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Book Review: The Thursday Murder Club

This feature is in association with NetGalley. The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Many thanks to both NetGalley and to Viking for letting me see an advance reader’s copy of The Thursday Murder Club. This was Osman’s debut novel, introducing us to members of the Thursday Murder Club who live in a rather deluxe retirement village in Kent. Of course, being mostly elderly characters, the residents also have their quirks and eccentricities, and I thoroughly enjoyed meeting all […]

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Down a dark hole

(Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay) (I love this artist’s work!) Not a rabbit hole this time, but it does feel as though the week has vanished down a dark hole! Anyway, look at this! I’m creating my first regular blog post on the new site and I didn’t have to make sure I selected ‘classic’ from the menu first. That’s not going to take as long getting used to as it did remembering to choose it before. Thank you […]

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Rabbit holes and newsletters

(Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay) Friday afternoon/evening (13 August) On Friday afternoon, I disappeared down another rabbit hole. This one was a holiday rabbit hole after I realised that we hadn’t been on holiday since April 2019. That was almost a year before the pandemic and lockdown, and nearly 2½ years ago. We did say that the next place that we went would be Northumberland. But we also revived the alphabet adventurers on Sunday with L (or part 1 at least, […]

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Time out

(Image by Free-Photos from Pixabay) I love this picture above. It’s the feature picture I use on Trello for my NetGalley board. Friday 13 August 2021 On Friday I forgot to mention Slimming World. It was only another flying visit to get weighed, but I’d lost a pound, bringing the current loss to 6½lb. Just half a pound more (or less, whichever way you look at it) and I’ll have lost my first half a stone (7lb). In real life, […]

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Going fishing

(Image by Angela Huang from Pixabay) Thursday 12 August 2021 Thursday disappeared down another rabbit hole and I didn’t get a lot done, quite frankly. In fact, I don’t think I did a single thing. I was okay with it, though, because, if you remember, I’ve built in all of this wiggle room. However, I don’t really want to keep pushing things along just because I’ve got wiggle room. It defeats the object a bit. Fortunately, the poet has come to […]

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Writing marathons are not good

(Image by cocoparisienne from Pixabay) Tuesday 10 August 2021 The day did not start as late as I thought it would, but it did start later than I would like. These last-minute writing marathons have to stop. They’re simply not sustainable. Of course, it’s my own fault. I should just do my work when it’s scheduled instead of faffing. Overnight, the ghostwriting instalment that I submitted was approved for payment and the contract arrived for Book 5 Part 4. This […]

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Wednesday writing prompts

8 August is International Cat Day (Image by Pexels from Pixabay) I missed last week, so here is a list of dates for the first half of the month for you to research and brainstorm for yourselves. Choose a topical date or an evergreen, and consider writing an article, a short story, or something longer. There’s time, after all. 1 August Evergreen: Lammastide Evergreen: Yorkshire Day Fifty years ago next year, on 1 August 1972, the first article exposing the […]

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Writing short stories, again

(Image by Yuri_B from Pixabay) Monday 9 August 2021 I didn’t start with handwriting on Monday morning after all. I saw some news about a flash fiction writing competition that closes in November, and as I’m trying to write for competitions, and as this is only a short one, I thought I’d look into it. Then I added it to Asana and my glimmer/glow spreadsheet. And I updated the glimmer/glow spreadsheet short stories worksheet to include competition entries. I also […]

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Rainy weekend

(Image by Pexels from Pixabay) On Friday the rain came (again), and along with it a few thunderstorms. So some of my time was spent watching either the storm through the window or pigeons and blackbirds cavorting in the puddles. With a weekend of storms forecast, we decided to spend it at home, apart from Monkey Dust’s gig on Friday night. And I spread my Friday work out, moving some of it to the weekend after all. Friday First job […]

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Organised at last

(Asana screenshot in calendar view) This week I needed to concentrate on catching up with the ghostwriting work. Right after having one writing marathon and submitting it, I was straight into another, and that isn’t sustainable. Also, if one step was delayed in any way, it pushed the rest along too. So I took the week off blogging, Medium, my own writing and self-publishing and tried to come up with a system that will work. I did allow myself an […]

