Youthopia

For the last few years, in between writing short stories, I've been putting together a children's adventure story. A couple of months ago I took the plunge and entered the world of self-publishing. I've been on a steep learning curve with Amazon's CreateSpace but now I think I'm nearing the end of the project. Not being the remotest bit artistic I struggled with the cover design but, with some expert advice and graphics software, I managed to come up with something I was quite pleased with.

Youthopia is a modern-day escapade aimed at early teens. I've put a few chapters on Amazon's preview page here.

Some Fields Will Blossom While Others Lay Brown Beneath The August Sun

Well, August turned out to be a pretty good month for me.

I had a total of five stories published – two in The People's Friend 2017 Annual, one in the PF weekly mag, one in the PF Special and one in The Weekly News.

I didn't even know about The Weekly News one until Suzanne Ross Jones @sj_suz kindly informed me via Twitter. Just goes to show the usefulness of Twitter and the power of the writers' network.

I've just attended one of the Woman's Weekly writers' workshops in Manchester. This was run by editor Gaynor Davies and prolific writer Della Galton. The event was attended by writers of all abilities and we all came away with some very useful feedback. I was particularly impressed by the interest that was shown for everybody's writing attempts and the patience they showed when assessing our work. I was also pleased to meet up with fellow magazine writers Margaret Skipworth and Joanne Duncan.

It's back to the writers' clubs this month after the Summer recess. I get some great ideas and inspiration from both of my groups. I wish you all the best in whatever endeavours you're engaged in at this time.