Expected by Sarah England

I've been aware of Sarah England for a while now as an extremely talented short story writer. Her stories regularly appear in all the magazines and are always a fabulous read.

Sarah's also written a novel, and today I'm thrilled to have her as my guest to talk about that. This is what Sarah had to say about 'Expected'.

You know I’ve read an awful lot of chicklit - and what struck me more than anything, particularly with the hugely successful Shopaholic series, not to mention Bridget Jones - was that the female protagonists were upper middle class and rather well off. They had adoring families they could run home to. They had nice jobs in the city, friends with fab apartments, and they met dishy men who they wanted to marry and have children with. Well - funny and well written these chicklit books might be - but realistic??

So my heroine, Sam, is working class - from a sink estate she has no desire to return to. Sam dreams of having a career - yearns for a nice, safe place to live, and desperately doesn’t want to end up as a single mother on benefits like most of her school friends. So she makes a mistake and moves in with the outwardly desirable and very middle class doctor she met at a party. Instantly her mother spreads the news, begins to plan the wedding, and wastes no time in pushing (no pun intended) for grandchildren. So now Sam is trapped.

I’ve been trapped, have you? I’ve been trapped in a lousy marriage, when my job was precarious and someone at work was gunning for me because my face didn’t fit. I’ve been vulnerable and scared. And I’ve been badly let down by the one person I thought I could run home to. So what keeps us going? Well hope, youth, optimism, fantastic mates and a massive sense of humour. And that’s where Expected comes from. Only I couldn’t leave Sam without a bit of spice - I think we’ve all looked up and met the eyes of a drop-dead gorgeous sex on legs - take me now - kind of guy?! Oh - just me then. Anyway, she deserved a treat after all she’d been through. Bit of a catch at the end, but ….well, never let it be said I do cheesy!

The fun bit? Oh venting fury and frustration! And the creation of monster mouse, Bernie O’Reilly - the smiling assassin. Yes I did have a giggle. Actually I loved writing this book - I had a blast!! Hope you like it too!

Thanks Sarah, the book sounds fantastic.

You can buy the book at Amazon in the UK here. Or in the USA/Aus here.

And you can find Sarah's website and blog here.

Writing Courses

I've got some new workshop dates set up for the beginning of 2012. Full details are on my website, but in brief ...

Insight Into Writing Short Stories For The Women’s Magazine Market will run in Northampton on Saturday 3 March.

Moving On In The Women’s Magazine Fiction Market will run in Northampton on Saturday 31 March.

New for 2012:

Day Retreat For Writers

Come and spend a day with fellow writers being inspired, exercising your writing skills and sharing your work in a supportive atmosphere.

The retreat will be on 21 April 2012 in Northamptonshire. Exact location to be confirmed.

Further details of the two workshops can be found under the ‘Workshops’ tab on my website. For a booking form, or if you have any questions, please get in touch via the contact page on my website.

And now for something completely different ...

If crime writing is more your thing, the fantastic Adrian Magson will be offering a course at Chez Castillon in April. Adrian really is a fantastic tutor, I've been taught by him so I speak from experience. And it's in France. What could be better?

More details can be found here

Leigh Russell's new book, 'Death Bed', is now available for download on Kindle and I'm very pleased to have Leigh as my Boxing Day guest! Leigh has very kindly given us some thoughts on beating writer's block for all those writers out there who need to get back into it after the Christmas lull!

Beating Writer’s Block

Where does the writing bug come from, and will it vanish as quickly as it appeared? Somewhere I wrote that I fell into writing like Alice down the rabbit hole. It’s an apt comparison because my writing career began very suddenly and unexpectedly when the idea for 'Cut Short' struck me, completely out of the blue.

Eight weeks after I started the first draft of my debut crime novel, I was fortunate enough to attract the attention of a publisher who offered me a three book deal. Three years on, and with three bestsellers to my name, I’ve been signed up for another three books in the series. An avid reader for years, I was catapulted into the Wonderland of being an author. Since then I’ve been on a writing roll, discovering the best cure for writer’s block: a publisher’s deadline.

But how do you stay motivated, month after month, year after year, without that compelling external deadline?