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Book Review: The Art of Dying

This feature is in association with NetGalley. The Art of Dying by Ambrose Parry Many thanks to both NetGalley and to Canongate Books for letting me see an advance reader’s copy of The Art of Dying. Ambrose Parry is a collaborative husband-and-wife partnership. One is an established mystery writer, the other is a consultant anaesthetist. I really enjoy these historical medical mysteries, to the extent that I have even started to read the books written by the husband half of […]

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Week off

(Image by 9883074 from Pixabay) The blog is having the rest of the week off while I try and get ahead on the ghostwriting. I’d like to do each instalment early so I’m not working overnight to catch up all of the time. I’ll have an hour of handwriting first thing, and then it’ll be client work for the rest of the time. I’ll be keeping off Medium too. I want to try and come up with a workable strategy […]

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Project Management for Writers: Gate 1 is DONE! 🥳

(Scrivener screenshot) Thursday Instead of making handwriting the first job of the day on Thursday, I wrote a call-to-action blog post for Project Management for Writers: Gate 1. This was because I had to fire up the computer to (a) add a featured image to a blog post, and (b) see if the gardener was coming. There was nothing from the gardener, so I finished my first Pomodoro in my dressing gown! I never, ever work in my dressing gown. […]

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Project Management for Writers – book 1 almost ready!

After I’d switched off for the day on Wednesday, the poet sent back Chapter 12 of Project Management for Writers: Gate 1 with his contribution in it. We only had one more full chapter to go on this, and then it was the round-up chapter and the end gubbins. I would have liked to have finished this by the weekend, and depending on how the rest of today goes, maybe I will… Otherwise, it’s scheduled for completion next week. [Sighs […]

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Thunderstorms at last!

(Image by Brin Weins from Pixabay) Wednesday After such a lazy day on Tuesday, I was surprised that I actually made it to my desk at 10am, on the cuckoo! I went straight into my first Pomodoro, which was handwriting work. For my handwriting work this week, I’m doing the exercises in Get Started in Creative Writing. I started today’s blog post, then I started work on Chapter 11 for Project Management for Writers: Gate 1. I had the poet’s contribution […]

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Wednesday writing prompts

007 meets Queen Elizabeth II Ten years ago next year, on 27 July 2012, secret agent James Bond escorted Queen Elizabeth II to the opening ceremony of the London Olympics. It was such a scoop getting both Her Majesty and 007 together. The organisers must have been so proud of themselves. What do you think would happen if a secret agent really did land in the office of the Queen of England? Why would he be there? (Other than to […]

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A lazy day

(Image by Eveline de Bruin from Pixabay) Tuesday I had a lovely long lie-in on Tuesday following my latest writing marathon. When the dog woke me up at 8am to go out, I’d already received a reply from the ghostwriting client along with payment approval and confirmation of the next instalment. I’d given myself a bit of a faff day to recover, though, and once the dog had been out, I went back to bed. He woke me up again […]

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Burning the midnight oil (again)

Image by Vinson Tan ( 楊 祖 武 ) from Pixabay Monday So, on Monday, I made it to my desk by 10am! (Yay!) I’d already checked social media before getting up, and I read a couple of chapters of my NetGalley book over breakfast. This meant that by the time I did him my desk, I didn’t have any faffing to do. Or not much. I didn’t start with the handwriting on Monday because I still had a lot […]

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Glimmer/glow spreadsheet

Friday Very late on Thursday night, my short story New Year’s Revolution was published in Illumination on Medium. When the postie called at about 11am, she brought me a competition prize… a purple collar with a bell on for the cat. I couldn’t help but wonder what my third piece of good luck would be before the weekend… Anyway… first thing Friday, after my daily handwriting Pomodoro, I went in and updated all of my links for the short story […]

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Today will be a long day

Image by Monoar Rahman Rony from Pixabay Thursday I was still eating breakfast on Thursday morning when a text notified me that the plumber would be with us in 20 minutes to fix a faulty valve. Twenty minutes. So I quickly finished eating and got dressed and he arrived at the door at about the same time I arrived downstairs again. This cut short my first handwriting Pomodoro and I didn’t manage as many words as I have been. He […]

