I've just booked myself on a writers' retreat at Ted Hughes' old home in Yorkshire.  You spend the week with other wannabe writers, two published writers who act as you mentors and a literary agent.  I'm quite excited, but will have to contain myself as it isn't until August 3rd.

I kind of live, anyway ( Read more... )

I'm off to Ypres tomorrow for five nights as a member of staff on a field trip to the battlefields of World War I.  We go in trenches, visit the graves and attend a Last Post, and have a day visit to the Somme.
I'm back Friday - if I survive the 40 15-16 year olds and the history staff!

I always read a lot on holiday, but this year I read more than ever. Click the title of each for a brief review…

Kathy Reichs Devil Bones

I love Kathy Reichs' novels, I really do, and I was thrilled to find this in the airport, on sale a week early.  I had read the blurb and the first page on line and was fascinated by the plot.  However, because I ( Read more... )

We got home in the early hours of Monday morning after a 51/2 hour flight in a very cramped plane.  Sometimes I’m glad I’m only of average height! Egypt was good - very touristy.  Sharm-el-Sheikh has been built purely for the tourist industry.  The Red Sea is fantastic and great for snorkelling and scuba diving (I did the former but not the latter ( Read more... )

 On Saturday we had our annual Cats Protection funday.  Last year we raised £3600 - our best ever.  I took £90 reading Tarot cards at £5 a time - not bad at all.  Because of the weather and the credit crunch, we expect that this year we'd take less, and our hopes were for matching last year's at best.
We were wrong.  I took £95 this year - 19 ( Read more... )

Fanfiction.net and fictionpress.com have just put a reader traffic thingy on login pages.  You can see how many hits and readers you have had, even as far as per chapter!  I know we already have the stats page for hits, but this shows how many we've had per day and how many separate readers.  You can even break it down to per country ( Read more... )

If I tidy the cupboard above the stairs we will have lots of room to store the boxes that are cluttering up the back room and study.

If I tidy the cupboard.

Any one else just feel static?

( Read more... )

We went to see Mamma Mia tonight and it was amazing!  People were up in the aisle dancing and singing along, and applauded the movie - something I have only heard once before.  I can highly recommend it - the cast  must have had such a good time making it.

Go see!