of, and uses for, way?

Refulgent

Today's Wednesday word of the week comes from the wonderfully talented** Gary Davies*, of Maritime Photgraphic. He described this ferry as looking refulgent in her new livery.

Refulgent means 'shining brightly' or 'gloriously bright'. Do you think it's apt in this case?

*My husband.

**No, I'm not after anything ... this time!

Nice

Nice generally means pleasant, kind or satisfactory. It can also be used to show fastidiousness, a subtle distinction or something requiring careful thought.


This free to enter competition is for short stories of up to 600 words. The prize is a £30 Amazon voucher and publication on the site. It sounds as though they want entries to be nice so here are some pictures to get you in the mood ...

Talking of nice, it was Alyson Faye who kindly sent me the link to this competition.
















(I'm featuring a different free to enter writing competition every day from the 8th December until Christmas Eve.)

If you know anyone 25 or under who is or was in care and is resident in the UK, be nice and tell them about this free writing competition in which they could win shopping vouchers.

Idea

An idea is a concept or plan formed by mental effort, a mental impression, an intention, vague belief or fancy ... and what you need to start every piece of writing.

A Year of Ideas: 365 sets of writing prompts and exercises is a book by me! You can try to win yourself a kindle copy by telling me, in 50 words or fewer, which day you'd like a writing prompt and why. Your answer can be true, funny, silly – whatever you like as long as you specify a date and give a reason.

Entry is by comment on this blog post only.

Closing date is midnight on the 18th December.

The winner will be announced on the 20th. Sorry, the prize can only be redeemed by those in the UK.

If the winner already has this book, then they may choose one of my novels or a short story collection instead.

(I'm featuring a different free to enter writing competition every day from the 8th until the winter solstice.)

Philology

Philology is the science of language. Keen as I am on English, that doesn't make me a philologist, as I don't do anything scientifically. However an alternative definition is the love of learning and literature, so I probably am a philogian, or at least partly philological. How about you?

Btw, there's still time to enter the mini competition to win an ebook. Just leave a comment which includes one of the M words here, before midnight tonight.

Threshold

A threshold is a point of entry, either real or metaphorical. Traditionally new brides were carried over the threshold of their marital home. A scientist could be on the threshold of an amazing discovery. Threshold can also mean a limit. It's said women have a higher pain threshold than men.

Originally a threshold was a raised strip of wood or stone. It was placed at the entrance to rooms such as kitchens and pantries where rushes, often scented with herbs, were strewn on the floor – as a kind of temporary carpet. Once dirty or wet, they could easily be swept up and replaced.  The rushes were known as thresh and without the threshold to hold them in place, would have been spread throughout the house.

If you're on the threshold of completing something which involves new media, get it finished and enter it into this free competition to be in with a chance of winning one of 5 prizes ranging from £500 to £750.

Censor

A censor is an official who studies books, films, plays and the like and suppresses any parts they feel shouldn't be made public. This could be because they're illegal, obscene, a threat to security or anything else their employer doesn't want let 'out there'. They may decide a work is acceptable only to a limited audience – those over 18, or with security clearance for example.

Censor also means to make the changes the censor decided need to be made. That generally means removing the offending section. If that happens to your work, you've been subject to censorship.

We can also mentally censor ourselves. Often that's a good thing as it prevents us blurting out secrets or making inappropriate comments. I don't think it's something we should do when writing – at least not in the first draft. Get it all down first, then you can start censoring (or editing if you prefer the term) by removing anything you feel shouldn't be there.

Thanks to Kath Kilburn for passing on details of this free to enter writing competition, with the theme of The Censor. You can submit a short story or a piece of creative non-fiction. The best dozen or so will be published and the authors will receive two copies of the anthology, plus £150. The overall prize is £2,000!

Rhyme

A word is said to rhyme with another when the sounds at the end are the same. Round rhymes with sound, time rhymes with mime (and rhyme). Half rhymes are words which nearly, but not quite, rhyme. Orange and lozenge is an example. Eye rhymes are those words which look as though they'd rhyme, because the endings are spelled the same, but don't. For example tough and through. Lost rhymes are words which used to rhyme, but due to changes in pronunciation, no longer do.

A rhyme can also mean a verse or poem which contains rhyming words. These generally come at the end of lines. If they're elsewhere they're known as internal rhymes.

Rhyming slang is a way of speaking which replaces a word or phrase with another which rhymes, although the actual rhyme may be omitted. In 'taking a butcher's' the word butcher's refers to a butcher's hook, which rhymes with look, and therefore means have a gander or a shufty.

Thanks to Bea Charles for passing on the details of this free entry poetry competition. The winner will get a personalised £100 book token with their poem on and £300 worth of poetry books. The judge is Pam Ayres. I like her. (The rules don't state that the poem must rhyme.)

