Good riddance 2014

I've just had a look back to my Goodbye 2013... post. Wow, I had a really good 2013!

You can obviously see, from the title of this year's post, that 2014 wasn't as good. I even called it my nemesis year, on account of turning 40, but in the event, that was okay. I knew it would be, but I do like a bit of drama.

2014 wasn't all bad - we had a wonderful family holiday in Scotland...

 This photo was taken from the top of a mountain - yes! I actually climbed a mountain. You see that green patch in the middle of the photo? That's where we were staying.

And, below, was our final morning. I left Hubby to pack the car, and my sister-in-law and I took a last walk with the kids. A lovely memory for the long journey home!



And we had some really lovely weather over the summer - I caught a tan! Well, I could see I'd caught a tan, even though no one else could.

But on the whole it wasn't the best year. There were many struggles, and a lot of people I know were having very bad times too. I'm glad it's behind me.

Next year is going to be challenging - #1 son taking his GCSEs and starting college, #2 son starting secondary school, and Hubby away touring for longer than he's been away before.

Writing-wise, I decided to start my next book yesterday. It was going to be a rewrite - plus additions - to a previous manuscript, but I woke up yesterday morning with an idea for a sequel to the book I'm submitting at the moment. I know there's more story to tell - because a dream told me (obviously) - but at the moment I have no idea what. I'm just writing stuff in the hope that it'll all come together.

Actually, that's how most of my books get written, so really I'm just hoping that skill hasn't left me!

So, that was 2014, here's to 2015...

Have you made resolutions? Do you have goals?

Are you looking forward to something amazing?

Aren't you all just a little disappointed that the world doesn't look like this...?

Back to the Future II

Back From The Future Blog Party

If you're here for the Bloghop of Joy click here.


M Pax, Suze of Subliminal Coffee and Nicki Elson are teaming up for the Back from the Future Blogfest. 

You're up before dawn on a Saturday when the doorbell rings. You haven't brewed your coffee so you wonder if you imagined the sound. Plonking the half-filled carafe in the sink, you go to the front door and cautiously swing it open. No one there. As you cast your eyes to the ground, you see a parcel addressed to you ... from you.

You scoop it up and haul it inside, sensing something legitimate despite the extreme oddness of the situation. Carefully, you pry it open. Inside is a shoebox -- sent from ten years in the future -- and it's filled with items you have sent yourself.

What's in it?

• Well, obviously my Booker prize, and the book that won it
• Proof that the polar ice caps still exist
• A hoverboard, obviously
• A Tom-Daley-as-the-15th-Doctor-Who doll
• A letter from my Martian pen-pal

Okay, after the first two I kind of got stuck... this was harder than I thought it would be. You couldn't tell though, could you? I'm off a-visiting!

Time travelling

Since I'm now looking at Romance markets for some of my stories, I thought I'd do some research into the genre. I was amazed at the variety; practically any genre can have romantic leanings, apparently - including westerns, horror and suspense.

The one that intrigued me the most was time travel, because apart from The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger I can't think of another example within fiction, and I'm not sure she deserves a whole genre for one book. I'm sure you'll all be able to correct me and list hundreds (please do!).

The problem with time travel stories is that there are many ways to tie the plot in knots so it doesn't make sense - I'm sure you must have wasted hours of your youth, as I did with my friends, discussing the Back to the Future trilogy - although I don't remember anything glaringly obvious in The Time Traveler's Wife.

One of my mum's favourite films from years ago was Somewhere in Time, with Christopher Reeve. It's a lovely film, a tear-jerker, perfect for wet and windy Sunday afternoons. But - just a slight but this time- the opening scenes put my head in a proper spin. An elderly woman approaches Christopher Reeve and says something along the lines of "My love, please come back to me".

This makes Reeves curious, and he goes off to investigate this woman and discovers a picture of her when she was younger. He falls in love with this picture (as you do!) and decides to travel back in time to meet her.

Now, it's that opening paradox that jars slightly. If he'd just looked at this woman, called her crazy and not given her another thought, he'd never gone back in time to meet her, which means she wouldn't have spoken to him in the present because he would have been a stranger. Which means, there would be no film,... so I can kind of understand why they did it.

Anyway, that was a very long-winded way of saying that you really have to think about your time travel plotline! I'd really love to read your comments on this - I could talk time-travel for hours. Just give me a moment to pour the wine!!