Stone Guardian
Today’s snippet comes once again from one of Morgen Bailey’s prompts on 25th February 2013. This beautiful picture just jumped off the page at me – and this is the […]
Collecting Certificates
Today, in Exeter and presumably in other towns and cities, students are waking up to a new academic year. Some will be nervous, especially those who are away from home […]
Margaret’s Magic Carpet
Yesterday, Chudleigh Writers’ Circle was invited to spend the day gaining inspiration from the beautiful property belonging to one of our members. Margaret and Chris were very generous with their […]
Enrichment, Recovery and Twitter
I spent Saturday at the RSA South West conference in Taunton. The RSA (or the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce to give it its full […]
Danny’s Jacket
Today’s snippet grew out of a writing exercise at Chudleigh Writers’ Circle. We all wrote the opening sentences for short stories, then shared them with the group. The most popular sentence […]
First Day of Term?
A week ago, I sat in the early evening sunshine at a BBQ, arguing against the view that summer was over and we were already into autumn. There seem to […]
The Cheat
Today’s snippet of new prose is a piece of flash fiction arising from another of Morgen Bailey’s Story Writing Exercises: Monday Monologue: Her girl/boyfriend is cheating on her [25th February 2013]. […]
The End of an Era
I’ve just finished reading A Memory of Light by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson. “OK, you might think, so you’ve read a book; big deal. Many people are readers; we’re […]
Challenging Ourselves
What is it with writers and challenges? So many of us attempt different ones each year – and although I don’t have any data on the drop-out rate, if my […]
Making it Bigger and Better
“Don’t be in too much of a rush to send your work out there. Make sure it’s ready first.” Like every debut novelist, I’ve heard that advice many times. Well, […]
Swanwick65: Sixth Sense
Not content with giving us yesterday proverbs and moods to write from, Karin led Life Up Your Pens this morning with lists of sailing vessels (and we won’t go into whether a […]
Swanwick65: Cruising in Fifth Gear
This is the point in the week where we are still motoring, but thinking of slowing down. There’s been a lot of writing to do today (which can’t be bad […]
Swanwick65: The Inner Child Sails ‘Fourth’
Tuesday is traditionally the quiet, easy day at Swanwick. Half-way through the Summer School, it’s time to take a breath and look around; maybe go on a half-day visit to a […]
Swanwick65: The Third Degree
There’s been a lot of questions, not to say interrogations, one way and another today – more of which later. But first, let’s pop back into Day 2 for […]
Swanwick65: Seconds Out…
Well, we’ve not got to the stage of fisticuffs yet, but we’ve virtually had a real fight in the world of Swanwick (do you see what I’ve done there?). I’ve been […]
Swanwick65: A Day Of Firsts
It’s been a real day of firsts. Obviously, it’s the first day of Swanwick, with all that entails: the hugs on greeting old friends; the satisfaction of delivering books to […]
A New Blog for a New (Writing) Year
July is finished; my writing break is over. I had great fun during my month off, as you can probably tell from the last piece I posted, but by the […]
Going Away To Get Away
“Have you booked a holiday yet,” friends have been saying all year. “When are you going away?” “We’re not,” I reply, “at least not in the sense you mean.” […]
Who You Gonna Call? The Professionals
Last week we talked about informal networks and especially the support we can get not just from the writing community but also from other small businesses. Today, we’re going to […]
Who You Gonna Call? Informal Networks
I’ve just returned from a packed weekend at my first Winchester Writers’ Conference. This event, which has been running for the past 33 years, was the brainchild of the wonderful […]
Risk Management
All businesses are subject to risk and our business as writers is no exception. These days, risk management has become a huge topic: the subject of whole books; the purpose […]
Cash Flow Planning: Expenditure and Dealing with Deficits
Having looked at income, we now turn to expenditure. Here, there is tends to be more certainty, especially with regard to fixed costs (the costs we incur whether or not […]
Cash Flow Planning: Income
Like the P&L and balance sheet, cash flow can be looked at historically. In this context, it is used to show how changes in the balance sheet have occurred over […]
Accounting Statements: Profit and Loss
As I said in the introduction to accounting statements, the profit and loss (P&L) statement provides an historical picture of how our business has performed over a given time period. […]
Accounting Statements: Introduction
In the past two articles, we’ve looked at what records we need to keep in our small business; records both of income and of expenditure. Now we’re going to start […]
Keeping Financial Records: Expenditure
Last week, we looked at how to keep records of income; now we’re going to look at recording our expenditure. Then we’ve got the two sides of the equation: we […]
