In Which Everything is LARGE!

Hello, I am back after a long time away!

My book-in-progress went off to the editor this morning (should have been there yesterday, so that’s not too bad).

Unfortunately for me, reading is much quicker than writing, so I’m expecting her to come back with her comments in the few days.

And there will probably be more stuff to do but it is *almost* there. Can you believe how long it takes?! No, me neither.

My OH is away in Scotland playing golf and tonight I thought I might treat myself and watch some TV!

This is a novelty! In fact, it’s so long since I actually put the tele’ on myself that I’d had forgotten how to do it! We have two remotes (why?!) and I was pressing all the wrong buttons. I got East Enders but when I tried to change channels, it all went wrong, so I gave up.

Hilary Mantel Quote

This question – and answer from the late, great Hilary Mantel – was on Twitter this week and I rather like it (sorry it’s BIG but when I made it smaller, it was too small to read!)
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I don’t claim to understand it completely but that bit about ‘trusting the process’ made sense to me.

When you’re writing a novel (or at least, the way I do it), you think it’ll never all come together. How can it this big mess of ideas form a cohesive whole? It’s frustrating and makes you full of doubt. And then somehow, magically, the strands seem to knit together and – ta dah! You’ve done it.

Large Print Books

Out of the blue – because I’d forgotten my book had been bought by a large print publisher (it was a long time ago!), 3 copies of ‘A Wartime Secret’, with a snazzy new cover, arrived in the post this week.

My mum’s been away from home since early March – in hospital for a month and then in a rehabilitation unit – and she hasn’t felt like reading at all.

Until now! She’s whizzed through the book (she’s read it before but it’s been a while) and not only has it got her “back into reading” (I quote!) but she rather liked the large print because it was “easy to read.” So we might be trawling the large print shelves in the library fairly soon, to find her some more.

Evesham Festival of Words

I am going to be chatting to writer Joanna Cannon (again! We last did it 4 years ago) at Evesham Festival of Words on 2nd July at 2pm.

Come along, if you’re able to. It’ll be fun and informal, in a small venue. And there’ll be tea and cake. Tickets are £10. Book here!

I would love this event to be a sell out! Last time it wasn’t and I couldn’t understand why not!

If you can’t make it to Evesham, Jo is appearing at other places too: (cue another LARGE pic!)

Writing Workshops

There are also a couple of writing workshops running over the main Festival weekend, one on writing flash fiction and super short stories (with Electra Rhodes who knows her stuff)

And Simon Whaley’s leading a workshop on Creative Non-Fiction. All the details for that one are here.

I’ve booked both of those so if you’re going to those events – or any others at the Festival, do let me know and we can say hello!