It's February...

Well I know that's obvious if you look at today's date, but no sooner is the New Year over than the month is gone.

So what have I achieved in the last 31 days?

More than I expected actually.

I had intended to enter a 250 word competition with a closing date of yesterday, but have to admit I failed. The idea just didn't go anywhere and no matter how many avenues I considered it just wasn't right.

Despite that failure I did enter the Words with Jam competition for the last couple of lines of a story. I was not alone in this, there were 800 entries (it was free to enter). I didn't expect to get anywhere but considered it was good practice. I rewrote the ending of a piece of flash fiction and it did actually assist me in deciding how I could improve the rest of the story- it needs to be longer...

Last month I had a lot of commitments so very little quiet time which I think contributed to my spell of writers block. Glad to say the remedial action is working.

Nor have I read as much as I wanted. I'm working my way through the most recent Woman's Weekly Fiction Special and have the Fireside Reading special from People's Friend to follow.

I've started 'Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrel', but have been in a short story mood, so swapped to 'Loves Me, Loves Me Not' a great mix of stories that can be dipped into when you only have ten minutes to spare.
I bought this last year and have got about half way through and have thoroughly enjoyed the variety.

Last night I bought and downloaded another short story anthology 'Diamonds and Pearls', which has among it's contributors well known writers such as Della Galton and Sue Moorcroft. The great thing about this book is not only does the reader get a wonderful bunch of stories to enjoy, but also a donation from the sale of each book goes to a cancer charity.

I'm certainly learning from these stories how to improve my characterisation.

So now I have a few weeks without interruptions- hopefully-I'm going to get on with some writing. Have a look at competitions I could enter over the next few months and get my brain moving again. And carry on reading.

In the meantime I want your opinions on whether you prefer your novels to be character or plot driven? Perhaps you don't have a preference.
You will find the voting box on the right hand side of your screen under the list of my Followers (thank you all).

If you'd like to share how you fared with your writing and/or reading in January then please add your thoughts to the comments box. I enjoy reading them.

November Mini Poll

So here are the results of November's fun mini poll- preferred hair colour of your hero/heroine.

Blond/e         14%

Brunette        71%

Red              14%

Grey             0%

Bald              0%

Don't mind    14%

Okay it was only a small number of responses...:)

But I must admit only the occasional hero of mine is blond, so perhaps I need to redress the balance.

Results of the September mini poll...

Thanks to those of you who voted in my first mini poll on your preferences for reading romances.

The results were as follows:

Contemporary:14%

Historical: 57%

Chick-lit: 28%

The October poll is now up- okay I know it's almost November...:)

We've all heard the phrases ' blondes have more fun', 'tall, dark and handsome' and that red-heads have a 'fiery temper'.

So this mini poll is about hair colour of your hero and or heroine.

For the writers amongst you- do you find your characters usually have the same hair colour?

And for the readers- are you more likely to pick a book up if the character in the cover image has a specific hair colour?

You can find out the answers this time next month...