Keeping Financial Records: Income
Back in January, we looked at the common types of financial system used by small businesses, whether paper-based; a simple spreadsheet; or commercial software. Now we are moving on to […]
Saying Thanks: For The Generosity Of Friends and Neighbours
This is the last time I’m going to mention our flood; it’s all water under the bridge now (both pun and cliché definitely intended) and I realise many people, both […]
Saying Thanks: For The Generosity of Writers
I’m sitting in my newly-refurbished writing retreat, aka the garden room, across the lawn from the house. It is the first time I’ve worked in here for five months, following […]
Finanical Systems: Keeping it Appropriate
A belated Happy New Year to you all. It’s been a while since I’ve written one of these Business of Writing articles. A lot has happened in the meantime, not […]
Tax Matters
[This week’s post is specific to the UK; the principles apply in most countries but the specifics vary, so non-Brits need to review the requirements with your national authorities] In […]
The Next Big Thing: Tina’s Work in Progress
Last week, I tagged writer Tina K Burton, giving her the task of talking about her latest work in progress. Tina doesn’t have her own blog, although you can find out […]
The Next Big Thing: My Work in Progress
Last week, friend and fellow writer Madalyn Morgan tagged me in her post ‘The Next Big Thing’. Click on Maddie’s article to read about her second novel Applause. This week, […]
Business Structures
One of the questions to be resolved when setting up any small business is which structure is the most appropriate? There are a number of options including: self-employment; partnerships; limited […]
Giving It Away: Should We Write For Free?
[By pure co-incidence, fellow-writer Patsy Collins has also been blogging about the same topic this week, although she is talking about the provision of free books for Kindle. Read her […]
Thinking About Finances
One phrase that is often quoted by experienced business people is: turnover is vanity; profit is sanity. The long-term objective of any small business is to be successful, otherwise why […]
Business Start-Up: Getting Paid
We’ve talked about finding the customers; we’ve looked at getting the work (i.e. the writing) done. Now we’re going to focus on the third element: getting paid. Talking about money […]
Business Start-up: Doing the Work
[There was no post last week, due to long weekend in Paris, and just a quickie today, as I’m in the middle of extended celebrations for a BIG birthday. Normal […]
Business Start-up: Reaching the Customers
Setting up a successful small business is a major step — and is not one we should take lightly. It’s also a huge topic, so I’m going to cover it […]
Business Plans for Writers
The starting point for every new business should be a good, clear business plan — and our writing business is no different. It’s an important tool, for example, in talking […]
Objectives That Help, Not Hinder
Recently, someone asked me “how do I deal with multiple projects; how do I sort out what I should be doing?” My immediate response was that she should work on […]
Swanwick 2012: day 7
…and in a flash, it was gone!
Swanwick Day 6: It Doesn’t Happen By Magic
It’s all a bit of a blur: Malcolm Chislholm showed us how to use Twitter and Facebook; how to set up a website for free – and how to publish […]
New-Time Publishing and Old-Time Music Hall: Day 5 at Swanwick
Wednesday already! Normal weather conditions have been restored; it poured at Swanwick today — there was no sitting outside this afternoon. The inspiration, enthusiasm and chattering are still evident —but […]
Authorpreneurship and Fish-Nets: Swanwick Day 4
It’s been another brilliant day at Swanwick, but I can’t help thinking that when I said at lunchtime I’d enough material to write today’s blog — I should have actually […]
Titantic Tweets and Furious Facebooking
Well, it’s been a strange day and a long one. It started with a (virtual) Welsh Male Voice Choir in ‘Lift Up Your Hearts’ and finished with Elvis and family […]
Swanwick: Scurrilous Rumours and Graphic Murders
A delegate has been caught in bed with one of the lecturers at Swanwick just minutes after an “individual tuition” session. Half the class walked out of the Enticing and […]
Swanwick: Intelligent Silliness and Thelma’s Pants
This posting should have been a detailed account of how hard we’re all working and all the writerly activities we are getting up to. As the title suggests, I may […]
Swanwick: S Day minus 1
Every year, during the second week in August, around 300 writers gather in Swanwick for the Writers’ Summer School, which has been running for more than sixty years. I don’t […]
Time Management for Grasshoppers
I’ve been thinking a lot about time management recently. I’ve been a writer for three months now. Well – that’s not strictly true – I’ve been a writer for a […]
Flashing in Worcester
Last week, I received an email telling me that I was shortlisted in the Flash Fiction competition running in Association with the Worcestershire Literary Festival. Yesterday, I joined other finalists […]
Welcome to the Party!