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Pomodoro time again

Image by harshal07 from Pixabay It’s another long-un, folks. Either save it for later or go get that coffee now! Tuesday At precisely 8:26 on Tuesday morning, the cat jumped on the bed and yelled at me to wake up. I must have slept well, but I was still feeling a little weary. However, I had a lot of work to do, so I had to get up. I’m trying to read more, so that I can catch up with […]

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Wednesday writing prompts

Image by Lee Sommers from Pixabay Commercial whaling ban Forty years ago next year, on 23 July 1982, the International Whaling Commission voted for a total ban on commercial whaling from 1985. How did that go? How long did it last? Is it still in place? What was the background behind the ban? You could approach this topic in several ways. You could: do a profile on the International Whaling Commission interview three people: an official from the IWC; a […]

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Tired

Image by dexmac from Pixabay Monday I had a very late start on Monday and for the umpteenth time I vowed to take the next day after a ghostwriting marathon and submission off. Unfortunately, I had another deadline only three days later (Wednesday), and I couldn’t take it off this time. Maybe next time… So, yesterday, the gig list opened back up after more than a year off. And so did Monkey Dust. When I finally reached my desk, this […]

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Festival weekend

Photo by Wendy Wei from Pexels Friday Despite being a bit behind on the ghostwriting, I still did my own stuff on Friday morning. I wrote a blog post for here, I posted Chapter 3 of Project Management for Writers: Gate 1, and I grabbed and prepared Chapters 4 to 8 so I had them ready for this week. I top and tail each chapter so it can just be pasted and formatted on a daily basis. I’m posting this one on weekdays only […]

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Working weekend ahead

So I’m not doing brilliantly, but at least I’m doing. In other words, I’m not sat navel-gazing or twiddling my thumbs. Tuesday seems such a long time ago, I can hardly remember what I was so busy doing. Thank goodness for the diary! Tuesday The plan, of course, was to do some ghostwriting. But it was Tuesday on Twitter and that meant #TuesdayNews. I always share any of these #TuesdayNews Tweets when I see them, but I never have anything […]

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In search of Little John’s Grave

When someone mentioned that we might see Little John’s grave on a recent day trip, we had no option but to go in search of it As I’m a bit flat out this week, here’s one I wrote earlier – for Medium. ~~~ For Father’s Day this year, Ian, my husband, wanted to go and have a drive through the beautiful Hope Valley in Derbyshire. We used to live less than half an hour away from the valley, but since we’d […]

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Wednesday writing prompts

Image by Barbara Dougherty from Pixabay I’m a bit flat out this week, so I only have the prompts for you with just a few suggestions. 1st expedition to the South Pole One hundred and fifty years ago next year, on 16 July 1872, Norwegian Roald Amundsen led the first expedition to the South Pole. What can you find out about Amundsen? What else did he do? Where did he live? Where was he born? Where did he die? Can […]

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Welcome to new followers

Image by R. E. Beck from Pixabay First of all, a very warm welcome to Words Worth Writing to all of the recent new followers. Since we limped over the 1,000 followers mark, the number has been steadily increasing. I’ve been working on republishing all of my self-published books in paperback, and I’m still mulling over a competition where the prize is all of my paperback books, self-published and traditionally published. This competition is for all of you lovely followers. Monday […]

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Publishing paperbacks continues

Image by Piotr Wytrążek from Pixabay Thursday After two late nights on the trot, I had a lie-in on Thursday. But even when I got to my desk, I still couldn’t get going. Despite trying several times to get into work mode, I just couldn’t. So I gave myself an official faff day instead, and I went through all of my self-published paperback books. I removed them from ‘extended distribution’ on Amazon, and started to publish them on Draft2Digital. I love […]

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Coffee-time read

Image by Engin Akyurt from Pixabay This is a long one, so grab a coffee and make yourself comfy. Tuesday Tuesday dawned very slowly on my computer. It struggled to open everything: the internet, Word, file manager, everything. I tried restarting, but it hung, and so I turned it off and on again… and waited for almost half an hour for it to boot up and start to open things. Sometimes technology has a mind of its own. The first job I did on […]