Home

We're back home after ten weeks away in the campervan! (The photos are all of homes, or former homes, we saw on our travels.)

Here's a free to enter writing competition. Be sure to include your home address on the entry, so they know where to send the £100 prize, should you win.

The word home is usually used to mean the place where we live, but it can be used in a wider sense to mean the area, or even country we, or our family, originate from. It can mean our wider family and background, an institution, the end of a race, a position in sports and games ... It's where someone, or something, belongs.

To me, home means either the house, or the van, depending on which I'll be sleeping in that night. It's where Gary is, where I cook and eat, the place I read and write.







What does home mean to you?

Zoomorphic

I really wanted 'grotesque zoomorphic corbels' as the word of the week, but as Gary pointed out, that's more than one word. Still, I can use them as the illustration, can't I? These are on the Castle Acre priory.

Something which is zoomorphic has, or represents, an animal form.

Thanks to Sharon Boothroyd for passing on the details of this free to enter poetry competition. It's open to UK residents only (dead or alive!) and there's a £100 prize. If you can work zoomorphic into your winning entry, I'll be really impressed!

Lapidarium

A lapidarium is a collection of carved masonry and gravestones. This one is at Coldingham Priory.

I hope you appreciate the lengths I go to in order to find you interesting words ... Coldingham is 409.8 miles from my home!

Lin, win and In(secure)

Has your writing ever taken you by surprise?

That's this month's Insecure Writer's Support Group question. (If you'd like to join the group you can do so here – but you don't have to be a member to join the discussion.)

My answer is YES! I don't think I could keep writing if that wasn't the case. When I start writing, I don't always know the direction the story or character's will take. I don't know if that story will sell, win a prize or be one of those which doesn't quite make it.

Competitions wins have surprised me – I had a poem performed in the House of Commons and a novel published as the result of winning competitions. As a result I'm always on the look out for free to enter competitions, such as this poetry one, which I regularly share on this blog.

The biggest surprise though has been the change to me as a writer. I started off 17 years ago, writing just for fun, imagining it to be a short term hobby I'd quickly abandon when a new enthusiasm took over (that's happened before). Today I'm a full time writer. I even present workshops to encourage other writers, such as this one in Nottingham next month.

Another thing which can surprise me is the English language. I'm always learning new words (which is why I post my regular word of the week). Today's is lin. A lin is a 'collection' of water – it can mean a pool above or below a waterfall, but is generally applied to the waterfall itself, or to a ravine through which water is forced, producing a torrent.

The photos are of The Lin of Dee (apparently Queen Victoria's favourite picnic spot) and The Black Lin (centre). On our current trip we've also seen The Lin of Quoiche and The Lin of Tummel (my favourite in terms of names). They're all in Scotland.

Artificial

Artificial is something made by people, rather than occurring naturally, especially that which is a copy of something natural (eg artificial sweetener).

Artificial can also be used to describe insincere or affected behaviour.

I'm not keen on things which are artificial or false – I much prefer the real deal.



Can you think of any examples where the artificial version is better than the natural one?

Thanks to Alyson for sending me the link to this free short story competition. The theme is Artificial Intelligence and the prize is £500.

There's still time to enter last week's Friday Freebie and win a signed copy of Gail Aldwin's The String Games.

Subreption

Subreption is the method of obtaining something by surprise or misrepresentation.

I've had quite a few twist ending stories published – do you think it's fair to say that I obtained those sales by subreption?

Misrepresentation won't help you win this short story competition, but writing something which surprises the judges might. The prize is $1,000.

Excursus

An excursus is a detailed discussion of a particular point in a book, often placed in an appendix, or a digression in the narrative. It comes from 'excursion', which makes sense.

How do you feel about books which sometimes stray off the main point? Do you enjoy the excursion, or prefer to stay on track?


The photos are from one of our excursions in the van – I'm not digressing from the writing theme of this blog by posting them, as I'm writing a story set in this location.

If you won the $1,000 prize in this free to enter writing competition, you could afford a lovely excursion – where would you go?

Medicine

Medicine can mean the science or practise of diagnosing and treating or preventing disease. It's also any drug or preparation used to treat disease – I think that's what most of us immediately think of when we hear the word. Medicine can also describe a spell or charm thought to cure disease.

Taking your medicine means to put up with something unpleasant, whereas having a dose of your own medicine means to endure something you've inflicted on others.

A medicine man is someone with powers of healing within themselves, rather than a dispenser of drugs. A medicine chest is any container which holds drugs or medication.

Herbal medicines are traditional remedies, some of which work extremely well. Next time you have a sore throat, try gargling with sage tea. Tastes awful, but does the trick. Talking of traditions, you might like this free to enter short story competition from On The Premises, which has that theme. First prize is $220.

Am I the only person who doesn't trust any medicine which tastes nice?