The Holiday is Over...

I’ve had a lovely break from all social media while away, apart from checking emails now and then, but how quickly it draws me in again once I’m home! If anyone is still guessing where we went to on holiday from the photo of the castle and beach, I’ll now satisfy your curiosity.

We stayed at a lovely little coastal place in North Wales called Criccieth. We’ve been a few times before over the past thirty years and it’s like stepping back in time. Everything is just the same, from the castle and beach to the quaint little teashop, and a favourite restaurant on the high street. It’s somehow reassuring to know our way around and find everything as it should be.

Favourite Tea Shop

We returned to the very friendly guest house we had last stayed at five years ago. Julie at Glyn y Coed couldn’t be more welcoming and the guest house sits on the main road to Porthmadog, in easy walking distance from our favourite restaurant and a short walk down to the sea front. Criccieth also has the best fish and chip shop we’ve come across – fortunately we had a lovely sunny evening to sit on a bench overlooking that wide shingle shore and sea. It also has one of the famous Cadwaladers ice cream shops – what more we could we want on a summer’s evening!

As always, we took a ride on the steam train from Porthmadog. We’ve been on the famous Ffestiniog Railway so many times that we opted for the new section of the Welsh Highland Line up to one of the prettiest villages, Beddgelert in Snowdonia. Another day, we visited the Welsh Language Centre in a beautifully renovated forgotten Victorian quarry village in the middle of the hills, and on another we walked through the hilly streets at Harlech.

Beddgelert

Our final few days were spent at Bangor and surrounding area where we stayed with Simon’s sister and her husband. On a windy day, we walked along the wide promenade at Llandudno, on another we climbed up and down the old town walls at Conwy, interspersed with coffee and Bara Brith. That’s where we saw the smallest house in Britain – a tiny one up and down. It’s hard to believe the last owner was a fisherman over 6 feet tall!

Smallest House in Britain

Unfortunately, I've returned with a bad cold which I’m still trying to shake – no doubt partly due to fluctuating weather conditions, and I have some final dental treatment to face on Monday. But the restful holiday was well worth the driving distance and I have so many photos it’ll take me ages to sort them all.

One lovely piece of writing news is that my children’s story, Princess Poppy and the Little Dragon, is now published in the great collection of read-aloud Princess and Dragon stories for children, Spread your Wings, from US publisher Knowonder. Although the official release day is Monday 1^st July, it’s now available on Kindle UK and US.

Comprising 31 stories (one for each day of the month) by authors from various parts of the world, there’s a delightful illustration at the beginning of each story and some questions at the end of each. It works well on kindle if being read aloud, but the print book will be even better, as there’s a space for children to draw their own picture after the questions. The print version is available from the publisher, through Ingrams, and Createspace.

Now to catch up on everyone’s blog posts! It’s lovely to see some new followers on here while I was away – hello and a warm welcome to Reading and Writing.

Rosemary

Summer Break and Submissions

Well, that's me getting all set to head off for a summer break - just the final washing, ironing and packing to do! Fortunately, we're remaining in Britain this year so don't have to catch flights or worry about excess baggage, and that makes a difference to stress levels.

The photo is one of the places where we hope to be in a couple of days time - some of you might recognise it or know where we're going, the others can guess until I return! I also enjoy having a complete break from the Internet at this time of year and won't be seeking access, except to perhaps check emails very occasionally, if possible. One of the advantages of not having a phone with Internet access is that I have an enforced rest from it. No doubt it will help my thinking time and I'll be raring to get back to everything soon enough.

Here are a few links to explore until the next post.

Novels/novellas Submissions: Prism Book Group (various genres); Entangled (Holiday Magic); Aurora Metro (Fiction Prize); Escape Publishing (romance); Samhain (horror)

Fiction Comps: Ifanca Helene James (story); Aesthetica (story - pricy fee); Morgen Bailey (flash fiction); Irish Writers and Carousel Writers Centre (various); Greenhouse Agency (children's/YA funny prize)

See you soon,
Rosemary

Liebster Award

It’s a while since I’ve accepted a blog award, so thank you to Debs Carr for nominating me for the Liebster Award. I’ve adapted it to miss out the eleven questions from the nominator part and gone straight to the eleven random facts, as I think that's enough to read!

The rules of the Liebster Award are:

Thank your Liebster Blog Award nominator on your blog and link back to the blogger who presented this award to you -

Answer the eleven questions from the nominator (if provided) -

List eleven random facts about yourself -

Present the Liebster Blog Award to up to eleven other blogs that you feel deserve to be noticed and leave a comment on their blog letting them know they have been chosen -

Pass on the eleven questions to your nominees, or create new ones -

Copy and paste the blog award on your blog.

So here are some random facts about my life so far:

• I was stung on the lip by a bee when eating a banana at an outdoor swimming pool.
• At high school, I joined the Women’s Junior Air Corps, wore a cute uniform and got to try rifle shooting with the boys from the Air Training Corps.
• My favourite Bond was Timothy Dalton – who I first loved as Mr Rochester.
• The first scary film I ever saw was Pinocchio when about five.
• At school camp, I fell over backwards and knocked myself out for a few seconds.
• Unknown to my mother, I had a quick ride round the block on the pillion of my friend’s older brother’s motorbike when about eleven.
• A friend and I won the talent contest between the houses at high school singing an Everly Brothers’ song, ‘All I Have to do is Dream.’
• When ten, I was junior bridesmaid at my sister’s wedding and wore a frilly lemon knee-length dress and floral circlet on my hair.
• I loved to dive from the sea wall into the outdoor swimming pool during the summer holidays in my teens.
• My only midnight swim was at the Isle of Man when I was sixteen – cold, fun and exhilarating.

Tried to think of anything remotely interesting! Now I'm passing the award on to the following bloggers who deserve more followers:

Jean; Vikki; Wendy - there are many more but I'll keep them for another time. 

Rosemary

Two go to London

Had a lovely weekend with daughter Vikki in London - even though it was tiring travelling down one day and back the next, with lots of walking in between! Can't believe how long it's taking me to catch up today - and it shows that I spend far too much time online. It was good to have two Internet-free days.

The launch of the Words with Jam anthology was excellent at Foyle's and I even met some ladies I knew from the RNA. Definitely a proud mother moment to know my daughter's story was in such good company, after meeting and hearing some of the other winners and runners-up. They put on a very good spread too! The anthology, An Earthless Melting Pot, is now available from Amazon in kindle and print.

The rest of the time, we enjoyed meandering through Covent Garden yesterday morning to the wonderful sound of classical music from the lively young group of musicians in the courtyard. I love that area and can imagine the history behind it.

Apart from the markets, one of the shops that intrigued us the most was an old-fashioned toy shop with the most wonderful Victorian stage kits, children's books and marionettes, all of which inspired my imagination and made me want to rewrite one of my short stories.

The interesting toy-maker-looking man behind the counter, in the tiny space upstairs, told us this is one of the oldest, original shops in the area.

Before getting the train home, we spent a little time in the British Museum where we headed to the ancient Egypt and ancient Greece areas - both of which I was eager to explore for inspirational photos. It's such a vast place, of course, that we couldn't cover much more in the time. It was lovely to see it lit up at night too.

Fortunately, the sun shone for most of the day and we happily relaxed in our first class train seats on the way home - it was worth the little extra for space, peace and table service!

For the dog lovers among you (although it will appeal to anyone), I'm featuring Australian tween author Charmaine Clancy on the Flights of Imagination blog today with her mystery novel, Dognnapped?, which is set in the dog show world.

Rosemary