I was delighted to join five other writers at Retreats for You in Devon, where Amanda Saint delivered input to support the development of flash fiction pieces for inclusion in a Retreat West Books anthology to be published November 2019. Each morning we met after breakfast to write three new pieces of flash fiction based on a different theme.
On Tuesday we were inspired by picture prompts to develop characters and settings around the theme of peace and there was a further activity using sentence starters to complete our work. On the following day, Amanda encouraged us to write new fiction on the theme of love using prompts including music, selected words and what if scenarios. Our final day focused on the theme of power where further images and sentence starters activated ideas. My task is now to develop nine pieces of new flash fiction for submission to Retreat West Books in April 2019. A couple of the stories arrived almost fully formed but others will need considerable work to bring them up to publication standard. It was great working alongside other writers to achieve the shared goal of ideas generation and drafted pieces to be developed over the next few months.
We were very well looked after by Debbie Flint and her team at Retreats for You. If you fancy a few days dedicated to writing, you won’t find anywhere better than this. With a warm welcome, comfortable accommodation and meals with wine, what’s not to like?
Here is a video to promote the newly published anthology Gliterary. This is a glittery collection of glit-er-ary tales that will add sparkle to your life. It includes a story by me titled “Brighter than Jewels”. You can purchase a copy here or if you would like to receive a mobi-file or pdf to enable you to review the anthology on Goodreads or Amazon, please let me know by making contact here.
When I received an email on New Year’s Day from Debz Hobbs-Wyatt saying that my story The Shallows had been included in The Best of CafeLit 2012, I was delighted. Now I’m looking forward to receiving my copy of the anthology which is available through Amazon. The ezine CafeLit is a fantastic place to submit stories up to 3,000 words. Each year Debz selects 15 of the stories she’s most enjoyed for inclusion in a trade book and contributors receive a share of the profits.
I’m really pleased to see my work appear alongside that of Patsy Collins. Patsy has had considerable success in having her stories published in women’s magazines and now has a number of print and ebooks available. She writes regular blog posts which are well worth reading and you can find the link to her blog here.
Interestingly, Patsy was made redundant earlier in the year and I’m taking inspiration from the writing she’s undertaken since she’s been liberated from paid employment. In the meantime, the date of my dismissal through redundancy approaches and I’m making plans for a refocused future. When everything is confirmed, I’ll let you know more.
On one the most beautiful days of this year, I was in Waterstones, Dorchester selling copies of The Rosemary Project. The anthology comprises poetry and prose by writers from across Dorset and all money raised goes towards Alzheimer’s Research and Mindful (which supports a memory cafe in North Dorset). Although The Rosemary Project was the branch best-seller for the day, I only managed to sell eleven copies. Read the rest of this entry »
When I received an email on New Year’s Day from 
