A Little Light Reading and Listening...

All writers need to read, but as I've said before I do sometimes worry that I don't read enough, but today's prize winner I can honestly say I know the story.

Congratulations go to the winner of the 2011 Orange Prize for Fiction, Téa Obreht.  A first-time novelist and apparently the youngest winner of the prize, which will hopefully encourage more writers.

I heard her winning book 'The Tiger's Wife' serialised on BBC Radio4 a few months ago and it was worth listening to. I'm not sure that I would have continued reading it if I'd tried it in print form, but give me a 'prize' book in an audio format and I'm fine.

I've actually started reading an Agatha Raisin e-book- Agatha, a Cotswold amateur detective, is the creation of M C Beaton. In the last few years I've heard other people say they've enjoyed the books, but never got round to picking one up myself.

That was until a few weeks ago when I happened to tune into Radio4 Extra (used to be BBC7) and heard one of the books being serialised. (Agatha is voiced by actress Penelope Keith.)

I may eventually read the first book and work through the series, but I've started with the 'Fairies of Fryfam'- this story follows on from the book being serialised on the radio this week. So far I'm enjoying both...

(I did not know, until I was looking the books up, that M C Beaton is also Marion Chesney- I've read her historical romances over the years.)

Audio books seem to have become popular recently. When I've been looking for possible e-book purchases there will frequently be an audio version also available. You can buy and download them to your computer, your IPod or an mp3 player, it's no longer just cassette tapes or Cds -but if you intend to buy one do check whether it's an abridged (shorter) or an unabridged version (full length) of the book.

The best thing about the audio format is you can do the housework, shopping or even travel on crowded public transport while you listen to a good book...

Which Novella to Work On...

Once again I have some peace and quiet to write- the school half term holidays are over and I'm determined to get on with one of my longer projects before the summer holidays begin.

But which one?

I have one novella that I started over two years ago. It's set in a fictional Nottinghamshire village in 1802. While the premise of the story is not original-most have been done before- I think my idea will work.

One of my characters in waiting-Hugh- finally gets his chance to appear.

As I already have a synopsis and the first chapter written, I thought I'd start with this as the time away has helped and I'm ready to move on with the story.

I'd actually entered it in one of the writers' club competitions the year I started writing it- 2009 (just to get an opinion on the story idea and characters- I only needed a synopsis and the first chapter) and the critique was helpful, so I'm going to work on this first draft and see how long it comes out.

It has potential to be a pocket novel, but whether it will be long enough- 50,000 words, I'm not sure.

So tomorrow I'm going to plan out the chapters and work on my character sheets so I avoid my flat characters issue- I'm really trying.

And if anything or anyone tries to interrupts me I will be ignoring them...