As fiction writers, we aim to persuade readers that the worlds we create in our books are real. The power to create illusions is what makes us writers. So you have to set your own deadlines and convince yourself they must be met. Work out your own schedule. Set a date by which your MS has to be ready, allow yourself time to research agents and publishers, and decide on a date when you are going to start submitting the MS. Stick to it as though it has been imposed by a publisher who is paying you to deliver. Following a schedule like that allows no room for writer’s block.

Leigh Russell writes the popular bestselling UK crime series featuring Detective Inspector Geraldine Steel. Leigh’s new book Death Bed is on kindle and available in print 2012.

Details of all Leigh’s books can be found on her website here.

Latest News - The new Geraldine Steel novel has been selected as 1 of 35 crime mysteries included in Amazon Kindle’s 12 Days of Christmas offer @ 99p. Follow the links above to find it on Amazon UK.

It is also $1.54 on amazon.com here.

Tears and Laughter

One of the highlights of this year for me has been my involvement in 'Tears and Laughter and Happy Ever After'. We've all been really excited about some of the great reviews we've had for the book.

You can read one here from the lovely and very talented Teresa Ashby. It means a lot to know that Teresa enjoyed reading it as she is such a fabulous short story writer herself.

Debs Carr has done a round up of some of our other reviews on her blog.

So, what can I say? If you're bored over Christmas and you fancy some short stories to read ... here it is.

Or you could browse our blog and read about how we were all inspired to write the stories.

But whatever you do, I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and a very Happy New Year.

Hop On, Hop Off Online Short Story Course

I’m very pleased to be able to announce my new online short story writing course which will start in 2012.

The Hop On, Hop Off Writing Course is in five modules which will run in a weekly cycle from 9 January onwards.

The modules are:

Character – how to build convincing characters that your readers will really care about. (running for the first time w/b 9 January 2012)

Dialogue – how to write authentic sounding dialogue that will move your plot forward and bring your story to life. (running for the first time w/b 16 January 2012)

Plot and Structure – making sure your plot works and your structure supports it. (running for the first time w/b 23 January 2012)

Theme – use of theme to make your story stand out from the rest. (running for the first time w/b 30 January 2012)

Bringing it all together – this module (which needs to be taken last) will help you bring together all you have learnt so far and will include a story critique. (running for the first time w/b 6 February 2012 and thereafter every week that the course runs)

Full details are on my website here. Please feel free to contact me via my website if you have any queries.

Tears and Laughter and Happy Ever After

I'm very pleased to announce that the Kindle version of 'Tears and Laughter and Happy Ever After' is now available.

You can find it on Amazon here.

You can see our Facebook page here.

You can see our website here.

And follow us on Twitter here.

"Tears and Laughter and Happy Ever After" is a vibrant and varied collection of tales from writers who between them have had hundreds of short stories published in women’s magazines in the UK and around the world! Contributors have also won or been placed in dozens of competitions, published novels and written non-fiction for many UK magazines.

As the title suggests, the twenty-six stories encompass the dizzying heights of happiness, the heartbreaking depths of sadness, and every emotion in between. Within the pages of this book you’ll meet a housewife with a surprising secret, a beekeeper with a problem and an undertaker with something unusual on his mind. You’ll also encounter angels, ghosts, aliens and many other intriguing characters. And, in the end, you may just find the path to happy ever after.

On another note, I'm currently writing a feature on alternative mums eg grans, aunts, female friends who have had a big part in bringing up someone else's children. I am looking for female case studies who want to say a big thank you to their alternative Mum. Full details are on the Case Study Link above.

National Short Story Week

It's National Short Story Week this week, a chance for all of us who love the form to support and praise it.

You can find out more by visiting the Short Story Week website here. You'll find all sorts of interesting stuff on there including a piece by me on giving radio interviews.

There's also more information on 'Women Aloud' the fantastic audio book of short stories released to celebrate Short Story Week. You can find my review of 'Women Aloud' on Bookersatz.

In further exciting news you can now see the wonderful 'Tears and Laughter and Happy Ever After' website here.

And you can see my brand new website here.

Sadly, during short story week, Radio 4 is intending to cut down on the number of broadcast short stories. You can also read about this and how you might want to comment on it on the National Short Story Week website.

As ever, a mix of good news and bad news, but here's hoping that in the end the good news will outweigh the bad!