Where do writers get their ideas?

This is definitely the one question that writers get asked over and over again..

WHERE DO YOU YOU GET YOUR IDEAS ???

This can be a simple question to answer - Ideas come from lots of places...

Or it can be a difficult question - No one really knows where ideas come from etc etc...

But over the years I have come to know a lot of authors and I feel quite confident in telling you that I know where lots of them get their ideas...

It's from their cats.... Yes, yes...I know what you're thinking... "This is ridiculous!!!"

But I think it might be true....

Most of the authors I know have cats... Our cat, Polly... just hasn't been pulling her weight recently and that explains why I haven't written as much as I should over the last few months (thankfully this is all sorted now)... What other explanation could their be???

Other writer's cats are far more productive and they are producing much more work than me... to prove it I am going to feature other writer's cats on my blog to show how good they are at helping with writing...

So if you want to succeed in writing.... Get a CAT.

Just to prove this is true I will be featuring pictures of authors cats over the next few weeks... so don't be shy.... send me a photo of your inspirational cat....

Working Hard

Lots of writing to get done today... a few things to finish and tweak and something new to start. Must get on with  some of my planned longer books - one of which is starting to move along nicely now. I've set myself a daily word target on that one (not necessarily the right words or in the right order - but definitely a target).


I had a great day as Ysgol Bryn Hedydd in Rhyl last week... years five and six came up with some brilliant ideas for a story... I hope you all have fun working on them together. 


Next week I'm out and about visiting schools and libraries around Britain...


On Monday I'm at Davyhulme Primary School, Manchester - Tuesday Colwyn Bay Library, Wednesday Middleforth CE Primary School, Penwortham... then straight down to Ely in Cambridgeshire to visit Rackham Primary School... My final visit on next week will be to St John with St Michael Priamry School, Shawforth in Rochdale. I'll see you all soon.


On with some work now...

Ysgol Bryn Hedydd

I've got a few school and library visits coming up over the next few weeks and the first of these is on Thursday when I am off to Rhyl in North Wales to visit Ysgol Bryn Hedydd - here's a BIG HELLO to everyone there. 


I'll see you all soon...

Truly, Madly, Deeply...

I am so very happy to be able to tell you that my lovely lady, Vicky Harris, has said that yes, she will marry me... so I am delighted to be able to tell you that we are now engaged and that we will be getting married in October next year. I will tell you more about that as the time gets closer... 


Over the summer we spent a lovely week in Tenby with Connor and Vicky's Mum and Dad... here we are sat at the harbour...


Since then we have been having fun planning our wedding and making arrangements for our perfect day - there are so many important things to be considered... including what songs will be played at the reception. Our favourite song, and one that is very special to us, is Truly, Madly, Deeply, by a group called Savage Garden. 

There are so many things to be happy about but for now I can tell you that we are delighted that Rachel, Laura, Deanna, Rachel and Lauren have agreed to be bridesmaids, that my brother Craig has agreed to be my best man, and that Connor has agreed to be ring bearer for the day. There is so much more to tell you about but you will just have to wait...  

Kindle

I can't believe the summer holidays are almost over... the time has flown by. I've been quite busy over summer and have done lots of things so there's lots to write about in my diary now that I'm back to it but for now I'm just signing in to say a quick hello and to say that I'm thrilled to have my first kindle books available. The Mudcrust books are now available to buy and download from Amazon (and other places too).

Lots more news coming soon... watch this space.

Jon Mayhew and busy, busy, busy...

Over the past few weeks I've been busy writing some very short stories for one of my publishers. Three 50 word stories and three 400 word stories. The stories have been done and sent off... the deadline has passed and now all I can do is cross my fingers and wait to see what the editors think. Hopefully one or two will be accepted for publication - I'll let you know how it goes. In the meantime I'm going to be getting on with some other, bigger stories.

On Saturday we went into Chester and called at Waterstones where fellow author, Jon Mahew, was visiting and signing to promote his latest book - The Demon Collector. You can find out more about Jon by visiting his website ... just click HERE.

"Thanks for signing our books Jon - it was a pleasure to finally meet you."

The Dragon and the Firebird

As well as writing this year I have been involved with a writing and arts project with St Anne's Primary School in Blackburn, Lancashire. Children in the school were working with myself and some other arts practitioners over the course of a couple of months to produce stories, craft, photography and art pieces.

I was lucky in that I got to work with most of the classes in school and we produced some great stories - including year four's The Dragon and the Firebird (Click on the title to go and read the story).

Year One's story even got made into a little picture book (illustrated by the children themselves) and put together by fellow practitioner Pippa Pixley  (Pippa's first picture book - the Princess and the Pea is about to be published).

On with some stories of my own now...