Howsham Mill just shared an article from the Gazette and Herald about the writing workshop I did with them, back in June.

Click here to read the article.

Click here to find out more about school visits and workshops.

I’ve been a Sherlockian for as long as I can remember. It was Jeremy Brett, in the mid-1980’s who portrayed the troubled genius to such perfection who sealed the deal; although I fondly remember the Basil Rathbone movies as well. Of course I haven’t just watched dramatisations, I’ve also read all the stories several times. There’s a reason they stand the test of time; Holmes and Watson are great lead characters and the stories are always intriguing, the reveals enjoyable. I don’t remember ever feeling cheated by Conan Doyle.

I also love the modern interpretation that has made Sherlock ‘a thing’. From the moment I first heard the news, I was anticipating the first episode. I happy squealed when casting was announced (Martin Freeman as Watson – perfect!) and enjoyed all three series so far; just not the wait for season 4.

So when I saw that York Theatre Royal had an adaptation of The Hound of the Baskervilles as their summer production, I asked my husband if we could go. He was a bit reluctant, but after reading some of the reviews and saying things like, ‘You do realise that Watson is a woman?’ and ‘You do realise it’s a comedy?’ he booked us tickets.

I think, if I had to give a recipe for the perfect night of fun for me, it would be something like what we watched last night. Sherlock Holmes, Vaudeville with a steam-punk vibe, shadow puppets, silliness, and utterly flawless live performance.

This is the story of The Hound told in a wonderfully self-aware melodrama. The carefully choreographed chaos, with the cast of six performing multiple roles, costume changes and physically moving the scenery there was a lot going on. All six performers were brilliant, assured, and clearly loving what they were doing.

The Hound of the Baskervilles is on at York Theatre Royal until the 27th of August. Book now, before it sells out.

When I get an idea for a story, it’s quite often an opening line. If it’s not that specific, then it’s the opening of a scene. I know who at least one of the characters are, and what situation they are in then when I sit down and start to write and learn more about them.

This week I’ve been looking back at my ‘work in progress’ folder, and seeing if there are any stories in there that I feel ready to work on again. I came across one, a re-telling of Red Riding Hood from the perspective of the wolf, that I started more than a year ago. I have the idea, I know the characters; I’ve got a killer opening line:

She clothes herself in shades of blood and danger.

But…when I try to move on from that, I’m just never happy with the way the story goes. I’ve tried a few times to go back to the idea, with no joy. I’ll go back to it again, because one day, when I start typing, it will be the right time and it will all come together.

Why do I start pieces and not finish them? Well, like Red, sometimes I just lose the momentum. Other times, like this weekend, I pick the wrong time to start. It was late evening, and I had a strong story idea come to me. I sat down, the words started to pour out:

For as long as I can remember, I’ve seen faces.

And…then my 5 year old came and asked me to read her a bedtime story.

Summer holidays are hard for me, creatively. When the kids are around it’s impossible to write, because my train of thought is so easily derailed by interruptions. This summer I have mostly given myself non-writing tasks to do; editing the first Alfie Slider book before publication, working on Yorkshire Story, drafting a marketing plan for both projects. The trouble is that I don’t stop having story ideas just because I’m not writing.

Last week I did manage to write a flash fiction story (350 words) for Daggerville Games, and do an Hour of Writes entry; and maybe this week I’ll find time to take those beginnings up there, and keep going until the end.

Last year, I wrote a story set on the steps of the Yorkshire Museum, which was available for download in return for a donation to Doctors of the World UK who were doing stellar work with the refugees in the camps at Calais.

A good number of local families who donated got in touch to tell me that they’d been back to the museum to find the places and items mentioned in the story. An idea was born that, after a brain storming session with a friend, became Yorkshire Story.

I’ve been lucky enough to have the amazingly talented Heidi Griffiths create beautiful visuals for me, and have some talented writers lined up to come on board too.

