First royalties for the e-book in…

First royalties for my e-book are in and I am very pleased. Although it is not a fortune, it has been well worth publishing the e-book and every penny I earn in royalties is going straight to the Earl Mountbatten Hospice.

Can I please ask that if you are considering buying the book, please either buy a print copy directly from me, the hospice or the CP Shop; OR buy the e-book from Collca Ltd (see http://www.collca.com/tso)…the money from any new print copies people buy from Amazon don’t seem to make it back to me (and therefore to the charity!)

Rain, rain, rain….

England is so wet at the moment…

For those of you who can’t get away and just go somewhere sunny…what do you like to do on a rainy day?

For me, it’s sit down and read all those travel magazines that I haven’t got round to browsing yet and dream of my next trip. I haven’t got round to planning a next BIG TRIP yet – still thinking Himalayas or Patagonia – but I have just booked for a week in Corfu with Hugh and Mattie at the beginning of October, so at least I can realistically dream of going somewhere warmer and having fun with my family!

Then I like to post to all you lovely people on WordPress; update a few of my social media profiles; answer a few emails; tweet a bit – see @KateYoungWriter; play with Mattie; think about creating nice things for dinner; actually do some writing and maybe even curl up with a book – preferably a travel book or a story set somewhere warmer – Italy is a particular favourite at the moment.

You will have noticed that I don’t say watch television – that’s because I never really grew up with television and I haven’t ever owned one. Is that strange in this day and age?

Happy New Year!

Now we are well past 12th Night, it’s time to think about all the things we want to achieve in 2014.

I don’t make new year’s resolutions as such, because I believe you should try to keep a resolution as soon as you make it – and not just save them up for New Year’s Day!

This year I am hoping to be able to devote more time to my writing…it has been tough going with Matthew for the past three years because he is such a little livewire – he NEVER goes to bed early and if I am on the computer/trying to use a tablet, or even writing with an old-fashioned pen and paper, he manages to pull me away every few minutes!

Fortunately we have now got him set up with his own playroom and DVD player, so I may be able to distract him for half an hour, so that I can do some writing!

The late Maeve Binchy once said that you should devote at least 20 minutes to writing, three days a week. This doesn’t sound like a lot, but it adds up to a minimum of an hour a week.

Once you are doing 20 minutes, it might be possible to do that every day – which is nearly two-and-a-half hours a week. Eventually you will find ways of getting the time in…and you get my drift!

Happy writing!