Guest Interview With Jill Barry

This week I am delighted to welcome back my very good writer friend, Sandra Mackness, who writes as Jill Barry. Sandra is multi-published in the romance genre with over twenty novels, but her new novel is a psychological thriller entitled ‘The House Sitter’ and was published on December 5^th by Headline Accent. 

Welcome to the blog again, Sandra.

It’s great to be back, Jan. Many thanks for inviting me.

Wow, a new genre, a new publisher. What was the inspiration for the novel?

A very good friend of mine who lived nearby decided to put her house on the market. I realised I would miss her very much, and for some reason, maybe my weird writer’s mind, Ruth, the house-sitter character began to take shape. The remote mid-Wales village where I once lived offered the perfect setting for The Sugar House, in which Eddie and Suzanne live.

  

The character of Ruth is very different from your usual characters and she’s essential to making this a much darker tale than we’re used to from Jill Barry. What did you enjoy about creating 'a delightfully horrid villain', as one reader described?

Ruth has an interesting back story and is both a loyal friend and an unpleasant enemy. Without giving any spoilers, it was fascinating to describe her evil tricks and how she uses her caring image to fool people into believing she's sincere in wanting to help her friends to move away if they wish. 

How did you get into her head and her way of thinking?

It helped to have once lived in a remote community. Once Ruth’s obsession became clear, her devious actions followed.

The novel is set in mid-Wales, an area that you and I know very well. How important is the setting to the story?

My fictitious village is one which some people fall in love with, while its remoteness terrifies others. The forests and the nearby ranges controlled by the Army, would appeal only to a certain type of house buyer. And I, like Ruth, have looked out of my window to see the horizontal rain sweeping across the landscape…

In the past, you’ve been complimented on creating authentic well-rounded characters. Which came first in ‘The House Sitter’, the characters or the story itself?

The story presented itself first. This is interesting, as it now occurs to me this never happens in my romantic fiction where I always begin with ‘a heroine’ in mind.

Are Suzanne and Eddie based on real people?

Great question! Hand on heart, they are not. But I think they’re an amalgam of people I’ve met over the years.

How much plotting did you do before starting to write the novel?

Not a great deal. But as the different situations cropped up, it was important to make them credible and there is a device I used which made Ruth even more fascinating to write.

Will there be a sequel?

I’ve been asked this question before! Some people say the novel’s ending begs for one. I did start on a sequel but other projects caused me to put it aside. We will see.

What would be the best comment a reader could make about your new novel?

Probably that they couldn’t put it down.

There are a number of issues explored in the story. What questions do you think would make for a good discussion at a Book Group meeting?  

• What motivates Ruth into plotting to keep her friends from moving away?
• Why is Ray, who wants to buy The Sugar House, so appealing?
• Did it seem likely that Ray and sales negotiator Bethan (in an unhappy marriage) would begin a relationship? Did you hope they would?
• Would you like to have met Ray’s partner, Claudia, the vocalist who entertains cruise passengers?

Thank you so much for taking time to chat to me, Sandra. I wish you good luck and lots of sales with ‘The House Sitter’.

‘The House Sitter’ is published by Headline Accent @AccentPress

Please use the following link to see all Jill’s books available on Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Jill-Barry/e/B00FE0GQJ0%3Fref=dbs_a_mng_rwt_scns_share

Email: slmackness1@gmail.com

Blog and website: www.jillbarry.com

FB Author page: www.facebook.com/JillBarryBooks/

Twitter: @barry_jill

About the book

When Suzanne and Eddie decide to put their house on the market and move closer to their daughter, they neglect to tell their friend and house sitter Ruth. When Ruth finds a ‘For Sale’ sign perched outside their house, she’s outraged, having never imagined they would leave. What follows is a series of events that are set to ruin the couple’s plans – with dramatic and shocking consequences that no one could have predicted …

Quote from Sally Spedding, crime author: 'A powerful, psychological chiller to keep you turning the pages, but keep a light switched on!'

I hope you enjoyed hearing about the new Jill Barry novel. As a reader, do you like to read a variety of genres? As a writer, have you switched genres? Do you have a favourite genre that you return to?

Thank you for reading. You may also follow me on Twitter @JanBayLit and on my Jan Baynham Writer Facebook page.

Another Launch

Last night, I travelled to Worcester for the launch of the annual WorcestershireLitFest & Fringe anthology of flash fiction. I've been going every year since I first entered the competition in 2014 and read out my work to an audience for the first time. This year, three of my flashes appear in the anthology, one 'The Girl in the Looking Glass' had been placed 2nd and another, 'Dark Smoky Eyes' was shortlisted. It always amazes me when I start reading the flashes how varied they are in subject matter and writing style. Some are funny, some are sad, some quirky or obscure and others have a twist you didn't see coming. But they all tell a story in 300 words or fewer.