Hello there; glad you could make it – welcome to the launch party. Leave a comment to say ‘hi’. Email us for your glass of bubbly, gift voucher and entry […]
Virtually a Party!
Tomorrow Sharon Cook and I will be throwing open all the rooms in our electronic house and holding a virtual party to celebrate the launch of Life is Not a […]
Chain Letter with Currants
Ten days ago, a dear friend knocked on our door and proudly handed my husband a small food container and a sheet of instructions. This was our introduction to Herman, […]
Literary Festivals
In July 2009, I stood in the sunshine at Dartington Hall and listened to Kay Dunbar describe how Ways With Words had grown from tiny beginnings into the hugely successful […]
Doing the Maths Helps Clear the Block
So there I was, stuck on chapter 8 of a textbook I’m writing with a colleague in the US. He’d written part of this chapter and I needed to finish […]
Manners, Ladies
One of the things about moving to the country is that I spend lots of time driving through narrow village streets or country lanes. There are frequent stops to let […]
Swanwick Day 3: Transfering A Memory
It was Sunday, lunchtime, the last week in June. The sun was strong, the sky cloudless and deep blue. Crowds strolled along each bank of the river in Ljubljana. Stall […]
Swanwick Day 2 – To-Do Spidergrams
I’ve always been highly organised – or anally retentive, as an unkind colleague once described me. One of my delights is writing To-Do lists, in the form of spidergrams. On […]
Swanwick Summer School – Day 1
It hardly seems a year since the diamond jubilee, but here we are again at Swanwick for the 61st Writers’ Summer School. After 6 hours of hell on the M5 […]
Sunshine and Sausages
My play-project finally matured on 01 August. Sunshine and Sausages, an e-book on how to organise and run a successful summer garden party, was launched. You can find it at […]
Dartington Literature Festival
Coming to the end of a week spent at Dartington, soaking up a real cocktail of talks and book reviews. My highlights of the festival were A C Grayling for […]
Best Job In The World
Sitting at my desk yesterday with doors wide open to let in the sun. Bees buzzed around the oregano patch and hover flies hovered in the fennel. Massive dragon fly […]
Summer Solstice
Up at 04:00 this morning, then on Hay Tor at 05:00 to greet the sun and the official start of summer. Lots of other people there, plus a few calves […]
BBQ Book and Living in the Country
BBQ book: Work continues apace. I have all the chapters mapped out and the software in place. Now all I have to do is get writing. I’m hoping summer in […]
Ice-Rink Chapters Posted for Review
I’ve posted the first three chapters of Gorgito’s Ice-Rink on the YouWriteOn website: http://www.youwriteon.com/authors/publicprofile.aspx?userid=E+Ducie Feel free to drop by and have a read. If you join YWO as a reader, […]
Picking a Play Project / Novel Update
e-book Launch: I’ve been reading the Creative maverick site and decided to have a go at my own Play Project. I’ve been toying with the idea of writing an e-book […]
Sod’s Law and Banking
In January, I got a cheque from the tax man (and that’s not something we can say very often). Interest earned on a bill I’d paid a few days before […]
Rain Didn’t Stop Play
In 1309, Edward II granted Walter Stapledon, Bishop of Exeter a charter for the town of Chudleigh, permitting a weekly market and an annual fair. Being Devon, it may well […]
Blogging for Profit and Working on the Novel
Blogging for Profit: I’ve just signed up for the Creative Entrepreneurs Club 30 day challenge called Blogging for Profit (http://www.creativeentrepreneursclub.com/articles/20090528). Not sure what it entails, but looks like fun. If […]
New Helium Posting
Update: My Helium account is no longer online. Read my lastest posting here: http://www.helium.com/items/1461705-living-in-the-country Then have a look around my Helium page and browse some of my earlier articles. There’s […]
