• As many of you know, I am a bit of a cat lover and I do some work for Cats Protection, in various ways. A local author,  Jenny Henwood, has just had her first book published. Atticus’s Secret is the first in The Rainbow Riding School children’s book series for children aged 4 years and…

    Read more →

  • Markets For Writers

    My market for your this week is a poetry one. Writing Magazine are celebrating the 200 year anniversary of Frankenstein with their ‘Monsters‘ poetry competition. Here are a few details for you: Line limit: up to 40 lines Prizes: 1st: £100 2nd: £50 Both prize winning poems will be published in Writing Magazine. Entry fee:…

    Read more →

  • We’ve all seen them – blackboards outside pubs and restaurants that amuse and make us chuckle. Here’s the first one in my new series:  

    Read more →

  • Happy New Year! I know lots of you have been back blogging for a while, but I took a little bit of a break over the festive period. I hope you all had a wonderful time with friends and family and that your 2018 is going great so far. So, it’s back to my new…

    Read more →

  • Guest Writer Spot

    This is my final blog post before Christmas so of course, it has to be a Christmas one. Have a wonderful Christmas all of you and a very Happy New Year.  My Guest Writer this week is Sharon Harvey, one of my talented students. Here is a little bit about her: I’ve had a passion…

    Read more →

  • A Christmas Story

    As it’s nearly Christmas, I’ve opted for a magical Christmas story this week… Operation Flora No one understood how lonely it was being stuck up a tree all on your own. Flora sighed and fluttered her wings. One wing barely moved and the other nearly fell off. Her nose was feeling a bit delicate too…

    Read more →

  • Markets For Writers

    Enjoy writing dialogue? Then why not enter the Writing Magazine short story competition, which is dialogue-only. The usual rules apply i.e. stories are wanted between 1500-1700 words. Here is some more information for you: Prizes: 1st: £200 + publication in the magazine 2nd: £50 + publication online Entry fee: £5 (£3 for subscribers) Closing date:…

    Read more →

  • This series of Funny of the Week is one of nostalgia, taking a trip back in time to newspaper ads of old. Though, you wouldn’t see any ads like these now. It just shows how times have moved on and certainly for the better. If you missed part one, click here. Here are parts two…

    Read more →

  • This is the third installment in my new weekly series. Each week, I’ll be bringing you an idea – whether it’s a magazine to write for, a theme for a short story, the opening line of a poem…Here are the first and second in the series. This week, it’s the letter C‘s turn. And C…

    Read more →

  • Guest Writer Spot

    This week, I would like to welcome the talented Richard V. Frankland, author of the Ian Vaughan thriller series, to my Guest Writer Spot. I’m sure you’ll enjoy this descriptive scene as much as I did:   TO LIVE AGAIN by Richard Frankland One by one the stars faded and died in the gathering light…

    Read more →