My thoughts about books, writing, life and so many other things….Judy Leigh/ Elena Collins.
Like many people in England, I stayed up late to watch the exciting match between England and Italy and, like many people, I have been aware of the aftermath this morning on the news: I usually listen to a sports channel in the gym and the programme was full of regrets because the team lost …
It’s interesting to think about talented people and to stop for a moment and really take in just how good they are, in terms of their skills being so much more than what we know as average. I often use myself as the average against which to compare others, but in many ways, I don’t …
Continue reading The treasure inside the nutshell: talent that goes unnoticed.
I have a friend who claims to have completely cured her arthritis by swimming in the sea, whatever the weather. Her pains completely disappeared, and she swore that it was because she immersed herself regularly in freezing water. I recently saw British athlete Mo Farah and Portuguese footballer Cristiano Ronaldo do something similar on TV, …
Continue reading The immersion technique – it’s one way to write your next novel…
I know I’m blogging here about the novels I’m currently working on, but let’s not start with what I’m writing just yet - I’ll get on to that in a moment - let’s just set the scene first. I’m lucky to be way ahead on all writing schedules and outside right now, the weather is …
This week the sunshine came at last and promised to stay for a while: I spent the weekend sorting out the van, with the hope of getting back on the road soon. My year usually starts in early spring but there have been a few universal problems with getting out and about for a few …
Based on my radio interviews with SoundArt Radio and the wonderful Julie Mullen, here's a blog post about writing comedy, whatever that might mean. I've been told that one genre I write might be termed 'romantic comedy', and so I'm always interested to talk about what makes people smile, what is uplifting, what is a …
Continue reading On Writing: why writing comedy can be so fascinating
Based on my radio interview on CakEhole last week with the wonderful Julie Mullen, I decided to write a blog post about editing. We discussed it on her show, as so often writers think it must be an awful process. The belief is: you've written it, so it must hurt to change it, right? Not …
Continue reading On Writing: What the editing process is like for a writer?
Once a week, on a Wednesday, I appear on a community radio show, 'CakEhole with Julie Mullen,' and we talk about all things to do with novels and writing for fifteen minutes. It is one of the highlights of my week as Julie is so much fun to chat with. Based on our conversations, I …
As the worst of lockdown is over, despite wide predictions of another possible ‘wave’, we are all looking forward to the summer and the chance to travel again, whether it is to the nearest beach, or to see much-missed friends, or to somewhere distant but safe. It will be lovely to spend time in the …
Originally given the working title The Hokey Cokey Woman, I set out to write a story about Molly, a seventy-year-old widow who leaps into situations with complete abandon, later realising that what she’s chosen isn’t for her and she should have considered all options and thought more wisely. But part of Molly’s charm is that …
That quintessence of dust 