As today is Yorkshire Day, I’m officially launching the website. Please go and visit, and let me know what you think. I’m really excited by the idea of combining two of my great loves, the beautiful city that I call home and great writing. I hope you are too.

Click the gorgeous graphic below to go and visit and find out more.

I’ve just emailed the first draft of Alfie Slider and the Frozen Prince to some beta readers. For me, I think this is the hardest part of the writing process; that first sharing of ideas outside the safety of my immediate family.

I’m consoling myself with the fact that my kids love it. They’re 9 and 5, and I’m reading it to them as their bedtime story. My 9 year old berates me about my love of cliff hangers every night, and we usually end up reading 2 or 3 chapters rather than the one I had planned.

Frozen Prince is a different book to Shape Shifter. It’s more like several mini-adventures in one book than the steady ramping of excitement to the climax that the first book was. It’s a bit more complicated, too. With the Alfie Slider universe explained in Shape Shifter, Frozen Prince brings in several new alien races, more technology and the first off-world trip for our intrepid heroes.

I never work on just one thing at a time, I’m usually working on the plot of one thing, writing another and editing something else (with added short stories) and that’s true now too. I’m writing a Young Adult, Fantasy, book with Danny Crow called Wonderling, which I will tell you more about at a later date and I am working on the plot for a new 9-12 adventure book about a girl, talking cats, spying spiders and the balance of good and evil.

Frozen Prince was a tricky book to write. It didn’t flow like Shape Shifter did, but then I hadn’t been carrying it around for a year wanting to write it and not having the time! It wasn’t written in one go, but in several sections with months of working on Shape Shifter in between, and I’m surprised at how well it hangs together.

When the kids are back at school in September I will start the editing process, it helps to take a break so you can look at it with fresh eyes.

But that will have to fit around getting Shape Shifter ready for publication…

After the workshop at Howsham Mill, one the schools involved asked if they could read Alfie Slider vs the Shape Shifter as their class reader in September and write me some reviews. I offered the same to our local school, year 3/4, and they also agreed. So I looked into getting the manuscript printed up, and discovered a few sites that would print as few as one copy of a paperback. I ordered 5 copies from epubli, uploaded the manuscript and waited.

They arrived yesterday. It was an emotional moment, seeing my name on the cover of a book; something I’ve wanted since childhood, seeing the title of my book, on a front cover. Yes, I ordered the print run, and yes, it’s a plain cover but still, there was something really special about holding a physical copy of the book in my hand.

It has a weight to it. It feels the right thickness; not too fat to intimidate reluctant readers, but enough to show that’s it’s a ‘proper’ book. It’s a physical thing, for the first time all that hard work, all the joy, the stress, the tears, were a real object. It made it all feel worthwhile, somehow.

So, one copy has gone to my most loyal ‘beta reader’, Joseph, who never fails to ask me when the second book is coming out. Three copies are going to schools to be read and reviewed. That last copy? That one is going to be my companion over the summer holidays. I’m going to highlight it, scribble all over it and make sure that this story is the very best that it can be.

Why?

Because I’m about to sign a publishing contract.

One of the most common questions I’m asked, once I tell people I’m a writer, is ‘Where do you get your ideas from?’ As a writer, I have to put myself in other people’s shoes, imagine what they are thinking, if I’m going to write convincing characters but I think this is the concept I find hardest to grasp. Are there really people out there who don’t have heads full of story ideas? How can you avoid them?

I have to make a conscious effort to filter things out; the mental equivalent of sticking my fingers in my ears and shouting ‘lalalalalala’, because otherwise I would never be able to concentrate on real life. An abundance of ideas has led me to missing my bus stop, finding myself walking in a different direction from the one I meant to go, and losing huge chunks of conversation because the shiny thoughts in my head are much more compelling. It’s a problem.

