Tuesday 4 December 2018

I Have Moved


Hello, Friends and Readers, 

I am sorry I have not posted this sooner but I have been busy creating a new website that I hope you will visit and check it out. 
I love this blog site but I needed to do more to engage with you all, to help push my books and give it a new face. 
I also have a new feature over on the other website called, Letters From Lacey, where Lacey Taylor reveals a little more about life with the Taylor family. This is snippets of her life not revealed in her two books, My Husband's Sin and Don't Call Me Mum. In fact there will be another and final book in her life that I will be writing in the spring of 2019. 

So please don't abandon me, hop on over to the new website, 


Thanks again for all your support in the past and I know in the future you won't let me down, and when you do visit the new website, please leave a comment with what you think or any suggestions you may have to help me. 

Happy Reading!!

See you over there, 
Mary

Monday 8 October 2018

Read Gary's thoughts on Stephen King and much more



Gary Holdaway is a young writer from the UK with big ideas, and an even bigger passion for words. Being a multi-genre author of both novels and short fiction, Gary set up GDH Media to both enhance his own creativity, and help all who wish to create a career out of  words. I asked him a few questions and offered him a writing prompt with which to entertain us with. Read to find out what he shared with me.


Why or what got you into writing? 
The easiest ones always seem the longest stories, don’t they? All I can say is I can’t remember a time where writing wasn’t a big part of my life. One of my earliest memories comes from when I was somewhere between five and seven years old. I was a huge Jurassic park fan, and by that I mean I had T-shirts, hoodies, books, videos, and a PlayStation game. I lived and breathed dinosaurs. I remember lying flat on my tummy on the living room floor—a position that is still weirdly comfortable for me, if a little achy around the ribs—sketching out the cover for my first completed short story: Jurassic Park 3: Dino Crisis. I wish I still had it, but like most things, it didn’t seem important at the time.
From there I developed a love of animation and comic books, and started writing short stories surrounding my favourite characters. As a teen I joined a bunch of high quality role playing sites that were pretty strict with their writing standards, and even went on to run a few of my own alongside a writers community I built called Writer’s Block. Alongside my early adulthood came depression, anxiety, and a wave of debilitating issues that made me apprehensive of leaving the house. Due to that limiting my ability to get out to work, I started to write for content sites and run some freelancing on the side to earn enough to pay my bills.
You can read more about my writing journey over on my blog: *The Story So Far* 

Have you a routine to your writing day? 
I’m just back after a couple years break from writing seriously. My depression took a steep downward step, and my wife and I were going through separation. During that period my writing schedule consisted of writing everything as notes on my phone when I woke up in the morning, and then various bits throughout the day. Ten minutes here and there. It was mainly free writing. Typing out opinions on certain matters, inspirational passages, small waves of insight and wisdom, and the occasional intro to short stories and novels. Words are a part of me, no matter how I try, I can’t escape them in some form or another. This was enough to keep me sane, and as a result have hundreds of pages worth of notes to play with whenever I’m at a loss for what to write!  
 That said, I am putting a routine together that I’m slowly adapting to. Right now, due to the nature of my family business, I’m writing between one and two thousand words every day, usually after working the day job. That’s not okay for me though. I feel like I’m having to keep myself zipped up all day just to splurge all the words and ideas out at once when I finally get a chance. Instead, I’m opting to rise extra early each morning, to get my two thousand words in every day. Currently I’m at the stage of trying to get to bed earlier each night, and get up earlier each morning. I’m cutting back around quarter of an hour each week. Once I’m comfortable at around 5:00am each morning, all my writing will be moved to that period of time. I’ll use my evenings to make some posts on my blog, sketch, and relax with the family.

Is there a writer you admire more than others?  
Photo Courtesy of theintellegencer.com
Some of you will call this a cliché, others will agree. My idol, my favourite author, my writing inspiration, is none other than the great Stephen King. I mean, the man is a writing machine, and he wastes no time decorating story with fluff. He’s the same in life as he is as a narrator. No crap, unpretentious, simple. He gets up in the morning, takes his coffee, and churns out two thousand words. He will stay at his desk until those words are written, and that’s that.  
Not every one of his novels are as great as some others, but his work ethic, technique, and style are great. A lot of my own writing style has been influenced by his work. Which Id say is mainly reflected in my lean toward character driven stories, over plot driven. Well that, and my unapologetic honesty in my work. Narrators are neutral, but characters aren’t, and its that simple

Have you a tip for other writers that you think is important knowing? 
I actually have a few, which is why I’ve launched the *GDHMedia* blog recently, not only as a creative outlet to publicise fun little flash fictions, but as a place to share everything I can about the writing process. I believe there are a lot of could-be-great writers out there that just need the right advice. If the truth is known, nobody needs to know what an adjective, noun, and verb are. Most readers don’t, do they? The major thing holding writers back from mastering their craft, is the surrounding body of elitists that like to make others feel stupid. Cut the crap, and make it simple. The things we need to master to write great stories are character, pace, dialogue, and style—and believe me, they’re beasts in their own right.
What I’m saying here is, don’t doubt yourself or feel inferior to those with literature degrees because some stiff post-grad working a desk likes to make out like telling a good story is the most complex process in the world, because he’s never quite mastered it himself. We need to loosen up, drop the pretence, and tell the story. It’s really not all that complex once you understand all the parts. It’s like making a proper good English cuppa, ‘Never put the milk in first, let the tea brew a little first, and go easy on the sugar’.

