Category: Writing life

What’s happening in my world, this week:

• Work: revisions to M&B #84 (Florence, art world); writing M&B #85 (Medical Romance set in a GP surgery with a PAT dog); updating my website one backlist book per day; and faffing about with my Big Book;
• Reading: The Zig-Zag Girl, Elly Griffiths (enjoyed); The Woman who Met Her Match, Fiona Gibson (enjoyed); started three others but they didn’t grab me and I’ve given myself permission not to slog through them as life is too short to read books you’re not enjoying
• Looking forward to: a quiet week
• Workouts: dog-walking, last week – wayyyyy too hot to go to the gym
• Planet Kate last week: High point was seeing King Lear on Wednesday – the best Shakespeare performance I’ve seen in the last 35 years. Strong cast, good staging, and Ian McKellen was utterly amazing – really nuanced portrayal. Also visited Leighton’s house in Kensington (amazing interiors), had a quick trip into the National (useful for revisions as there’s a scene set there) and an exhibition at the Design Museum.
• Fave pic from the last week:

What’s happening in my world, this week:

• Work: writing M&B #85 (Medical Romance set in a GP surgery with a PAT dog); updating my website one backlist book per day; and faffing about with my Big Book;
• Reading: CJ Sansom, Lamentation (enjoyed); Sarah Morgan, How to Keep a Secret (think this is her best one to date – really enjoyed it);
• Looking forward to: King Lear at the Duke of York Theatre (Ian McKellen)
• Workouts: dog walking, and lots of walking in Bath and Bristol
• Planet Kate last week: mainly working; took Chloe out in my car for the first time; took Chloe to Bristol for a look round the uni and then stayed overnight (it’s a long way!) and had a bucket-list day in Bath. Was fabulous to visit the Abbey, the Baths (the curse tablets have been on my wishlist for a very long time), trying the spa water (quite sulphurous and WARM!), lunch in a nice indie veggie cafe, a general wander to soak up the architecture, and a visit to Herschel’s house (amazing to stand in the very garden where Uranus was discovered).
• Fave pic from the last week – difficult to choose! So here is the Roman bath; a lead tablet which has the only surviving example of Celtic writing (in Latin letters); William Herschel’s garden, where he discovered Uranus (and Caroline discovered a comet and also corrected Flamsteed’s tables); Caroline Herschel’s dress (she was so tiny, bless her); a night watchman’s sentry box from 1810;  and Norfolk Terrace (my son took his first steps on the grass outside here, 20 years ago)

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What’s happening in my world, this week:

• Work: finishing M&B #84 (True Love Romance set in Florence/art world); feeling guilty about not updating my website one backlist book per day; and pretty much ignoring my Big Book;
• Reading: The Flower Arrangement, Ella Griffin (enjoyed); Somewhere Beyond the Sea, Miranda Dickinson (enjoyed)
• Looking forward to: Othello at the Globe on Friday
• Workouts: big fat failure – I am out of time, and the scales this morning were not nice so I need to try harder
• Planet Kate last week: a few days away in Buckinghamshire – visited Waddesdon Manor (where I loved the fountain and was intrigued by the Sèvres ice cream cups), Stowe (fabulous gardens) and Bletchley Park (really, really interesting); also The Mystery Plays at the Cathedral, which were very well done indeed (and I throughly enjoyed the Norwich accents in Cain and Abel).
• Fave pic from the last week: the fountain at Waddesdon, one of the lakes at Stowe, and an Enigma machine from Bletchley.

What’s happening in my world, this week:

• Work: writing M&B #84 (True Love romance set in the world of art, partly in Florence); updating my website one backlist book per day; and faffing about with my Big Book;
• Reading: Rowan Coleman, The Summer of Impossible Things (enjoyed); Tracy Rees, Amy Snow (absolutely EXCELLENT and I will look out for more by her)
• Looking forward to: The Tempest at Norwich Cathedral
• Workouts: too hot to do the gym – dog walks early, so Archie’s paws are safe on the pavement
• Planet Kate last week: Melting in the heat (I prefer cool weather!); Uni of Sheffield open day, and thoroughly enjoyed the English department’s presentation (loved the fact that their lecture theatre is a converted church). I also have another big book brewing in my head, which involves opera; as a result. I have tickets to La Traviata (plus a ‘behind the curtain’ performance later in the year) and tickets to The Magic Flute in London next year (!)
• Fave pic from the last week: a summery sky, an early morning sniff of lavender (aka my beautiful dog posing) and a petunia in my neighbour’s hanging basket that I thought was just gorgeous.