Our picture prompt, selected by
 Sue 

I've written about flash fiction on the blog before. The brevity of the pieces means you can write them in between longer stories and novels or when you're editing and missing the creative thrill of writing something new. Every word counts and the tight word count is perhaps a very good discipline for a waffler like me. This week, our local Chapter is holding its annual Christmas lunch at Cote Brasserie in Cardiff. Continuing with an idea we started last year, we have been given a picture prompt, selected by Sue McDonagh, for a flash fiction piece of no longer than 300 words to share after the meal. Does the image spark any ideas for you?


If you are a member of the RNA, a writing competition has just been announced. Romance Matters is launching a flash fiction competition. It's free to enter, max word count of 250 words on the theme of New Beginnings. The winner will be published in the next edition of the magazine. Deadline 13th December. You should email them to ellamatthewsauthor@gmail.com. GOOD LUCK!

Thank you for reading. Do you enjoy reading or writing flash fiction? I'd love to hear why if you do. You may also follow me on @JanBayLit and on my Jan Baynham Writer Facebook page.

The Eleventh Day of the Eleventh Month

When blog day falls on the designated day for remembrance, it seems fitting that my post today should be about the importance of honouring those who gave their lives while serving their countries, thereby ensuring our freedom. I am always moved by veterans' stories at both the Festival of Remembrance and the service at the Cenotaph. Those of us who didn't live through the World Wars or who are not touched personally by the wars since cannot even begin to imagine what it was like.

Wartime and sacrifice have provided much inspiration for literature over the years. Many of you will have studied the war poetry of WWI in school or university and in Wales, we commemorate a young poet called Hedd Wyn (meaning 'blessed peace'), the pseudonym of Ellis Humphrey Evans. In the 1917 Welsh National Eisteddfod, when his name was announced as the winner of the prestigious bardic chair, no one stepped forward. He had been killed in battle just six weeks earlier. As the chair was draped in black cloth, the shockwaves were obvious. "Wyn's absence that day was emblematic of a lost generation of men who would never come home."
'The Reluctant Soldier' is a video made in tribute to Hedd Wyn on the centenary of his death in 2017 and was beamed onto the 80ft tall National Library of Wales building in the week of Armistice Day.

Novels set in World War II have provided me with many, many hours of enjoyable reading and there are far too many titles to list. Therefore, I've selected a few I've read more recently and loved. They are all different, as they should be. Three tell of wartime in different countries, others have dual stories of then and now, all contain love stories against the backdrop of wartime. Taking me back in time, I experienced what life must have been like during the war, felt the characters' emotions, shared their secrets and dangers. Many of those characters stayed with me long after I'd finished reading.

Last week, I sent off novel two to my publisher. Its provisional title is now 'Her Secret Daughter' and it opens in 1943 with Joe Howells receiving the dreaded telegram. His son Brian has been killed in action at the battle of Messina in Sicily and in his grief, Joe is immediately taken back to his own time as a soldier serving in World War I.
'Transported back to the horror of the trenches, he slumped to the floor and cradled his arms around his head, cowering. He tried to shut out the noise of the shells exploding around him. He gagged on the stench of bloodied bodies, relived the pain of the gas blistering his skin under his damp uniform, tasted the burning bile in his throat and in his lungs as he tried to breathe.'
There were - and still are - many men and women like Joe who bear both physical and mental scars and whose lives are blighted by their experiences of active service. That is why for me the act of remembrance each November must and should continue.  

Thank you for reading. What novels set in wartime have you enjoyed? Do you write novels set in one of the World Wars? I'd love to hear your thoughts on why the genre remains ever popular. Thank you.

You may also follow me on Twitter @JanBayLit and on my Jan Baynham Writer Facebook Page.

Introducing Polly Heron

Photo courtesy of
Maddie Please

I’m delighted to welcome author Polly Heron to the blog for the first time. Her new book, The Surplus Girls, will be published by Corvus on January 2^nd 2020. Polly also writes as Susanna Bavin.

Polly, welcome. Please tell us about your writing. What is the appeal of family sagas to you?

It’s lovely to be here, Jan. Thank you for inviting me. I suppose that, like many writers, I write what I want to read. I love strong, dramatic story-lines peopled by well-rounded, credible characters who develop and are changed by their experiences. For me, the cherry on the cake is the historical setting. I am fascinated by social history. I love to see characters, especially women, having to cope with challenges within the social and legal context of the time. I also enjoy the domestic history – the clothes, food, furniture and so on.

  

The Surplus Girls is your first book writing as Polly Heron. What is the novel about and what was its inspiration?

The real surplus girls were that generation of young women whose possible husband perished on the battlefields in the Great War. These were girls who had grown up expecting to get married, but now they faced a lifetime of fending for themselves. I have always been interested in the problems women faced in the past and this one appealed to me, partly because it is in living memory. When my mother was at grammar school, her teachers had been surplus girls.

  

How will the novel fit in with your other books, written as Susanna Bavin? For example, the themes, location and historical period?

