New Look Blog

For a while now I have been looking at my blog and thinking that it doesn't have enough of a "feel" about it, but I didn't really know where to start changing things.

Yesterday I made enquiries on a Facebook group I use, asking where I could obtain a new header, one that I could have the blog name and my name within the header, without it looking as it currently did, the blogger system simply doing some writing over the image I chose.

Very kindly Tessa from Tessa's Blurb created me a header from a couple of parameters I gave her.

I asked for simplicity, blog name and my name and something red in it as I'm writing a crime novel and I want the blog to be a part of my process with that. The blog being a focus being on my writing, books, authors and including my life ramblings as I go through everything.

The above is what Tessa came up with. I love it. I like the cleanness of  the white background blending with the blog. I like the dash of colour. I like the corner indication of what it is I do. I personally love it. What I want to know though, is how you, the readers feel about it? You're the ones that come here and read what I write. What are your thoughts on the new look and colour theme?

Finding Time to Write

I'm guest posting over at Nancy Hinchliffe's blog, Business and Creative Women's Blog, on finding the time to write.... 


First of all I have to say a huge thank you to Nancy for asking me to come along and write a guest post for her blog. I was extremely flattered when she asked. 

No sooner had she asked and I had agreed, than things started to go wrong. Nancy requested a personal type post, involving things such as my life, working, kids, mad female dogs with boy names and finding time to write and guess what? I let her down within the week simply because one of the other commitments got in the way of finding the time. Oh the irony. 

But what does that say about my organisational skills?


To read the rest of this post visit Nancy's blog..

Losing Written Documents

For some reason I quite like writing short pieces on a document app on my iPhone, be they blog posts, short fiction or chapters for my novel. This probably works for me as I tend to get ideas just as I'm about to go to sleep which ends in me sitting bolt upright and switching lights on, much to the annoyance of my other half who now just grunts at me and rolls over. 

I recently got onto a bit of a roll and had several blog posts written up and ready to be posted at regular intervals. I also wrote five chapters for my book this way and put some ideas down for shorts. 

For some strange reason I sent the novel chapters to google docs so I still had them if anything happened to my phone, but I didn't do the same for my blog posts. Then something did happen to my phone, I happened to my phone! 

I decided to buy the paid document app that I was using for writing. After I did this, I got a little giddy and tidied up my apps and deleted the free version as I didn't need two versions of the same app clogging up my phone. 

It wasn't until a couple of days later when I looked to post a blog post that I realised I'd deleted it! A week later and I'm still so furious with myself. Ive synched the app back onto my phone, but all that was on it is lost forever. 

It now feels as though I have to write on my blog from scratch and it feels mountainous. I know I will get in my stride again, but that's why the blog has been quiet for a week. 

One lesson I have now learnt, along with putting enough postage on competition entry envelopes, is store written work in more than one place! (It would seem this blog is a list of what not to do's) 

What have you done that you have completely given yourself a hard time over?

New Connections

This blog post is part of a blog fest created by Patti Larson over at her blog here Details are also posted on the Facebook group "Fellow Writers". I thought I would take part and see what happens. Its my first blog fest so I'm not sure if I'm doing it right, but I'm sure someone will let me know pretty promptly if I'm screwing it up.

The theme for the fest is connections. It can be connections of any description including but not restricted to real life connections, virtual connections and connections between fictual characters you have been writing about. I thought about this and decided to write a post on the very real connections I have been making on the social networking sites, twitter, here the blogging network, and more recently on facebook.

Surprisingly to some, who just don't get "twitter", that is actually the place I've made the most connections and we're not talking random meaningless follows. I'm talking about connecting with people you have things in common with, whatever that may be and actually having conversations about those things with real people with real and valid opinions on things.