  

  

  

What’s happening in my world, this week:

• Work: writing M&B #84 (True Love romance set in the world of art, partly in Florence); updating my website one backlist book per day; and faffing about with my Big Book;
• Reading: The Silent Companions, Laura Purcell; It Had to Be You, Susan Elizabeth Phillips; Dear Dad, Giselle Green (really enjoyed); The Things We Never Said, Susan Elliot Wright (absolutely brilliant – couldn’t put it down and I’m going to keep an eye out for future ones)
• Looking forward to: open day at the University of Sheffield
• Workouts: dogwalking, last week
• Planet Kate last week: Work, work and more work – but I did finish the revisions! Uni of Nottingham open day on Saturday – Chloe loved the campus (and I enjoyed the talk – great attitude towards students) but the course isn’t right for her. Went to the seaside on the way home. And more work. And melting in the heat. And too many barbecues (even though I’m being sensible and sticking to salmon or tuna steaks).
• Fave pic from the last week: a spaniel waiting for his share of barbecued salmon; the University of Nottingham; and a day at Cromer where you could really see where the depth of the water changed.

  

  

  

What’s happening in my world, this week:

• Work: writing M&B #84 (True Love romance set in the world of art, partly in Florence); revising M&B #83; updating my website one backlist book per day; and faffing about with my Big Book; and I thought it was publication day this week for my 80th M&B, but that turned out to be last week…
• Reading: Jane Smiley, A Thousand Acres
• Looking forward to: open day at the University of Nottingham on Saturday
• Workouts: managed one last week at the gym along with dogwalking…
• Planet Kate last week: Revisions, but I did have some outings – Travis on 21 June in Ipswich (great and enjoyed hugely) and Sheryl Crow on 22 June in Nottingham (one of my all-time top 10 gigs – fantastic); Belvoir Castle on the way home on 23 June (gorgeous rose garden) and Wells-next-the-Sea on Sunday. Also new hair (Chloe had hers dyed green!) and a brief trip out to find a field of poppies in the middle of the week because the world got a bit much mid-week. (I do think we need more kindness in the world.)
• Fave pic from the last week: LTR: top row – Poppies at Caistor St Edmund, roses and alliums at Belvoir Castle, and lovely Sheryl Crow; bottom row Travis, a mackerel sky over our back garden, and Book 80 on the beach where it’s set 🙂

What’s happening in my world, this week:

• Work: revising M&B #83 (Medical romance, Marriage of Convenience); writing M&B #84 (True Love romance set in the world of art, partly in Florence); updating my website one backlist book per day; and faffing about with my Big Book
• Reading: Small Town Love, Susan Meier (enjoyed); Vinegar Girl, Anne Tyler (enjoyed – very, very clever retelling of Shrew)
• Looking forward to: Travis at Ipswich on Thursday (they’re doing the whole of The Man Who, so that will be great) and Sheryl Crow in Nottingham on Friday (bucket list – I’ve adored Sheryl ever since I first heard ‘All I Want to Do’ – and we share a birthday).
• Workouts: two gym sessions last week, plus dogwalking; intend to be good this week, too…
• Planet Kate last week: plotting my book; taking Archie for his first haircut (which ended up with me being soaked and covered in hair while wussy spaniel leaned on me); going to Mannington Hall for a writery day with my good friend Rosie Hendry on Friday (inspirational place and I’ve kind of sorted out location inspiration for a couple of books, plus sorted out a knot in my Big Book); off to London on Saturday to meet my friend Ali Williams to see Two Noble Kinsmen at the Globe (sorted out another book knot, and also I really recommend Tas Pide, which is opposite the Globe, as the staff are lovely and the food is fantastic); and off to Norwich for breakfast out with my daughter on Sunday and some photographs to help with the publicity for my 80th M&B – which I thought was out at the end of the month, but it seems that publication day is flexible and it’s already out. There might also have been an accidental foray into bookshops and accidental purchases (all right, a signed copy of a Terry Jones medieval book and a facsimile of the manuscript of The Wasteland and a few other things – this is why I’m not allowed in second-hand bookshops without adult supervision, and I think my daughter might fall under the label of Bad Influence rather than Responsible Adult). Also my son came home for the summer on Sunday afternoon, and it’s lovely to have a full complement in the house. Archie is particularly pleased to have Eldest back.
• Fave pic from the last week  – I was going to include some faces in here as well, but for some reason WordPress tipped them upside down and I couldn’t get them to tip the right way up again! Anyway. Mannington Hall chapel ruins; Mannington Hall moat; and the Globe stage.

