How does Santa enter if you don’t have a chimney?
Even when I was a kid, I wondered how Santa would get into houses that didn't have a chimney. I know that our house didn't have one... A couple of years ago, Adrian Darakai recorded a song called Santa, We Have Ducted Heating. This inspired one of my favourite writing...
What I’ve Learned from Christmas Movies
At this time of the year, I like to unwind by watching a cheesy Christmas movie or two. These are the sorts of movies that are usually set in a small town in the US with a lot of snow, and a predictable storyline. There may be a prince from a tiny kingdom in Europe...
What I’ve Read – November 2021
Can you believe it's December 1 already? I realised that at some point during November, I passed my goal of reading 50 books this year! Now we'll see how many books I read before the end of the year. I discovered the Short Stack Reading Challenge during December, the...
Start with writing your book
I see so many people asking about publishing options for their stories. My first question is always 'Have you written your story yet?' A surprising number of people haven't written a word, yet they're already researching whether or not to pursue self-publishing or...
Having Fun Writing
Recently, I have been going through some old blog posts from before I published my first book, to bring them onto this site. I have been copying and pasting each post and updating links as needed. It's been interesting revisiting some of these thoughts and dreams. I...
12 Days of Christmas 2021
Can you believe that 2022 is just around the corner? Usually, I open up the 12 Days of Christmas sign ups at the start of December, but this year, I'm starting early. For those of you who haven't heard of it before, this is a writing challenge designed to kickstart...
What I’ve Read – October 2021
October was a quiet month for reading, partly because I dropped my bundle a bit between health issues and dealing with what I call 'yo-yo' lockdowns (in for a couple of weeks, and out for a couple of weeks before going back in again). I finished reading Sass and Traz...
Finished Another Notebook!
Since early in 2020, I have been running Virtual Writers Groups for young writers. Each session includes a writing prompt that I set for the participants... and I do the prompt too. Earlier in the year, I took this photo: These are the notebooks that I had been using...
What I’ve Read – September 2021
Welcome to October! It's exciting for me as it's my birthday in a couple of days. I wonder if I'll get any new books to read... Not much reading happened during September, although I did start a few books that will be finished in October. I read The Bench by Megan,...
Someone with Depression
I recently saw a question in a writers group on Facebook asking what a young woman with depression would look like. All the usual stereotypes came out about someone not looking after themselves came out... but here's something you should know - someone with depression...