A busy month

 Hi all,

I hope this find you well and able to enjoy the lovely summer weather (when it's not burning our butts off😬). I love the long evenings sooooo much, but can't believe that the longest day has already passed.

I'm off on a week's cruise to Norway soon, with eldest daughter and grandsons, which is a first! Very exciting! Usually, on board, I get quite a lot of writing done during seadays, but this is going to be a very different holiday. I am in turmoil, trying to decide whether or not I can actually leave my laptop at home. Mostly I want to leave it due to having to carry it in my rucksack back to the car park (20 mins walk from port) and I am also thinking that it may enable me to just chill with a book without feeling guilty. The big issue is, I am 15,000 + words into my next novel (working title 'The Art of Romance') and losing momentum is massive for me. If I miss a day or two, I tend to think that the story is total garbage and not worth continuing with. I will have to find a way to ensure I pick up where I left off when I get back...

On Wednesday, a story I wrote a couple of years ago, inspired by a trip to Selsey to see my sister, came out in The People's Friend Special. I do hope that my, and my colleagues', days as a short-fiction writer aren't numbered. One of the major magazine publishers (not DC Thomson, who I write for) has turned to using AI for some of their stories. Really bad news, and it is the reason why The Society of Authors is fighting so hard to limit AI powers and stop it from stealing our work. This happens constantly, of course. It will be interesting to see what readers think of the change.

In addition, the Linford Romance Large Print edition of 'A Match Made in Heaven' went into libraries on 30th June 2026, so if you fancy a read for free, you know where to find it. If it's not in your local branch, you can order it in.

Alongside this, I was thrilled that Ulverscroft have now also taken on 'All The King's Horses' for large print. I think they said that it would come out early in the New Year.

I haven't entered a writing competition for a long time (lack of time, more than any other reason), but I did enter one to help raise money for the Cats Protection earlier in the year. It didn't get anywhere so, rather than waste it, I thought I'd do some work on it. It wasn't light-years away from a PF-style story which meant that there wasn't too much to do and I submitted it last week. I'll have a long wait for an answer as the story is set in late September. Too late to be considered for publication this year but the bonus is that I may hear something next year. Fingers crossed. I've waited up to four years in the past for a sale on a story. No problem with that. Just forget it and knock out the next one.

I'm about to sign off but I thought I'd linked my Goodreads book reviews to this blog. I will fiddle around and see if I can add it to the sidebar.

Have an amazing summer, happy reading and here's a thought to end with from the writer of what I consider the greatest book on writing (On Writing) ever written...

"When your story is ready for rewrite, cut it to the bone. Get rid of every ounce of excess fat. This is going to hurt; revising a story down to the bare essentials is always a little like murdering children, but it must be done." 

- Stephen King

Julie.