A Quick Catch Up

It seems like forever ago that I posted a quick catch up, but it turns out it was only a couple of months ago. A lot seems to have happened in that time, though, which probably explains it.

Over the past couple of months I've:

• had my first Covid jab
• been for a meal INDOORS for the first time since Lockdown 1
• been into town for shopping that didn't involve school shoes
• visited family
• Published my twelfth book
  
  
  

It really began to feel like we were starting to get back on track with restrictions being lifted, but then on Friday my youngest daughter was sent home from school to self-isolate after someone in her bubble tested positive for Covid. So she's back to home learning for a little while until they're allowed back to school.

Here's what else has been happening over the past couple of months:

I've just released the third book in the Beginner's Guide series, A Beginner's Guide To Family Life, so now I'm working on my next book. I'll be writing it during this year's Nano, so I'm plotting it all out now so I'm ready.

Over the past few weeks I've read:

The Little Bookshop of Love Stories by Jaimie Admans

Mix Tape by Jane Sanderson

The Switch by Beth O'Leary

And I'm reading Twenties Girl by Sophie Kinsella at the moment

I recently discovered Motherland and binged them all because I absolutely LOVED IT. And now I need more.

I'm still catching up on the dramas I've recorded and recently (finally) watched The Pact and Innocent, both of which I enjoyed. I loved watching The Great British Sewing Bee as it's proper comfort telly and I can't wait for the next series.

Books (old books, new TBR read books, and my own books), flowers from my garden and a bit of baking.

You can find me on Instagram here

So that's what I've been up to - but what about you? Let us know in the comments below :)

A Beginner's Guide To Family Life: Meet the Characters

 

A Beginner's Guide To Family Life is out now and I thought I've give you a quick introduction to some of the characters.

Spice Girl-loving Ruth Williams is acing life at the moment. She was bullied as a child for being overweight but she's finally starting to accept herself for who she is. She has an amazing husband, a beautiful house, and a job that she can just about tolerate. Working as a PA for Kelvin Shuttleworth isn't ideal, but Ruth has plenty of tricks up her sleeve to make the passing of the working day more tolerable (mainly skiving and gossiping).

But now Ruth's pregnant and she feels out of her depth. She doesn't have any experience of babies and her pregnancy doesn't have the rosy glow the magazines display. Throw in a DIY project that's causing a rift between her parents and life is about to get messy.

Disney-loving Quinn McFadden's house is crammed with people, from her octogenarian grandmother to her toddler nephew and everyone in between. It's utter chaos, but is she ready to make the leap and move out of the family home?

And her boyfriend's household isn't much better, with housemates that are beginning to drive Quinn up the wall as much as her family. Maybe it's time they both moved out of their current accommodation - and move in together?

Richard would like a simple life, spending quality time with his kids and girlfriend with the odd night out in the pub, but his home life has been pretty tumultuous since his divorce. He finally feels like he's back on track: he's blissfully happy living with his girlfriend and he's successfully co-parenting with his ex (and they're actually able to talk civilly) but the arrival of a visitor on his doorstep turns his life upside down and changes everything.

You can choose your friends, but you're pretty much stuck with your family.

Ruth has everything she never dared to hope for: a husband who adores her, a beautiful home, and a job she can just about tolerate. And now she's having a baby. But having zero experience with babies and a pregnancy that isn't quite as blooming as the magazines claim it should be, how will she cope with this stage of her life?

Quinn loves her family, but she sometimes wishes there weren't quite so many of them living under the same roof. But is she ready to fly the nest and build a whole new one with her boyfriend?

Richard's life is pretty great, until a visitor arrives on his doorstep and turns his whole world upside down.

Three friends.

Three families.

A whole lot of drama.

Amazon UK | Amazon US

A Beginner's Guide To Family Life Publication Day

Happy Publication Day to me!

Today, the third instalment of the Beginner's Guide series has been released and I'm so pleased to share the next stage of Ruth's life with everyone. Ruth is such a fantastic character to write and I hope you enjoy her story as much as I enjoyed writing it - all seven drafts of it! As well as Ruth's story, you'll also get to know more about Quinn and Richard, who have featured in the other books, as well as meeting a a couple of new characters.

If you're a newsletter subscriber, you should receive an email this afternoon with a giveaway of a signed copy of the book. Remember, you can also buy signed copies of A Beginner's Guide To Family Life - plus a selection of my other books - from my online shop.

Over the next few weeks I'll be sharing 'Book Extras' here on the blog, including fun facts about the book, the playlist and a genre-swapping short story (which subscribers will get a first look at in the latest newsletter).

If you read the book, I really hope you enjoy it. If you do, I'd love it if you could leave a review on Amazon. Every one helps, even if it's just a sentence or two!

You can choose your friends, but you're pretty much stuck with your family.

Ruth has everything she never dared to hope for: a husband who adores her, a beautiful home, and a job she can just about tolerate. And now she's having a baby. But having zero experience with babies and a pregnancy that isn't quite as blooming as the magazines claim it should be, how will she cope with this stage of her life?

Quinn loves her family, but she sometimes wishes there weren't quite so many of them living under the same roof. But is she ready to fly the nest and build a whole new one with her boyfriend?

