November update

The River Wensum, Norwich

 Well, I've slipped on my weekly writing of a poem, but I'm not going to beat myself up about it. I  began November with the intention of writing a daily flash using the prompts emailed to me, but that also fell by the wayside. I usually love these prompts, but it didn't do anything for me. I wrote one, and also one using my own prompt, but that's it.

However, this month I did meet up with my writing buddy who now lives in Norwich, and on a very wet morning we adjourned to Norwich Cathedral Cafe to write over pots of tea. It was like old times and we soon slipped back into the habit of free writing and laughing over the results. We had a ready-made prompt board in the cafe (see photo) which saved us searching for words. We had a wonderful time writing together, and had a chance to catch up with each other. We last met in August.

A ready made prompt board!

I have been thinking of putting together a short story collection. I have a few that look at the funny side of life, including dark humour. Some of my stories are longer than the normal short stories, so much harder to find homes for them, so with three or four of these interspersed with shorter or even flash would work. 

To add to the collection I wrote a new story last week. The first draft is done and I really had fun writing it. There's bit of me in there (not going to say which bits!), but then doesn't every writer add bits of them into their stories? This one has very funny moments in it, but also sad moments. The story has the working title of The Holiday and it is set in Eastbourne.

Looking at my list of books read this year, I am on my 75th! My bought book pile is quite small now, but I'm off to the library on Thursday. There are a few books on my Christmas List, one being Elly Griffiths Norfolk which has locations of scenes from her Ruth Galloway series, which I have read. If I only get one book this year it has to be this!

In other news, we got the Christmas Tree up yesterday because I couldn't wait any longer. I love Christmas and look forward to carols and mulled wine. I'm singing tomorrow night with a new choir that started in January this year. Syrinx will be singing in St John's Church, Hoxton, including This Woman's Work by Kate Bush and a Finnish Reindeer calling song! Not to be missed. Have a look at the website. There are a few videos available to view.

That's all for now folks.