Blog Archives

Losing it: Ten Days & Gratitude

31/1/2021

Wolf has lost his wife and, if he doesn’t get his act together, he might lose his daughter, at exactly the moment he needs her most. Michka is losing her words, but is desperate to use those remaining to express her gratitude to a couple she lost touch with in childhood, even though they saved her life. Although I’ve posted a few reviews already this year, these are the first of fiction published in 2021.

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Polish your words for a special flash fiction challenge!

27/1/2021

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When I began blogging in 2013, I was anxious about trolls. I needn't have worried: Annecdotal is well below their radar and, in my experience, the blogosphere has been a welcoming and supportive place. Numerous bloggers have hosted my promo posts, including Sue Vincent. Now I have an opportunity to return the favour.

I knew Sue had responsibilities as a carer for her disabled son. What I didn't know, until a couple of days ago, was that in these tough times for all of us, Sue's circumstances have taken a nosedive. The blogging community has stepped up to help.

One strand is a fund-raising flash fiction contest that kicks off next Monday. This post is part of the prelude which I'll let the anonymous ringleader tell you about in her own words:

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Have I swallowed a horse to catch a fly?

22/1/2021

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If I can't tell whether I'm coming or going, it might be because I'm doing both. Promoting my first novel while checking proofs of the next is making me dizzy, but there's a logic to it. I think.

My next novel is my best yet and I want as many people as possible to read it. In order to read it, people need to be aware of it, and the ideal way of bringing it to the attention of potential readers is through email. So I set myself the objective of finding 100 new subscribers by April.

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Retired teachers: Miss Garnet’s Angel & Olive Kitteridge

16/1/2021

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I’m sharing my reflections on two novels, published a few years ago about retired schoolteachers who are forced to reappraise aspects of their pasts. Julia Garnet, a former history teacher in South London, has her epiphany in Venice; former maths teacher, Olive Kitteridge, stays in her home town in Maine. Both women have hidden their vulnerabilities beneath a steely shell. Both demonstrate it’s never too late to learn.

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My reading and writing goals for 2021

11/1/2021

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Did you ever get the feeling 2021 might not happen? We’d somehow be stuck in a 2020 Groundhog Day? Or were you the opposite, confident a new diary would create this worn-out world anew? Well, here we are, with some things as bad as ever – or worse: in the UK, with the new variant, hospital admissions are higher than during the first lockdown – but with the promise of life edging towards normal sometime this year.

Meanwhile, we plod on, making the best of what freedom we have. For those of us who live primarily in our heads, the pandemic is no excuse to shirk. So, on the reasonable assumption I’ll survive to implement them, here are my goals and plans for the coming year.

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Fictional biographies: Sacred Country & The Stone Diaries

7/1/2021

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Two novels that have sat on my bookshelves for a while, the first waiting to be read, and the second loved and waiting to be re-read. Written by acclaimed female novelists – the first British and the second, Canadian, now deceased – read on to see what this unacclaimed female novelist, also the author of a fictional biography, thought.