July 2018 – Words Worth Writing

31 July 2018

Book review: Crime and Punctuation

This is a new feature on Words Worth Writing, in association with NetGalley. Crime & Punctuation, Kaitlyn Dunnett Thanks to NetGalley and to Kensington Books for an advance copy of Crime & Punctuation by Kaitlyn Dunnett. This was the first in a new series, Deadly Edits. The story follows the main character Mikki after her return to her childhood home...

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30 July 2018

Important: Site redirection

From this week, my domain will point to this WordPress site. However, any links from the old WordPress address will be broken. Please change your bookmarks now to: www.dianewordsworth.com. Many thanks!

writer at work

30 July 2018

Assumptions

When I tell people that I’m busy, I really do mean it. I’m not lying, or avvin a larf, or making it up. I really, really am busy. We were talking about this at the weekend – while we were out running errands. Yes, even on the weekend, our “time off”, we were busy. We’re always busy. I don’t just...

writer at work

27 July 2018

Thanks for listening, Cosmos

Yes! The Cosmos listened. At last. After several rain dances, we finally had our storm yesterday evening, overnight and this morning. And there’s more to come. The rainwater is sitting on the ground surface between showers, but it’s going into the ground eventually. We had several storm-bangers, which the dog didn’t appreciate very much, and now the temperatures have dropped...

writer at work

26 July 2018

Back in the Saddle

It’s been a bit intense, but I’m starting to make some calm out of the muddle that was my backlog of work. I’ve caught up on a few things, dabbled in some new projects and continued fielding phone calls. The biggest job this week is the editing job for lovely already client. But I’m on track to finish that by...

writer at work

25 July 2018

Technobabble

I’m not great technically. I get by. I can learn how to do many things, and I even learned computer programming once upon a time. But these technical giants, they don’t exactly make things any easier, do they? The past few days I’ve been working on the blog. I’m transferring my domain name over to here, and it seems the...

writer at work

24 July 2018

52 books in 52 weeks: The Business of Writing

I set myself the goal of reading and reviewing 52 writing guides over the year. Here is book 39, which is also courtesy of NetGalley and Pendragon Cove Press. Thanks to NetGalley and to Pendragon Cove Press for an advance copy of The Business of Writing: Practical Insights for Independent, Hybrid, and Traditionally Published Authors by Kim Iverson Headlee. First...

52 books in 52 weeks

24 July 2018

Good start, Cosmos

Yesterday, I had a quick word with the Cosmos. Yesterday evening, this ( ←) popped up on Amazon. Yes, it’s my book on the history of Cadbury. The one I’ve been working on for the past year. No, it’s not published yet, but it is on pre-order, due out on 30 November. That was a lovely surprise, and a very nice...

writer at work

23 July 2018

Book review: The Killing Habit

This is a new feature on Words Worth Writing, in association with NetGalley. The Killing Habit, Mark Billingham Thanks to NetGalley and to Little, Brown for an advance copy of The Killing Habit by Mark Billingham. I love reading books by Mark Billingham and look forward to each new release. However, I have to admit to being a tad disappointed...

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23 July 2018

Dear Cosmos – enough, thank you.

I’ll be honest. We’ve not had a great few weeks. Hot on the heels of moving house, we lost a chicken, gave a cockerel away, the dog disappeared for three hours, we suffered a major family bereavement, and we had a bit of a health scare. We still have a funeral to attend and we are in a financial battle...

writer at work

13 July 2018

Slow day yesterday

When we moved house, we treated Rufus to 2 new baskets. One was for the living room, the other was for the bedroom/office. This is the one currently in the office. Do you think he likes it? I didn’t get a lot done yesterday. I didn’t feel like doing much anyway. Here’s how it went: daily admin hour ✓ write a...

writer at work

12 July 2018

Sad day

Just over 18 months ago, in December 2016, we rescued 6 ex-cage chickens otherwise intended for slaughter. We named them Aggie (the Agoraphobic), Baldy (she literally was ‘oven ready’), Blondie, Lara (the Adventurous), Pauline (Poorly Poorline) and Pink. At Christmas, 2017, we lost queen of the coop Aggie. And today we lost the lovely Lara. Lara was the first to disappear...

writer at work

11 July 2018

It’s going well

This is my writing bag. Once upon a time, when I *worked for a living*, I worked for the National Grid in Coventry. We were quite close to Warwick University and, in fact, did most of our banking and shopping there. As it was a university, there was – naturally – a university bookshop. And one day I was browsing,...

writer at work

10 July 2018

Fair start to the week

This is my current writing work in progress pile. The A5 book with the touchy-feely cover of pink flowers on a foliage background is the ideas book. This is where I jot down words, titles, scenarios, plots, outlines of short material, topic lists for non-fiction, market information. This book is where the magic begins … until it’s full, and then...

writer at work

9 July 2018

The best laid plans … again

It was just starting to go well, with everything dropping into place. I had a great list of things to do. We were going out Friday evening. And we were taking the weekend off … … and then the dog disappeared. For three hours. He’d escaped from the garden and I was certain a car that stopped in the middle...

writer at work

6 July 2018

Decisions made (* lists alert *)

I spent much of yesterday trying to prioritise my workload and putting jobs into some sort of workable order. I even did a little writing, which was very good. Yesterday Following my navel-gazing, here is what I finally accomplished: I wrote 479 words (against a 1,000-word target …) ✓ I continued reading a book for NetGalley (1 of 16) ✓ I...

writer at work

5 July 2018

To-do list (* list alert *)

So, it’s all over bar the shouting. Well, actually, it’s all over. We’ve moved the last scrap of wood over from the old house to the new house. We’ve handed over the keys. It’s taken us two and a half weeks, but everything we own is now back under one roof. This means I have to turn again to work...

writer at work

2 July 2018

Phew!

We made it … well of a fashion. We took 2 weeks off and we literally did not stop. We moved house. We moved office. We moved the chickens. And still we have lots to do. The first thing that came over was the spare bedroom, so that we’d at least have a bed to sleep in once the chickens...

writer at work