Escape with Patsy's Book

Just a quick post to let you know that Patsy's lovely first novel, Escape to the Country, is free to download from Amazon UK and Amazon US today.

Enjoy!
Rosemary

Happiness Is...

...The absolute joy of meeting up again with my first grandchild. I can't believe the change in only the couple of weeks since we last saw her, and she is even more smiley and interactive. It was lovely to see the son and daughter-in-law too, of course!

...The unexpected bag of favourite chocolates son bought me.

...A walk with DH along by the shore, the winter sun shimmering on the water and a slight mist lying on the far-off hills.

...Reading two very different, enjoyable books, a print one downstairs in the evening and a kindle one in bed.

...Watching an excellent drama, or two, on TV that leaves us wanting more.

...Coffee and conversation with good friends.

...Keeping fairly well up with the NaNoWriMo word count - and enjoying it!

I'm sure there are lots of other things that make me happy (I'm easily pleased) but that's just the past few days. What makes you happy?

Rosemary

A Delightful Download

I particularly want to mention one of my writing friend’s books, as some of them are now being published by Accent Press. I interviewed well published novelist Gwen Kirkwood a while ago about her wonderful farming background to her novels.

The Laird of Lochandee is now published in three parts available to download from Amazon. To whet your appetite, Part One - A Maxwell Maligned, is offered as a free download here on Amazon UK from 21st to 25th November 2012. Also available on Amazon US.

You can read more about Gwen and her many books on her Blog and Website.

Enjoy!

Rosemary

Writing Updates

I thought you might find some of these writing–related updates interesting or useful, if you don’t already know about them!

I posted a while ago about the new 50,000 word Easy Reads from DC Thomson and we all assumed these were replacing the old My Weekly Pocket Novels. Well it seems not, as you can read on Sally Quilford’s blog, so we now have even more opportunities for this length of novel.

If you haven’t seen the new post on the Womagwriter blog, pop over and you’ll find updated addresses for some of the magazine editors.

I discovered from another writing friend, Anne, and from their own twitter feed, that Harlequin UK Mills and Boon are getting on board with NaNoWriMo writers this year. They are asking for suitable novels to be submitted to NaNaWriMo@hqnuk.co.uk before 7th December and they’ll provide feedback by 21st December! Not sure if mine would fit, but someone else might have one.

You just have enough time to enter the Commonwealth Short Story Competition which closes on 4th December this year. Stories should be between 2000 and 5000 words. Full details here.

Now back to some more words on my NaNo projects – definitely enjoying working on two at once!

Rosemary

Gallivanting and Research

I love getting out and about every now and then, as many of you know from previous blog posts, and dear husband and I had a great day out last weekend over at one side of Loch Lomond. Since it was a reasonably good day, we took a flask of coffee with us to save time and decided to go climbing. Well, it was more of a walk but it was all uphill! Conic Hill is hardly on a par with our famous high Scottish Munros, but for someone who is more used to a walk round our village or along by the river, I knew it would be a test of my fitness, or lack thereof, and we only intended walking up the first part of the path through the forest.

In the end, we kept going and managed to get to the start of the actual hill where we had a view of the loch below. And that was no mean feat, since it was a bit muddy in parts from the endless rain we often have in the west coast. I won't describe it all here, as the other reason for the day out was research for the contemporary novel I'm writing as part of NaNoWriMo, but you can get an idea of it from my photos.

I'd suddenly thought of taking my hero and heroine over there on their first outing together and dear hubby was happy to indulge my wish to see the area again. So I now have almost a whole new chapter written from the day out. And as a reward for our energetic climb, we had a lovely lunch in the beautiful little inn beside the loch!

Yesterday was another day out, for our writing group's annual dinner and prize giving. We went to a local Equestrian centre for an afternoon meeting first, when we each read a short piece of writing on the chosen theme (childhood/school memories this year). Then after the prize giving, we had a delicious dinner with much chatting and some wine. It's one of the highlights of our writing year, as it gives us all a chance to meet in a more social atmosphere to get to know each other better. Many a friendship has been forged within our welcoming group. I was delighted to be awarded one of the cups for winning the article competition, plus a certificate for being second in the poetry competition.

