Happy Bank Holiday Monday! (Yes: true to form, it's raining).

Very excited at the moment however as a new American magazine to launch on May 14th will feature a review of my e-book For A Smile and also showcase a short story.

It's still free to subscribe to the magazine right now and you can do that by visiting their website at www.indtale.com.

It promises to be a treat for all those interested in romantic literature especially beyond the mainstream publishers.

Obviously For A Smile has been available on Amazon.com as well as Amazon.co.uk so technically it is already out there in the States but this is its first proper promotional exposure, so I'm hoping it will generate loads of international sales!!:) (O.K. O.K even a few would be good!)

So hop over to the website soon and see what they have to offer.

Keep smiling through the rain!  x

Smiling through the rain this week for two special reasons.

Firstly I have just picked up my copy of The People's Friend Fiction Special No 58!

On page twenty-five you will find an interview with me together with an image of the front cover of "For A Smile" and details of how to find this blog. I want to say a huge public THANK YOU to The People's Friend for their interest and support.

Promoting your own book is such hard work and so confusing! Any awareness generated by an article like this is a special gift and I hope it helps readers find my work. Sales are going really well so far which is another reason to smile (so maybe there are three?)

The other reason is that yesterday I received an email from the administrators of the site where I am giving short story advice : "The Short Story Tool-shed" to say that over 1000 people have already logged on and read the articles! That's amazing! I really hope it helps more writers out there into print.

If you're reading this and haven't logged on yet - you can link directly to the site by going to "Writing Tips" on my website toolbar.

And amidst all this blogging, promoting and balancing day jobs I am still finding time to do what I love best in the whole world: write short stories.

I honestly don't know how novelists find time to fit in 80 - 100,000 words with everything else they have to do. All I can say is: RESPECT!

For now I am a happy little short story writer! 

Whatever you are trying to squash into your world, I hope it's working out for you this week and that you also have reasons to smile.  x

 Now some of you out there probably remember whether "La Dame Aux Camellias" was a play, a book, a poem? I'm afraid I don't and I might even be misquoting the title, but these past few weeks it's what I have been!

This amazing bush was in the garden when we moved into the house and unfailingly provides this wondrous splash of colour every year at a time when the garden is only waking up from spring. Every time I look at it I smile and that's worth a lot isn't it? No wonder we British are so fond of our gardens when they have the ability to lift our spirits in this way! As I sit sipping my morning coffee alongside this camellia, it really makes me remember how lucky I am!

Spring has been a good time for me so far with "For A Smile" riding high in the Amazon bestsellers chart and the launch of my on-line articles- The Short Story Tool-shed -  advising on how to write and get published with women's magazines -  being well received.

My day jobs are busy but at the moment I'm still managing to fit in short story writing too, so for once I'm not beating myself up about that. So all in all I'm a happy little juggler right now... that is till I drop all the balls! Ah, well: enjoy it while it lasts!

Hope your juggling is going well too and here is a another shot of my super-smile-inducing camellia:

Have a happy week! x

This is a series of articles I am publishing on hubpages giving my top writing tips.

You can follow the link to the articles by clicking on the little handy widget on the "Writing Tips" page on this website.

I am aware that much has already been written on the subject of "how-to" but for what it is worth this is my take on the subject.

When I started out trying to break into women's magazines there was no shortage of advice out there but most of it came with a hefty price tag - especially the courses which in trying to cover all markets inevitably covered areas in which I had no interest. (I can live without writing erotica - honest I can!)

I should point out that hubpages is a monetized site but I won't be earning from it as I don't have an enabled Google Adsense account. What is in these articles is free from me to you with the sincere hope that it helps other people out there to experience the amazing feeling of seeing your work in print and getting paid for it! Enjoy and pass the word on!  x

Today is a good day! And not because it's sunny. No matter what the TV weathermen say, the sunshine has not managed to break through where I live all week: nothing but grey cloud and nasty damp drizzly temperatures.