Richard's life is pretty great, until a visitor arrives on his doorstep and turns his whole world upside down.

Three friends.

Three families.

A whole lot of drama.

Amazon UK | Amazon US

Signed Copies of My Books

Did you know that you can now buy signed copies of a selection of my books?

I've set up a shop, which you can view by clicking here or using the new 'Shop' tab at the top of the page, where you can buy signed copies. At the moment, you can buy A Beginner's Guide To Salad, Everything Changes But You and The 12 Christmases of You & Me, and I'll be adding a couple more very soon.

Please note that the signed books are only available in the UK at the moment, but you can purchase non-signed copies from Amazon.

If you'd like to kept up to date when the new books arrive in the shop, make sure you've subscribed to my newsletter!

Another Guide To Ruth: An Edit Checklist

 

The third instalment of the Beginner's Guide series has been a bit of a slog, with multiple drafts until I was finally happy with the story and the structure. But it's definitely picked up momentum now!

It only seems like five minutes ago that I was in possession of a draft I was happy with, but now the book has been sent off to my editor - and it's back again. I've been working on the edits and I ended up with a list of actions and words that were repeated a LOT that I needed to work on.

When I write a first draft (or a sixth in this case), I usually get the words down as quickly as I can without going back to edit, so words and phrases being repeated isn't odd. It's at this point - especially when they're flagged up by an editor - that I can take more time to find a better way of conveying action or using more varied vocabulary. The thesaurus on Word is a godsend, and I also use The Emotion Thesaurus by Angela Ackerman & Becca Puglisi.

I find the guide really helpful. There are lists of actions and emotions for all sorts of scenarios, so characters can do more than shrug!

So what's next for the Beginner's Guide book?

I'm hoping to finish the edits soon so it can be proofread, and I'll be revealing the title and cover in my next newsletter. So make sure you're subscribed if you want to be the first to see them.

World Building: 3 Ways To Transfer Vivid Worlds From Imagination To Page

When we're writing, we focus a lot on the plot and the characters, making them as rich and interesting as we can. But we also need to think about the world in which these characters live, to make their worlds more than words on a page.

Every writer will have their own way of transferring the vivid worlds in their imagination to the page, and I thought I'd share three ways which work for me.

Before you start writing a scene, stop and think about the setting. What can your characters see? What can they smell or even feel? If they're in a department store, for example, maybe it's hot, with the cloying smell of perfume that sticks in the back of your throat. There's chatter around, maybe music playing, a rainbow of nail polishes on the shelf. Close your eyes and image yourself in the setting. Jot down a few details that you can weave into the story.

I use the Urban Setting and Rural Setting Thesaurus by Angela Ackerman & Becca Puglisi to help. They list lots of sights, sounds, smells for popular settings.

I always find it useful to set up a Pinterest board (or ten) when I start writing a book, to help visualise the world I'm creating. The boards can help set a mood, help to build up characters, and it's always helpful to describe a place or object that you can see in front of you.

When I was starting to plan my thirteenth book, I wasn't sure who my main character was, so I was playing around on Pinterest when I found a picture of a woman wearing a pretty quirky mishmash of colours, and I thought yes! This is what Zoey would wear. But what kind of person wears a royal blue jumper with a pumpkin-orange skirt and a green coat with oversized buttons? Thinking about the outfit and who would wear it really helped me to shape who Zoey became and the world she lived in.

I always find it helpful to sketch out a little map of the area I'm setting a book in, especially as I use the same areas for different books. It helps me to get a sense of the place, and I also know what I named the pubs and where I put them in previous books!

My maps aren't anything fancy - sometimes they're pen outlines scribbled down on the back of my character sheets or, if I'm feeling particularly techy, I copy them out into Paint. Which isn't techy at all, and nor are they artistic, but nobody else is going to see them so it doesn't matter.

I've also sketched out the basic layout of characters' houses if I've thought it would help. Again, they're nothing artistic, just a reminder of where the bathroom is, whether it has open plan living etc.

So those are my three tips for world building. Feel free to share your own tips in the comments below this post.

Planning Book 15

 

I know Books 12-14 haven't been published yet, but I'm now planning Book 15. This is quite a few book projects to be juggling, but Book 14 - Beginner's Guide Book 3 - is away to be edited and I'll be writing Book 15 as part of Nanowrimo2021 so want to use this little window to plot.

Book 15 is a follow-up of Book 12. I finished the book and was really sad to be leaving the characters behind, but I realised there was potential for more. I'm so happy to be back in Cleo's world, and back in Clifton-on-Sea (which is also the setting of The Little Bed & Breakfast by the Sea and The Single Mums' Picnic Club).

I've already updated the character sheets I created before writing the first book in the series, and I've created a few more for some new characters I'm going to meet. Getting to know my characters before I start to write is important to me, even if it's just a few lines that I'll add to as the book progresses. I'll definitely know my characters more by the end of the first draft, but I like to know a bit about them at the beginning.

The Five-Point Pitch

I've also started to update my Pinterest boards for the book, where I've been pinning articles and images to help with characterisation and the storyline, so now it's time to move onto the next stage of my planning: the five point pitch (I wrote a blog post about the five point pitch method I use here). I'll then expand the short pitch into a bullet point plot and finally create a three-act structure for the novel.