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I worked on Sunday after all

Image by Paul Brennan from Pixabay This post just keeps on posting itself, regardless of when I schedule it to post. This time, if it happens again, I’m leaving it up here. The plan was to go out for the day somewhere. But when the weather forecast said it was going to rain all day, and heavily too, we decided to stay in and do stuff in our respective offices instead. After dinner, we did go out to have a […]

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Wednesday Writing Prompts

Image by MasterTux from Pixabay Each of this week’s writing ideas is linked to another one, so here, for a change, are three pairs. Roswell incident + Roswell broadcast Seventy-five years ago next year, on 7 July 1947, there was alleged to have been a UFO (unidentified flying object) incident in Roswell, New Mexico. The following day, on 8 July 1947, reports were actually broadcast that a UFO had crash-landed in Roswell, New Mexico. If I was a conspiracy theorist, I could […]

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Plan for July

July is going to be very busy as I’m writing two Regency romances for the ghostwriting client at the same time. Whilst that means that I need to write at least 4,000 words per day, though, it also means that I’ll be getting a weekly wage. So it’s not all bad. The month started with me already a little behind on the 5th ghostwriting gig, but I think I have a handle on it all. I have a load of other […]

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I published another paperback!

It took the best part of a week, but with the help of the support team at Draft2Digital, I finally published the second paperback in the Twee Tales series. Twee Tales Too is now available on Amazon. I also created a mock-up in Photopea for today’s post illustration, and I saved the featured images for the next three plan/wrap-up posts. Friday Before I landed at my desk, however, I finished the current book I’m reading for NetGalley. That was one of […]

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June wrap-up

My writing As far as the plan for the month went, I didn’t get around to writing as much as I wanted of my own stuff. Yes, there are a few ticks below, but there are many, many more crosses. Project Management for Writers – finish writing as many chapters as I can (< 9,000 words) ❎ Project Management for Writers – get the poet’s input on as many chapters as I can ❎ Night Crawler – publish 29 individual […]

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Book Review: Looking for the Durrells

This feature is in association with NetGalley. Looking for the Durrells by Melanie HewittMany thanks to both NetGalley and to Harper Collins UK/HarperInspire for letting me see an advance reader’s copy of Looking for the Durrells. I thoroughly enjoyed this story. I loved the setting especially, and it evoked memories of Corfu. I think it’s been beautifully written whilst also addressing the difficult topic of bereavement. I liked the way the story stayed firmly in England for the prologue, and […]

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Oh, my goodness gracious!

Image by Irina_kukuts from Pixabay So I found this new thing to faff with… because, as you all know, I have all of this spare time on my hands. Anyway, I think it will save time in the long run because it’s a project/process management system. It’s called Asana, and it loads itself onto your system as an app. In even the free version you can have unlimited projects and you can arrange them however you want them: as lists, on […]

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Faffing with shiny, sparkly things again

Because it’s not as if I’m busy… When you go onto my author page at Amazon, it defaults to  ‘sort by popularity’. There, at the top, are the last three short stories I published on Kindle Unlimited. They’re all free for members, and they shuffle around a lot, but the reports aren’t showing any further activity. Scroll down, and Night Crawler Kindle edition is #8 on the list – or it was at the time of writing. The paperback is at […]

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Wednesday Writing Prompts

Image by Gerhard G. from Pixabay Up, up and away Here are two ideas that sort of come under the same umbrella. Forty years ago next year, on 2 July 1982, a chap by the name of Larry Walters apparently attached 42 helium balloons to a patio (lawn) chair and rose to 16,000 feet during a 45-minute (illegal) flight. Twenty years ago next year, also on 2 July, but this time in 2002, another chap, this one called Steve Fossett, […]

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New diary this week!

I started Monday off with some study time. I’ve downloaded 6 free courses from Reedsy that each consists of 10 x 5-minute ‘lessons’. So six of them equal 30 minutes of reading time. By the time I’d done this, it was 10:30am and I was well into my ‘my work’ time. Next up, I veered off into ‘client work’ territory and had a quick look at the outline for ghostwriting gig #6. I sent my feedback back, I wrote Monday’s […]

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