My thoughts about books, writing, life and so many other things….Judy Leigh/ Elena Collins.
A frined of mine runs a brilliant writing group where she teaches others to improve their skills. Another friend runs a great monthly group where people share what they've written, offering supportive comments. They are an exceptionally nice and talented group of writers. Quite often, I'm busy putting novels together so I'm pushed for time …
You know that feeling, when you are indoors and suddenly you become aware of the four walls around you being a bit narrow. I am blessed in the house I live in as that happens less nowadays, but in previous homes, I’ve walked around the place like a caged animal. A sudden voice calls, bidding …
On Friday, I had a lovely evening out with fourteen other people, friends, family. There was food, laughter, much hugging and kissing. On Saturday I went speed dating. With foreign language students. So not dating exactly. And definitely no hugging and kissing. On Sunday, I went to see my brother and his wife and we …
I’m no great mathematician, but I loved Venn diagrams at school. I enjoyed looking at the universal set, which is everything, and the overlapping circles or other shapes within that illustrated the logical relationships between two or more sets of items. I was fascinated by how things overlapped; how certain things appear in only one …
When I started thinking about writing The Wicked Lady, the dual timeline was a central focus. I knew what I wanted to write about Katherine Ferrers. Her story has been sketchily recorded in history, with plenty of gaps for me to fill with creative speculation. But I needed a modern character to parallel her story. …
It’s a question we’re often asked, as a light moment of humorous reflection. If you hosted a dinner party, which famous celebrities, living or otherwise, would you invite? I’ve researched a few of the top answers. I suppose people's responses tell us something about the host. After all, if we’re inviting them to our table, …
Continue reading Which Celebrity Would You Invite to a Dinner Party?
Well, dear friends and readers, hopefully the summer is round the corner. I keep picturing the sizzling cover of that Stevie Wonder album, Hotter than July. Here in the south west of England, it’s lukewarm, to say the least. Cooler than April, most mornings. But I won’t be deterred. This is what I’m up to …
June was a heck of a month. Apart from being the month of my birth, the month of the solstice and the month with the longest daylight hours in the Northern Hemisphere, it’s the month that’s supposed to be the best time to buy a laptop and the worst time to buy a barbecue. Father’s …
I love this term – the oxygen of publicity. Although - didn't Margaret Thatcher come up with it first, in the context of learning to starve the oxygen from terrorism, or something? I'm using it here to refer to negative views and comments that seem to fill the internet and the airwaves and come to …
At the last writing group meeting, I was thinking about using voice to create character, and what sort of style goes with what voice. It's just a little twenty minute writing exercise I took to the group - I'm not sure where to go with it - but here it is. Have a read and …
Continue reading A little piece of scribble for the writing group…
That quintessence of dust 