But... from today for a whole week I will be walking past supermarket and newsagent magazine shelves with a ridiculous smile on my face because I have a story in both this week's "My Weekly" and "The People's Friend" ! AND - what's more: lovely My Weekly have included a great plug for my e-book "For A Smile" and even included an image! (The profoundly fab team at People's Friend are doing an interview/full page promotion for my book early next month - see "News" page).

So right now I am humming while I work on all fronts!

This image, by the way, is included because all winter this wonderful jasmine has been lighting up my garden and now spring is pretty much here it is being joined in lifting my spirits by lots of other lovely yellowness like daffs and primroses.

No matter how many times I have a story published I never lose that thrill of seeing something in print that started off in my head; got transferred to notebook/laptop and ended up being out there on magazine shelves for everyone to read. The first time someone sent me a letter (via the mag) to say how much they enjoyed something that I wrote it really came home to me what this writing lark is about: other people's enjoyment. Basically (and I hope this doesn't sound cheesy) it's just great to write something that people get pleasure from reading. I called my e-book "For A Smile" because that's what I hope it gives people.

I know that it certainly gives me a smile to walk past that magazine shelf and know that between those glossy covers there is work of mine.

So please excuse me while I preen to myself. I want to enjoy it while I can. A writer's life is a roller coaster of rejection and jubilation so I think it's important to make the most of good days like today!

Have a wonderful week whatever you're doing and enjoy the sunshine if you're lucky enough to get any!   x

Just putting this in because the pic really makes me smile - corny as that may sound, given my book's title! It wafts me back in my mind to the beach in Barbados!

I've also just used it as my profile pic for Twitter.

Yes: yours truly has now joined the tweeting community. (Well actually I haven't yet since I haven't "tweeted" anything.) When I figure out how to do it I'll add the Twitter icon to this website.

As always with anything new and to do with computers I am completely clueless but I hope it might bring me and my little book to more people or I might just learn something from the Twitter folk. Let's face it: I've a lot to learn about all this on-line stuff. (Who said: "A writer writes" and did they have any idea how much time is taken up with trying to promote what you've written? How on earth writers have time to write anything at all with all this self-promotion stuff is beyond me because I'm only playing at it really.)

Of course we'd all write more if we weren't reading other people's blogs/writing our own/messing about on Face-book. Oh, dear! I have a horrible feeling that joining Twitter may just have given me an excuse to waste even more time on-line when I should be writing...help!

At least I've sold two stories this week - including one which was a panic-stricken- you-have-48hrs-to-write-it piece - so I don't feel like a total failure!

Have a happy week folks whatever you're reading and writing. x

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Ok. I'll come clean: I've just come back from a wonderful holiday in Barbados! I was all ready to write an excited about-to-go-on-holiday blog when I read a scary article on the the Internet about how you should never give away your location and never let on when you're away from home because apparently the fraudsters look for these things. I imagined cleaned out bank accounts (ok: there's not much in there anyway!); maxed out credit cards... you get the paranoid picture.

So now I'm back and can't believe that only a few days ago I was sitting on this beach taking this picture...sigh.

But I've come back to a full page profile in my local paper about me and my e-book For A Smile and to see that lovely My Weekly Face-book posted about it as well. And if that weren't enough to get my lips twitching in an upward direction, I've sold two stories this week too. So all in all I'm a happy little writer! 

I am anyway the kind of person who is always happy to come home. I miss my beloved dog and so much has come out in the garden while I've been away: bulb shoots and the first cerise Camellia flowers. Along the path where I cycle in the morning the first wild primroses are peeking through soil and rabbits are beginning to run around thinking about pairing up for spring. Today for the first time I dared to go out without boots. To misquote the immortal Bob Marley: could it be, could it be, could it be...spring?

Have a happy week whatever the weather.  x

Doesn't it just make you FEEL warm looking at it?

No bleating about the cold here - there's enough of that on the TV but I've decided to think warm instead!

One of the lovely things about being a magazine writer is that you have to think ahead so while my body is shrieking with cold my mind is basking in sunshine and warm seas for summer stories.