The Making of a Novel
I’ve had this idea running around in my head for ages. A story of one man’s dream to build an ice-rink in Russia. Based on a friend and business colleague […]
DEAD MEN’S MUSIC
I heard today that I am the prizewinner in the Writing Club open poetry competition. The poem called ‘Dead Men’s Music’ was written following a visit to the cemetry in […]
MY BOOK REVIEWS
Like most writers, I’m an avid reader – getting through a couple of books each week, not to mention newspapers and magazines. I rave to my husband and friends about […]
ELLIE’S BIRTHDAY
Ellie was having a wonderful birthday. Aunt Zoe (not her real aunt, but Mummy said it was more polite) had bought her a silver locket with inscription: “the best god-daughter […]
HANNAH’S SMILE
It’s a balmy evening in Florida. Six of us meet by chance outside a well-known restaurant. We have arrived from the States, Europe and the Far East for a conference […]
Music and Other Creativity
I’ve just been transported back 40 years. My husband bought me the new Neil Diamond CD as a present to welcome me back from a business trip. Listening to the […]
FOREWORD TO THE BOOK I’VE YET TO WRITE
Browsing through my file of writing exercises, I came upon this piece written a few years ago. I’ve yet to write the book – but when I do, this will […]
SLIPPERS COME OUT ON TOP
I was delighted to find out I won first prize in the Mary Gornall Memorial short story competition run by Ashby Writers’ Club . The Second Pair of Slippers tells […]
THE PLUMBER COMETH
I mean, why would we need a new boiler – the old one worked well enough. OK, so the pump screamed occasionally – and the pipes knocked alarmingly when trapped […]
Emails to the Big Chief: Day 8 – On the Road Again
As I returned to Moscow, I saw two sides to Russia. Many of the houses, especially in the countryside, are falling into disrepair. There’s a high level of engineering – […]
Emails to the Big Chief: Day 7 – Dancing Shoes
Everyone passed their final tests today and proudly received their certificates. Ten years ago, we had ransacked one of the warehouses, a real Babushka’s Bazaar, for prizes for each delegate. […]
Emails to the Big Chief: Day 6 – The Show Must Go On
As you can imagine, after the excitement of last night, there were long faces, big yawns and very little talk at the breakfast table. But, like the troopers that we […]
Emails to the Big Chief: Day 5 – If You Go Down To The Woods Tonight
I had the cabin to myself for most of this evening. The others were still at the office. So, there I was – alone and surrounded by trees, with curtains […]
Emails to the Big Chief: Day 4 – Get Me Out of Here
You will be delighted to hear that it’s day 4 and still no vodka. Mind you, Boris arrives tomorrow, so it may not last. It’s a bit like an Australian […]
Emails to the Big Chief: Day 3 – A Long Way From Swiss Cottage
Isn’t it typical – just as I’m getting ready to move out of the hotel, it starts to improve a little. I’m used to washing my hair with icy water; […]
Emails to the Big Chief: Day 2 – Be Prepared
The factory is a converted missile base in the middle of the forest. Warehouses are underground bunkers with Fort Knox type doors a metre thick. I was so proud when […]
Emails to the Big Chief: Day 1 – The Long Unwinding Road
1960s furniture, no CNN and a dreadful bathroom. Casino, noisy disco and a bar full of prostitutes. You’ve guessed it – I’m back in Kostroma. The plane wasn’t hijacked and […]
Emails to the Big Chief
When I started travelling in the 1980s, I used to send my parents a postcard from wherever I stopped. Often they would reach home long after me. Once the Internet […]
December in Ljubljana
This small city is buzzing at any time, but in December, it seems more alive than ever. Trees are covered in small blue lights; all the buildings along the river […]