On twitter I have connected with people and exchanged email addresses. We've talked serious issues such as health relative to my children and I and also those I talk to. Ive connected with fellow slimming worlders, people who struggle to maintain an ideal weight as I do and the support around this group of people is amazing. I've virtually met people who have an interest in learning as I do, having registered with the Open University and ive also come across and connected with those who have a passion for writing. A craft you sit at your desk, in a coffee shop, on your bed, but invariably on your own and you write. For me connecting with people is important and important for every single reason I've identified.

People need people and in such a technologically advanced age as ours, making those important connections online is a simple and obvious step and one not to be sniffed at by those who haven't yet quite embraced the world out there through the technology available.

I love my connections and I hope to nurture them so they grow.

What are your new connections?

I'm looking forward to reading other blogs in the blog fest to see others take on the theme of connections.

Decembers Monday Mentions

OK, so it's been a while since I did my one and only Monday Mentions blog post, where I promised to make it a weekly occurrence of what I had found interesting to read that past week. Well as you can see, it didn't quite materialise, so how about we try doing it once a month? It sounds a little more achievable doesn't it? We'll see....


Anyway, important matters, what have I found interesting this past week or so? Three blog posts that have drawn my attention recently are;



A chat with Melissa Hill on the blog High Heels and Book Deals. Lets see why I liked this blog post... Oh yes, I won one of the books!! Plus I loved the little snippet of advice that was, it's ok to use the word, said. 


No Ferroro at Christmas is like not having turkey on the blog A Mothers Ramblings. A little reminder that Christmas brings with it, not just bundles of gifts for kids, if they're lucky, but so many other memories.

Why Many Authors Choose Pseudonyms on the blog AOS. A topic that is an issue for me personally. WHEN I get published, it will be under a pen name. 

Monday Mentions

I've decided I'm going to have a regular feature on the blog called – Monday Mentions. 

This Monday feature will include blogs that I've found interesting over the past seven days. Why a Monday and not at the end of the week you may ask – or may not. It began with an M. Simple. 

I will look back over a weeks worth of blogs and pick out a couple that I think are worth a read for various reasons. As you can see from my blog, I'm all over the place, this isn't a themed blog and the mentioned blogs won't be following a theme either, they will be posts I've read that have interested me for one reason or another.

I have three blog posts to share for my first Monday Mention and they are;

 Milestone wings  I Loved it's innocence. A brilliant post on a child finding out that there is no tooth fairy. Sometimes it's nice to have magic in our lives.

Food, Wine and Drink. An interview with an guest author on writing your characters eating. Eating is simple, we do it every day (some of us more than others) but it can add a real touch of realism for your readers.

Contraceptives for kids. A highly topical and emotive subject and one handled brilliantly.  

I hope you enjoy these as much as I did. 

Blogging Etiquette?

As anyone that stops and reads this blog can see, I am very new to this blogging lark. So much so, I'm wondering about the blogging etiquette.

Lots of questions run through my head when I log in and look at my "dashboard"

How many times can I post in a day? Is it a one post a day rule? What happens if I have a lot to say and about completely different subjects? I can tend to wander in my own head.

Can I blog about absolutely anything? I have done some of my own browsing and found blogs that appear to have a theme, be they, writing, mummy bloggers or Ehlers Danlos bloggers, they all seem to pretty much flow quite nicely. Unfortunately, my head doesn't flow in such a nice organised way and I tend to want to say whatever it is I'm thinking about, regardless of the huge jump in subject matter. Am I likely to just lose those people who accidentally fall into my blogs way because I'm random, or is that just as ok, as having a theme. By the way, I do love the themed blogs I'm following.

This then trips into another issue. My blogroll is again all random, but to be honest, as I'm thinking whilst I'm typing, life is random, it's not a nicely organised themed event. Yes, I do love the themed blogs I follow, but I don't think I have enough to say about one subject so I'm just going to go with what is me and what I'm comfortable with.

I'm enjoying the little I have done so far, so regardless of making myself popular or not, I think I'm going to just ramble. Some advice on blog etiquette would be greatly appreciated however, to stop me making a complete and utter hash of it all and allow me to maybe build up some followers to converse with on subjects that may interest someone somewhere....