Monday Coffee

Hello! I am so happy to see you back here in the coffee house. It is great to see the decor has changed: the new paintwork and art lifts the atmosphere as does the new furniture. Dibs on the bright pink patchwork sofa near the bookshelves housing our resident authors’ books. If you’ve ordered your beverage, why not join me on the sofa. Tonight, we have the singers from This Is Jinsy entertaining us.

The first two weeks of studying have passed swiftly and I am thoroughly enjoying it. My love of history is growing with every assignment and meeting the other students and my tutor have secured my confidence in the course. What have you been up to over the time I’ve been away? I have been trying to keep up with bloggers and authors, dipping in and out of their blog pages and FB. If I haven’t managed to visit you or say hi, please forgive me. You are definitely not forgotten – I will get to you as soon as I can.

With us sailing swiftly towards November, my Writer’s Club at school is brimming with excitement. We have spent the month of October preparing for our exciting new novels and I am happy to say we have new children attempting the great feat of writing their own stories over the next month. Many are now veterans and are so helpful in prompting the younger ones (my youngest member is 7!) and have such a mature attitude to the writing process. Many have won prizes over the past year through different competitions run by the Young Writers. The challenge this year is going to be to reach 5000 words which is a lot to ask for any junior child. I have great confidence in them all and wish them the best of luck. Unfortunately, this year I will not be competing as it will be too much with assignments, work and the clubs.  Don’t think I could push for more things to do. Plus, it will be my birthday month!

Are you planning on challenging yourself over the month of November? What genre story do you plan on writing? Does your mind stumble and you find yourself stuck with only one idea? Well, there have been so many good ideas floating around the net about how to write and Robyn Paterson has shared great formulas on crime fiction. The best advice I can offer, if you feel some trepidation, is to enjoy yourself. Pace yourself and try not to fall too far back on your word count each day. If you do, don’t worry. Find the time to make up the word count but don’t leave it to the last week or the last few days! Try to give yourself enough time to load your story and verify your word count at the end and hey presto – you’ll be a Nanowrimo champion!

Now, let’s sit back and enjoy the last song of the evening before we have to return to our normal lives. Thanks for joining me and I’ll catch up with you soon.

 

Sacha’s Weekly Writing Challenge

Hi and welcome to my entry for Sacha’s Writespiration 2017.

2017 brings 52 challenges over 52 weeks.
Your challenge is to write your story using the weekly theme/prompt and write it in just 52 words…. EXACTLY, no more, no less.

Submit your entries in the comments or on a blog post and I post them the following week with the new prompt. You have until Sunday to enter.
This week I want you to:
Write about the girl that wore the black hood.

Here is my entry:

Rage coursed through her black hooded body, heralding the return of emotions. 

“I’m still alive,” she whispered, barely audible for Tom and her sister to hear. “You buried me alive.”

Their intertwined lips and bodies crushed out rational thought – their turn to burn for lies. Carefully raising her hoodie, her eyes flamed. 

Monday Coffee

Hurricane Doris has left her mark on the land, trawling her nails through our leafy forests and towns, ripping her way through anything left unattended or not battened down.

With that in mind, I thought it might be a good time to return to the bat cave. There’s nothing within grasp between these solid walls and heavy rock door so I think we will be safe! Due to sufficient supplies in the bat cave, I can offer you black coffee with sugar, tequila or water. Take your pick.

With another week under our belts and another letter of decline from the literary agents, I think some Columbian coffee will serve me well. Since we are close to home, a freshly made bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwich won’t go amiss either!

Now that we have something good to eat and drink, let’s relax and catch up. Have you sent in your answer to Hugh’s Glimpses competition? The prize is a whopping £100 Amazon Gift voucher. It’s definitely worthwhile reading his book too as the clues are hidden within.

Speaking of books, Marjorie Mallon is compiling a list of authors who do book reviews or have guest authors with reviews. It’s worthwhile stopping by her place and catching up with the latest novels available for review. Here’s a snippet of the post she left on Facebook for any authors or bloggers interested in joining her listing:

Hi. I started off asking for bloggers/authors who would be interested in actively promoting authors by reviewing and/or showcasing authors work. I had eleven replies – all positive. I decided to make it a bit more personal rather than just writing a long list and adding links I decided to start a club for lovers of books who would like to support authors by writing reviews, and/or hosting authors on their blogs.

If authors and book bloggers would be interested in adding their details to my next list, (come join the club,) please do get in touch via my email: marjma2014@gmail.com. Thanks

I’ve just had to update this post with exciting news: the Bloggers Bash is getting a new logo and with time hopping and skipping towards our 2017 meet up, I couldn’t resist adding Sacha’s post about the Bash. If you haven’t booked your ticket to the Blogger’s Bash, now is the time to do it! As much fun as we have here in the bat cave, it would be great to break out and actually see each other in person!

On a personal note, I’ve discovered that my children have a knack at following the line of evidence at a hypothetical crime scene. My hubble gave them the facts of a death and they had to decipher who was the guilty party, or if it was a self-inflicted death. Watching and listening to their reasoning was like watching two detectives sift through the evidence at a crime scene. Even the minute detail of looking for clues on the witnesses’ clothing was not missed.  It was a pretty proud moment for me!

Pushing forward to the week ahead, my two detectives, Perkins and Jones, will be cutting through some evidence of their own and making their way towards the end of the case of the Pink Mask. There are a more details to add to pump the story full of fun details for the avid crime reader and I hope that it will keep my audience on their toes till the end.

Well, I’ve talked and munched through my bacon sarni and my coffee cup is empty, so it’s time to kick you out of the bat cave and get down to some real work. Have a great week and don’t forget to check out Hugh and Marjorie’s pages.

If you would like to find out more about Detectives Perkins and Jones, click on the pic below to order your copy of The Iron Pendulum.  Please leave a review and let me know if you’ve enjoyed the book.  Thanks.