What is your current WIP about? 
 I’m actually working on a creative non-fiction piece. A personal essay circulating around the first day I admitted to myself I needed help with my depression, and headed to the doctor with my wife and mother. It’s filled with cynicism, dark insights, and some of the unapologetic truth I mentioned earlier. So far it’s turning out really good, but it’s hard to write. Anyway, that’s no fun, so I’ll let you into something I’ve been developing in my mind for a while. 
It’s a dark, gritty, Demi-god story, that circulates around the life of a young adult male, who knows with every fibre in his body that he’s meant for something more. He thinks and feels differently to everybody else, has his own ideas for ‘fixing’ things that doesn’t seem to fit into any political spectrum, and feels trapped in his own skin. Trapped on this earth, where nobody quite gets the point. The Gods that have chosen him are the old Gods of the Norse pantheon, and they aren’t particularly pleasant. When they come, their power and presence is suffocating. They’re frightening, strong, and not all that helpful in pointing him in the right direction. They seem to pop up in his dreams, haunt him at random times, and torture him in many ways. It’s like if anything bad can happen, it will happen to him.  
Not the typical Demi-god adventure you’d expect, right? Well now all I have to do is write it!

Writing Prompt
 He waited for her answer, but she didn’t look happy. 

“Before you do this, tell me you don’t still love me.”

The length of silence that stretched between them wasn’t quite what he expected, and now he was aware of all the eyes on him. How many were there anyway? It looked at least a hundred—damn good turnout. Maybe this was a bad idea. Turning up like this, today of all days. Talk about cutting it fine. And the way he just spat it out. Fuck.  
Whispers echoed through the church, judgemental, amused, and everything in between. Typical David, acting before thinking, always on the wrong page. The gossipers started to gossip. The outragers’ became outraged. Aunt Jill shook her head in disapproval. Robert’s eyes were fixed on his with a look of sheer anger. Well that, plus a little humour, with just a dash of... sympathy? David couldn’t complain, that amused sympathy was likely the only reason he hadn’t already taken a punch in the eye.  
David could shake off the rest, but the look in her eyes. His Sarah. The Sarah he spent half of his life with, now disconnected from him. Disgusted.

“No David, how many times? This is my wedding for God’s sake.”  

***

If you wish to connect or chat with Gary you will find him at the following links: 


Monday 17 September 2018

My Plan of Attack


What do you do when faced with a dilemma?
You think about the issue, write down the pros and cons, gather your thoughts and then hey (hopefully) presto, you have sorted it all out.

Sooooooo, I kinda did that.

I need to have my third novel written by the end of October this year. My decision, totally my own  madcap idea.

How do I make this work? From now until the end of the October, I've got limited time. I want my weekends off, so Monday to Friday, I shall write.
I work out the word count I think will be needed, based on my last novels.
So this gives me my daily word count with weekends off.

Can I do it? Hell yes I can!

So my third novel, Cregane Court (Working Title) shall be tackled with determination and discipline and hopefully I will be posting here in November about how successful I've been.
If not, I will be eating chocolate and happy that I at least gave it ago.

“A dream written down with a date becomes a goal. A goal broken down into steps becomes a plan. A plan backed by action makes your dreams come true.” Greg Reid


#motivation #amwriting #success

Saturday 8 September 2018

Guilt Be Gone


September already and so far this year the many writing plans I had in mind last January have taken a backseat. But that's okay, although for months, I battered myself with guilt. It really was only over this weekend, I realised I don't need to be stuck to a timetable or need permission to not turn up to the page. Writing like everything else in my life will have its moments.
It's not like I've sat back and ignored the two novels I began months ago, or the hunt I wanted to go on for an agent, the marketing ides I need to come up with to sell my books, I didn't. It was, that other equally important matters as my writing life, needed my attention.
How many nights did I twist and turn thinking how I will sit at the desk in the morning and write thousands of words, knowing deep down, it wasn't going to happen. Life happens in cycles like the seasons of each year, there is a time for everything.
Family and health took priority so far this year and rightly so. Now that I am on a more even keel with both of those issues, my time can once more be diverted to my writing. It feels right now to sit and type, or think, or plan, or whatever is required for what I'm dealing with, novel, short story, promotion etc.
If you've missed some time at your desk, relax, it will right itself. A writer is never off duty, if you are not writing you will be thinking about it, breathing it, so let the guilt go.
Plus the year isn't over yet, I might complete all I want to do yet and so might you.