KARENNE'S BLOG - THE ONGOING DRAMA OF A WRITER
12th August 2015
Finally firing on all cylinders after a rather nebulous period. My thanks to all my wonderful friends for their support. I am emerging like a Phoenix. Ideas are flowing once more. Flowing like lava through my sluggish brain. But flowing nevertheless.
More novels will come .....
14th August 2016
Well I thought things had gone a bit pear-shaped a year ago, but little did I know what was round the corner.
Anyhow - in August 2015 I started rattling the keyboard again at a great pace and published Scream at the Mountains in November.
2015 segued into 2016, and in May Annie and I went on a short break to Barmouth, north Wales, with our bus passes. This will be included in Bus Pass Holiday - The Long and Short of It. It is being proofread at the moment and will be out soon for Kindle and in paperback.
When I returned from Barmouth my personal life turned upside down. But I am rolling with the punches. Strange that I felt like a Phoenix this time last year, because this year the Phoenix connection has become stronger. I feel the love and support my wonderful friends and relatives all over the world.
Life is for living! And I'm living to the max! My creativity is back on board, thanks to a particular friend whose friendship has become stronger this year. I have more ideas than ever, any more and my brain will burst!!!! I wish the days had more than 24 hours.
29th November 2016
I am still grafting away at two novels and the next Bus Pass book . Bus Pass Holiday - The Long and Short of It is on track for publication in January 2017.
Have a wonderful Christmas everyone, and all the best to you for a happy and prosperous 2017.
11th January 2017
Having had a lovely Christmas I managed to publish Bus Pass Holiday #2 - The Long and Short of It for Kindle ahead of time on 29th December 2016. Then went off to spend a riotous New Year in Barry, south Wales. I've only just found the time to get the book reformatted and published in paperback. Work continues on the next two novels, entitled Message Me Later and Headshot.
3rd March 2017
I retired from my (very humdrum) day job. Woohoo!!!! More time to write - double woohoo!!!
28th January 2018
Unfortunately I spent most of 2017 skiving off from writing. My excuse is I was overtaken by the joy of retirement.
Have just returned from a month's holiday in Australia visiting friends and family. I travelled between Hobart in the south of Tasmania and Toogoom which is a tiny little place on the coast in central Queensland. I attended a school reunion in Tasmania, and this has started the germ of an idea. Though I promise I won't feature any of my school chums in the book I'm planning - honest.
3rd December 2018
I have published Twenty Years On, a fictional work about a school reunion. Coming in at around 42,000 words it's considerably shorter than previous novels, but apparently shorter books are in vogue since most of the population are so busy dashing around and working hard to sit and read for any length of time. Except for me, of course...
5th May 2019
I've been struggling to find inspiration for some time, particularly for the two novels that are works in progress. Belonging to three writers' groups has become a distraction, but I do enjoy writing short pieces on the prompts. And I'm meeting some amazing writers of all ages. I've put Message Me Later and Headshot on the back burner until I find inspiration to continue. Now I'm working on another novel: Ponty Chase. It's about two people who decide to visit all the Ponty-prefixed towns in Wales.
1st December 2019
Well - I've met a crazy man and we've just bought a yacht. For £500. A great 40ft lump of rust and ancient equipment, it was previously owned by a former ferry captain who sailed it twice round the world. My partner is a clever bloke who can weld and do carpentry and electrics, and we have very little money so he's going to do most of the renovation himself with help from a handful of friends. Therefore I've decided to write the story of the renovation entitled Many Miles to the Sea.
23rd March 2020
We've had some fun stripping out the yacht, and were well on the way to getting it back to an empty steel hull and guess what? We are in the grip of a pandemic. You couldn't make it up!!! Damn you, COVID-19. From today Britain is in lockdown and we're not meant to go more than 5 miles from home. Fortunately the yacht is only a couple of miles away on dry land on the outskirts of Hereford. My partner has at least managed to pump out some of the many litres of water lurking inside after a phenomenally wet autumn and winter. Plenty of interesting stuff has happened over the months and I've written over 10,000 words of Many Miles to the Sea. In the current situation with travel out of the question I can't sustain my interest in writing Ponty Chase. But guess what? I'm all fired up and writing a new novel entitled Pretty Thing. The pretty thing in question is the colourful Coronavirus and the effect it's having on the people of the fictional town of Maengarw that I first created for the Valleys novels.
Two of the writers groups I belong to are meeting online on Zoom. The third group comprises people older than me. We still write on a weekly prompt, and they email their writing to me for circulation around the group. I get in a muddle from time to time but at least we're all keeping in touch.
20th July 2020
With the travel restrictions relaxed a bit I've managed a couple of trips to Hereford to help with work on the boat. Not a lot to tell, but work on Pretty Thing continues...
28th September 2020
It was announced yesterday that Torfaen, the borough in which I live, is going into lockdown again at 6pm today. The number of Coronavirus infections is increasing rapidly. I had already planned a trip to Hereford today. The bus service has been reduced and I wasn't able to get back home until after 8pm but heigh ho. Lockdown this time isn't as gloomy as earlier in the year, but we're not meant to go more than 5 miles from home so here I stay for the foreseeable. With nothing much to write about the yacht, I've been forging ahead with Pretty Thing. The main thing with lockdown this time round is that more shops are open, as well as pubs. Not sure pubs are a good idea because when people have had a few all social distancing seems to go out of the window. However this poor old world has to keep turning and businesses have to try to survive somehow. The 'new normal' is getting well weird and confused but I'm doing okay. Feel sorry for those who aren't...
20th July 2021
COVID-19 is still with us, but we have more freedom - and the weather is hot hot hot! I published my sixth novel last weekend - YAAY. Entitled Pretty Thing. Took about 17 months to write. Cover design this time is by Ash James at Mind Noise Design. Now back to other projects in hand - Ponty Chase, which I feel more inspired about as we are allowed to travel anywhere in the UK nowadays. And Many Miles to the Sea - the story of our yacht SV Gannet and its long, complicated journey from derelict to seaworthy.
1st December 2022
The story of renovating our yacht is now 80,000 words long and growing still. The hull has been stripped back, welded and painted, though final coat will be applied later. The engines are done, and a new propeller is being made. We've joined a yacht club and look forward to moving the yacht there sometime in 2023. COVID is still present in our lives; very few people I know have escaped infection, but only one has died. We get our vaccinations and take our chances, but life feels reasonably normal. Except the war in Ukraine that began in February has sent the world spiralling into recession. The cost of electricity and gas here has more than doubled, and inflation in general is over 10 per cent. My partner and I have no loans to repay so we're rolling with the punches and managing as best we can.