  

  

  

   

What’s happening in my world, this week:

• Work: finished M&B #83; sort of wrote the outline for M&B #85; started writing M&B #84 (True Love romance set in the world of art, partly in Florence); updating my website one backlist book per day; and faffing about with my Big Book
• Reading: Who We Were Before, Leah Mercer (enjoyed)
• Looking forward to: Two Noble Kinsmen at the Globe in London on Saturday
• Workouts: I am so going to the gym this week…
• Planet Kate last week: worked hard on the book all week and finished it on Wednesday; spent Thursday in Ipswich with Caroline Anderson as a plotting day (and bonus of meeting her new pup); collected Youngest from her school trip to Stratford at 3am Friday night, left for Leicester and a look round the uni at 7am Saturday morning (yes, 4 hours later – was nice to see my old uni), and saw Bill Bailey in Peterborough on the way home (probably the best standup show I’ve ever seen, but it was another post-midnight trip home and up to take Youngest to work at 7am).
• Fave pics from the last week: Caroline’s gorgeous pup needing a carry past the Scary Lorry in the park; my own gorgeous pup, trying to make me for guilty for not taking me with him; and my youngest discovering the delights of the stack system in the library where I spent my student years.

What’s happening in my world, this week:

• Work: writing M&B #84 (True Love romance set in the world of art, partly in Florence); updating my website one backlist book per day; and faffing about with my Big Book
• Reading: looking forward to seeing what’s next on my TBR
• Looking forward to: Chloe’s uni open day at Leicester at the weekend (aka my old uni) and Bill Bailey on the way home
• Workouts: planning to go to the gym – I need to show my face and get back into routine
• Planet Kate last week: Absolutely manic, even by my standards! I’ve been trying to finish my book and fit in a whole bunch of other stuff. So Tuesday morning started with a trip to Manchester for an open day at the university for Chloe. Whatever the satnav says, I never seem to manage it in less than five hours (and we don’t stop that long for lunch!). But we got there safely, had a look round the science museum, had dinner and went to the Royal Exchange to see Beckett’s ‘Happy Days’. Maxine Peake was excellent, but the play was very challenging! Wednesday, we visited Mrs Gaskell’s house, and what a joy it was. The original furnishings were sold, so the curators worked with inventories and letters to find what was there and then purchased pretty much the nearest equivalent (exactly right in period terms). Best of all, WE WERE ALLOWED TO TOUCH THE BOOKS. There might have been a bit of squeaking over being allowed to touch an actual Currer Bell. Then we had the uni open day, and it’s currently in top slot – lovely buildings, a good and honest talk, and then being shown round by one of the students. Thursday, met up with a friend I’ve known for more than 10 years online but hadn’t actually met in person before, so there was much walking and talking and it was so nice to meet her; and then the five-hour drive home. Two days of concentrated work to catch up, then Gerry’s birthday and a trip to the beach, where Archie decided he was brave enough to go right into the sea for a swim (and was less than happy to discover that meant a bath to get the salt and sand out of his coat!). Oh, wait, I forgot something: publication day for my 79th Harlequin Mills & Boon! (Read more about it here on the website.)
• Fave pic from the last week: Mrs Gaskell’s writing desk, the Faculty of Arts building at the University of Manchester, and Wells-next-the-Sea. And then I think I ought to include my book…

What’s happening in my world, this week:

• Work: finishing M&B #83 (overdue, sigh); updating my website one backlist book per day (in theory, but in practice I’m away so won’t have the time); and faffing about with my Big Book (need to decide which of the four ideas in my head needs writing first and stop messing about)
• Reading: The Light Behind the Window, Lucinda Riley (enjoyed)
• Looking forward to: King Lear on TV tonight; uni open day trip with Chloe to Manchester – as it’s a long drive there, we’re staying overnight and going to see Happy Days at the Royal Exchange; also planning to see the Museum of Industry and Mrs Gaskell’s house, and meeting up with friends; and it’s Gerry’s birthday at the weekend
• Workouts: as I’m not here most of the week, it’ll be walking in Manchester
• Planet Kate last week: busy with work – managed to get my dates wrong so we missed seeing Jon Richardson, which is a shame, but we did have nice weather at the weekend so we took Archie to the park on Saturday and to the beach at Holkham (i.e. the beach you see in Shakespeare In Love) on Sunday
• Fave pic from the last week: Arch with very fluffy hair, cow parsley (I love the structure of the flowers) and one very happy spaniel on the beach