It is the second week of the school holidays and despite the determined Cornish drizzle, I’ve been out and about with my two boys (aged seven and nine) every day at the park, the beach, the Lost Gardens of Heligan (where this picture was taken), the theatre, friend’s houses and at Truro museum to see a very cool exhibition about curious contraptions.
It’s been fun, but fairly full on.
By the time my kids are in bed I just about have enough energy to check and respond to urgent emails before I get the house straight.
I know from experience that nothing I write at this point in the day will be much good anyway. I’m a morning person, I always have been and my dyslexia is significantly more noticeable as the day goes on too which doesn’t help matters.
To add to my general low energy right now as I type this on a Thursday evening, I am also feeling full of cold. So, rather than write something that isn’t up to the standard I like, I thought I’d do something different instead.
When I first started writing Stories by the Sea at the end of last year I initially saved all the posts with writing tips and information for paid subscribers only.
But I found that model too restrictive for me, I wanted the freedom to be able to write about whatever I wanted and share it all with everyone. So I changed it so that paid subscribers are simply supporting me as a writer and all the new posts I’ve written have been free for everyone.
I thought I’d use this week as an opportunity to update all of my backlist posts so that they’re now completely free for everyone to read too.
To all of my subscribers, I’d like to take a moment here to say a BIG thank you for supporting me. It means so much to me that you want to read my writing.
And to everyone who does pay, thank you so, SO much, I am incredibly grateful to you all.
You can subscribe or change to a paid subscription here:
So, as of today, all of the posts in the ‘Everything I know About Writing’ section of Stories by the Sea are now free to read.
The links to the posts which are newly free are below in no particular order:
Please do take a read, comment and share with friends who you think might be interested too.
The Best Piece of Advice I’ve Ever Been Given (about writing)
So You Want To Write A Book? Here’s Where to Start
How Do I Know When I’m Ready To Let Someone Else Read My Writing?
The Most Important Thing I’ve Learnt About Rejection (as a writer)
The Question I get Asked Most Often
How to Overcome Writer’s Block
7 Secrets to Writing Picture Books
Where Do Stories Come From? Perhaps You’ve Wondered Too?
Do I Need An Agent or Should I Self-Publish?
What To Consider When You’re Asked To Do An Event
Finally to end this post, I wanted to share some good news. At the end of last week I found out that one of my picture books Thunderboots had won an award at the Derby Book Festival! Yippie!
Thunderboots was my Grandpa’s nickname for me as a child and this story was inspired by my own diagnosis of dyslexia so it’s a book that means a lot to me. It’s illustrated by the lovely Rebecca Ashdown whose husband and daughter are also dyslexic, although my Publisher Oxford University Press didn’t know that when they initially approached her about illustrating it.
Normal service will resume next week as my boys will be back in school and I will once again have a bigger window of time to write and work in instead of the slivers I get in the holidays.
Although if I’m honest, being with my kids does often inspire lots of new ideas and I’ve been jotting down bits of stories all week. So whilst it feels like I’ve not had any time to write, it’s actually been quite productive…
Thunder Boots! Brilliant. Congratulations on your award!
And thanks for making all these posts about writing free to read. I look forward to reading them