And the busy week doesn't end there as I'm off gallavanting with my good friend tomorrow for coffee and chat. Then it's an annual local Christmas Fair with another friend on Friday, and I expect we will badly need some lunch afterwards, not to mention more chatting. Just as well I'm getting my NaNo writing done first thing in the morning!

Rosemary

Trains, Hair, and Eavesdropping

What an enjoyable, productive day I’ve had – and a decent hair cut that included a shiatsu head massage from a new (to me) hairdresser in the centre of Glasgow. Before going for the train, I managed to get a good section of the contemporary novel written for the NaNoWriMo count.

On the half hour journey into the city, I started writing the next part of the Victorian novella I’m trying to get finished before Christmas. But I thought it was going to be too distracting at first. Two young women, one of whom was obviously a psychology student, were having the most interesting conversation and I was sitting a little too near to avoid hearing them until I eventually managed to block out their voices.

The problem was that the psychology student’s opinions and theories about serial killers and psychotics was so fascinating that I started to imagine a whole new type of novel that could feature such a character. Fortunately, when they finally moved on to other subjects, their voices dropped a little and I was able to get on with my novella. And guess what? I’ve just transcribed the section I wrote to find it was almost 700 words! I definitely think I should be writing outside the house more often.

The hairdresser appointment turned out to be equally interesting. I don’t really like getting my hair cut and blow dried as it usually takes at least a week before I get used to the slightly shorter style again. And to make it worse, my previous hairdresser in the next village has given up her job. But today was an absolute treat, with the wonderful massage first, then a very nice young male hairdresser who knew exactly what he was doing and how he should shape my hair.

While waiting for the head massage, I picked up a small free publication about things going on in Glasgow and a few other places wider afield. And now I have two or three ideas for further scenes in my contemporary novel, although I’m hoping I remember them as I didn’t write them down.

So it turned out to be a great work day, even though some of it felt more like a holiday. Hope the rest of the weekend is so interesting and enjoyable, although I don't think we're travelling anywhere by train. The photo at the top is one of my favourite steam trains, not the one I was on today!

Rosemary

MIU November Donation for Red Cross

MuseItUp Publishing, the lovely Canadian publisher of my tween book, Summer of the Eagles, is donating 10% of all book sales purchased from their Bookstore during November to the Red Cross. This is towards the aid for the devastation caused by Hurricane Sandy in the US.

The word count is mounting during my NaNo challenge, although it remains to be seen if I can keep it up for the rest of the month! I'm enjoying writing a contemporary and a short historical at the same time, as it stops me getting bored with one or the other. I have a break in between, of course, and do other things or go out gallavanting. I definitely find train journeys brilliant for writing a few hundred words - a good excuse to go to Glasgow more often perhaps! Then there's the weekly coffee and cake at my favourite Costa in a nearby mall. Who says we need to sit at home to write - the buzz of being among people, but slightly removed from them, seems to bring out my creativity. Anyone else more creative somewhere other than at home?

On with some more work before today's writing group!

Rosemary

The NaNo Countdown Begins

November 1st already - where have the last few months gone? No sooner are we complaining about shops stocking up with Christmas items too early, than we're actually beginning to think about buying cards!

First of all, the countdown to NaNoWriMo has begun and I'm grateful it started on a day when I have more time at home. I've even added a little counter to the side of the blog so I can remind myself how productive I'm being each time I come on here. Although I've started well, I'm doing something a little different - again!

My official NaNo novel is a contemporary set in Scotland, the first few chapters of which saw the light of day a few years ago, as per usual with some of my novels. At this stage, I'm not quite sure if it will be full length, or pocket novel length but I'm determined to get it finished. At the same time (unofficially), I'm writing a short historical novella that I'd like to publish on kindle for Christmas - optimism is not one of my failings, although it might be misplaced.

So that's the plan. But, as with last year, it's more about using November to complete two projects that would othewise linger too long in procrastination land. And I'm even on here this morning - wonder how long the euphoria will last!

Good luck to all blogging friends who are equally focused this month, whether or not you are taking part in the official NaNo challenge.

Rosemary

P.S. If anyone likes L.S. Lowry as much as I do  - I've just posted about the Lowry Trail in Berwick-upon-Tweed on Romancing History! I'm obviously in a writing mood today.