At the risk of sounding like your local hairdresser, are you going anywhere nice on your holidays? Have you already been? I'm not long back from a week in the sun. We couldn't choose between the Maldives or Monaco, so opted for my sister's caravan, in Millport.
And it was amazing.
I told myself I wasn't going to write while I was away. Even as I packed my laptop and edits, I went along with my little lie. Nearly got through the whole week, too. On our last afternoon the wind and rain was battering off the caravan (is there a better sound? No. There is not.), Colin was snoozing and I decided to get nice and settled with the laptop, a hot chocolate and cake. Four hours later, I was forced to shut down so we could go for dinner. Don't you love it when you get utterly absorbed like that? The ultimate writing sesh.
I know some people have writing sheds, but can I have a writing caravan, please? One with views like this?
(This was taken on our TWELVE MILE walk around the island *gasp* *wheeze*)
One of the things I was looking most forward to about being away, was all that uninterrupted, unashamed reading time. I took the first two books from this chunky detective series by Caro Ramsay (who chairs my writers group): Absolution and Singing to the Dead. I devoured them in record time. Highly recommended if, like me, you enjoy sinister and disturbing fiction.
Have you all heard about Richard & Judy's "Search for a Bestseller?" I'm a big fan of their book club podcast; I like their taste in books. They're offering a £50k publishing deal (and an invaluable amount of promotion, I can only assume), so if you're writing a debut novel, why don't you enter it (deadline is 1st January 2014, so you've got a wee while yet)? I'm fairly sure I'll be entering it.
Speaking of entering things, there are only 11 days left to submit to the Scottish Book Trust's New Writers Award 2013. I was shortlisted last year, which was a massive confidence boost. I still need to decide what piece to submit this year; I can't decide between sending an extract of my novel or one of my short stories. Can someone make this decision for me? Please?
Anyway, what's your news? Give me all your writing/holiday/general gossip!
Take care
Catherine x ◦
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