Of course it's not so great trying to conjure up snow in the middle of summer or feel Christmassy in May, but hey - everything has two sides to it, doesn't it?

Actually I'm cheating a bit because we will be going away later so I'm hoping to find real inspiration in somewhere where the temperatures can still remember how to hover above zero, although by then it might be too late!

I find photos a real help when I'm trying to get into another situation for a story - either my own or ones in magazines or photo libraries. Perhaps this is because I'm a visual writer. I don't know whether this comes across in my stories but I very much experience the story setting by seeing it in my mind. Only after the images, do the sounds and smells come.

What do the rest of you think and are you managing to put mind over proverbial in staying warm?

My mental powers are waning just now, so I think I'll slink off for a hot coffee and maybe a biscuit to fortify me!

Have a good week everyone and remember: think sunshine!  x

First of all thanks to my great on-line writing friend Teresa Ashby for giving me this award!

It's been an exciting week for me with the launch of my e-book "For A Smile" which attracted quite a lot of attention from local press. Then just when things could be going a bit flat, this award comes winging my way. Thanks!

It requires me to divulge 7 things about myself and nominate 7 other blogs. I will do my best but before that I want to give some more thanks and apologies.

Launching "For A Smile" has been an extremely steep and exciting learning curve and I want to thank Teresa and another on-line writing friend, Shiela Norton for helping me with a couple of queries. I am grateful for their experience and patience with my ineptitude!

I also feel I must apologise to any writers out there reading what has been written about "For A Smile" and about me, who are thinking: "Ooo - get her!".

I am humbly aware that many of you have more experience and success but working in marketing for 12 years taught me that a product blurb is not the place to be bashful.

I used to do it for other people, but believe me it is soooo much harder to sell yourself!

That said I will get on with revelling in the Sweet Blogger Award!

7 things about me that you may not know:

I hate chocolate unless it's at least 80% cocoa solids in which case I could eat a mountain of it.

I'm hopeless at team sports and spent my entire school career trying to avoid them.

I adore Italian food.

Before I even began writing a gypsy told me I would make a fortune from being creative. Not sure about the fortune bit but I guess it depends whether you measure it in money or happiness.

My writing desk faces a wall to try and avoid distractions.

I am happiest when I am by the sea or on it.

I am addicted to real coffee and one of my most precious possesions is my coffee machine - aaah, that aroma in the kitchen!

O.K. that's me. Now for the blogs. Not sure I can manage 7 but here are some, other than Teresa's, that I enjoy reading:

dellagalton.co.uk

writewritingwritten.blogspot.com - Get On With It

oliviaryanblogspot.blogspot.com

suemoorcroft.wordpress.com

quillersplace.wordpress.com

phillipa-ashley.com

Hope you enjoy discovering the blogs if any of them are new to you.

Have a happy week and take good care of yourself. x

This was going to be a lovely upbeat blog about my forthcoming e-book about which I'm really excited (see above and more details on News page), but I've just spent four unfruitful hours battling with this site to get it to work, so I'm not in the most cheerful mood!

However the sun is shining so in a minute I'm going to take by beloved dog for a walk and forget all about this techno jungle...except to say that I think Kindle are wonderful and I am soooo pleased to be launching my book on Monday (supposedly the most depressing day of the year!)

I absolutely love my own Kindle, so I'm hoping lots of people out there love theirs too and will want to download my book, although it was a revelation to me that you can read Kindle books on a PC with a free app.

One of the best things is having so much choice for readers. In fact I'm so impressed I've put a link to the Kindle store here on my website as well as a direct link to my own book.

I should add that my website problems aren't anything to do with the lovely people at Freeola (sorry by the way that nice man whose ear on their helpline I've been bending for the last half hour!) - and they suggested I try Google Chrome as my browser instead of Microsoft IE and suddenly everything seems really quick - so fingers crossed!

Off to walk in the fresh air and blow these computer cobwebs away! x