For example, I’m currently typing this in the archives of York Library. There are some thick, red and gold bound reference book son the shelf; Burke’s Peerage and Who’s Who, and they are making me think of magical grimoires, the power of influence, what it might be like to find out you are related to someone famous (or infamous). The table I am sat at is wooden and has the glow of much polished age, it makes me wonder who else has sat here, what were they working on, what decisions did they make.

Then of course there are the other people; I wonder what they might be doing here? Working? Studying? Whiling away the time because they have lost their job and haven’t yet told their spouse? There’s a man sat in front of me with his head in his hands, quite dejected. I wonder what is troubling him.

Just to appease any concerns from friends; I don’t usually use ‘real’ people in my books. The characters in my stories pop into my head, fully formed and start talking to me. (Yes, I just admitted to hearing voices in my head; don’t worry,  even if they do tell me to do bad things, I’ll only write about them.)

I’m sure there must have been times in my life when I’ve been bored, but in all honesty if I’m given a bit of time to sit in quiet and just retreat into my mind and see what’s going on in there? I love it. I think that’s why I’m always early for appointments, buying myself more ‘wasted’ time to wander and wonder inside my head.

Thoughts and ideas can come from anywhere, and the really interesting ones stick around. Eventually, other thoughts stick to them until they have enough weight to become a story idea. When that happens, I can sit down with a blank screen, flex my fingers and ‘tune in’ to the idea. I usually have an idea of where to start, sometimes all I have is an opening line. I begin, and find out along the way where the idea finishes. I often surprise myself with the subtext of the story that emerges on the way.

I know other writers who plan, who need to know the detail, define all the characters, and then weave their stories with great craft. It’s not like that for me. Creating a new story isn’t work, it’s sheer pleasure. It flows from me in bursts of sheer exhilaration.

Editing? Urgh. Now that is hard work.

Today has been quite exciting; I’ve been talking with publishers about moving Alfie Slider to the next stage, thinking about cover design, illustrations, and marketing strategies. Do you ever get the sensation that what you’re doing is exactly right? That everything is on rails, in synch, going exactly how it should? That’s how I was feeling.

Then the phone rang, and being an introvert I groaned, and made my husband answer it but he soon handed it back to me. It was a lovely lady from the National Association of Writers’ Groups who wanted to let me know that my submission to their ghost story competition had been shortlisted! I am one of four in the running to win the trophy on the night of their gala dinner in September for my short story, ‘The Pause’.

It’s been a great week; completing my poetry course, honourable mention for ‘The Steps’, finishing the first draft of Alfie Slider and the Frozen Prince, talking to publishers about Alfie Slider vs the Shape Shifter, and now this. I think a gala dinner sounds like a perfect way to celebrate, don’t you? What a shame it’s not until September.

I’ll probably have remembered I’m an introvert by then 😉

I’ve done readings in school before; but today I took a big leap into the world of educational workshops. I was asked by the good people at Howsham Mill if I’d help run a creative writing workshop for children in year 6 & 7 from the small schools around York, and I said yes because I’ve really enjoyed sharing my work with children in the past.

I started off reading them a bit of Alfie Slider. We talked about what Sci Fi was as a genre, and how you could tell a story was Sci Fi rather than fantasy. We translated some well known stories from their original genre into Sci Fi; so Harry Potter received a telepathic message offering him a place at Space School where he learned to fly a space ship and battled an alien!

After that I talked to the group about how Science Fiction stories can be used to highlight social issues. I did a presentation with examples, talking about TV shows and films the children knew about (and some they didn’t) like Star Wars, Wall-E, Doctor Who and more. Then I set them the challenge of creating their own alien race, specially designed to highlight a social issue. They certainly rose to that challenge; it was a real pleasure to walk around the groups and talk the ideas through with them children.

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I had a great day, sharing things that I’m really passionate about in the most beautiful setting. If you ever get the chance to visit Howsham Mill, take it! It’s a really peaceful and interesting spot in the heart of Yorkshire.