Certain themes will be familiar to readers of my Susanna Bavin books – the social and financial position of women in the past. There is a will that causes complications. I once heard a radio programme about wills and a solicitor said, ‘Where there’s a will, there’s a war.’ I love that! A will featured in The Poor Relation and there’s another in The Surplus Girls. And I also explore the themes of loss and loyalty, both of which are deeply important to Belinda, the heroine.

As for the period, the book is set in 1922, so around the same time as The Deserter’s Daughter and A Respectable Woman. And I explore familiar territory, as much of the story is set in Chorlton, though Belinda’s family lives up the road in Stretford. My dad was a talented artist and he drew some highly detailed maps of Chorlton as it was when he was growing up in the 20s and 30s, so I know the exact location of various shops etc.

Having been impressed that you’ve previously written detailed synopses of your novels before writing them, I now try to do that myself as part of planning a new story. Did you do that for The Surplus Girls?

Very much so! When you’re writing a series, you can’t afford to take chances. Whatever gets published in book 1, you’re stuck with, even if it turns out to be unhelpful to what happens in book 2 or 3, so it seems to me that planning in advance is essential. I have a mammoth 20-something page synopsis. Planning in detail was a big help in creating the links between the stories. For example, there is a small plot-point in book 1 that turns into a major plot-point in book 3.

Which came first, the characters or the plot?

The characters, definitely. The heroine is Belinda, who got engaged to Ben when she was just 15 and went to live with his mother and grandmother. She was more than happy to do so, not just to be part of Ben’s family, but also to escape from a pretty awful home life with her money-grabbing, ne’er-do-well father and downtrodden, self-pitying mother, not to mention younger brothers running wild. But Ben is killed in action in the final year of the Great War, leaving Belinda in the odd position of being almost-but-not-quite a widow. Four years later, when the story starts, Belinda has laid Ben’s memory to rest, but his mother and grandmother very definitely haven’t. How can Belinda start to make something of her life when the two women to whom she owes so much are determined to keep her swathed in black for ever?

With Belinda and her situation so firmly established in my mind, it was easy to see how her plot would develop. The same is true of Gabriel, the hero.

What are the plans for subsequent books?

The heroine of the second book is Molly. She is very different to Belinda – older, more experienced. If the themes of Belinda’s story are loss and loyalty, then Molly’s are independence and what we would call sexism. Although each book is part of the series, each one will also be a stand-alone novel.

If the book is chosen by a book group, what do you think would make a good discussion question?

What a brilliant question. It so happens that on my Susanna Bavin website, I have a page of book group questions for each of my novels and I am in the process of building a bank of questions for The Surplus Girls.

A general question about the book as a whole would be: In the book, is it preferable to be a wife, a widow or a spinster?

A question specific to Belinda would be: Does Belinda spend too much time trying to please other people?

Great questions. Thank you, Polly. I can’t wait to read your new book and be introduced to Belinda and the other characters in The Surplus Girls.

The Surplus Girls - Blurb

The Surplus Girls is a family saga set in 1922, four years after the end of the Great War. The heroine is Belinda, who got engaged at 15 to Ben, who died near the end of the war. Now Belinda is approaching 21 and, although she will always hold Ben in a special place in her heart, she knows it is time for her to move on. But how can she, when Ben’s mother and grandmother, whom she lives with, are still deep in mourning? As for Belinda’s own family – well, her father has lost more jobs than you can shake a stick at, and her mother, worn down with shame, is clingy and demanding.

When Belinda joins a secretarial class to try to better herself, little does she imagine that it will open up a whole new world to her. For not only does she learn to type, but she meets the beguiling bookshop owner Richard Carson... and falls head over heels in love. But who is this man to whom she has entrusted with her heart, and what does he really want?

Here are the links:

The Surplus Girls on Amazon https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07V39X5BB/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0

Website: http://www.pollyheron.co.uk/
Twitter:@SusannaBavin
Polly Heron - Author bio
Polly Heron has worked as a librarian, an infant teacher, a carer and a cook. She lives on the beautiful North Wales coast with her husband and two rescue cats, but she originally hails from Manchester. Her writing is influenced by her Mancunian roots which provide the setting and inspiration for her family sagas.

Polly’s saga series, The Surplus Girls, is set in Manchester and explores what happened to girls who, after the terrible death toll of the Great war, faced life alone. Each book is also a stand-alone novel.

Thank you for reading. I'm sure, like me, you enjoyed finding out more about Polly and her new series. Do you enjoy reading series of family sagas? What area has inspired your writing? I'd love it if you shared your thoughts. Thank you. 

You may also follow me on Twitter @JanBayLit on on my Jan Baynham Writer Facebook page.

The Launch

The Hive

This is the follow up to last week's blog post where I was preparing for the launch of my story collection. It took place at The Hive, Worcester on Thursday evening. My husband, Alan, came with me and apart from the Black Pear Press team, whom I'd met at WorcesterLitFest Flash Fiction events, he was the only person in the audience who knew me. The event had been arranged by Ruth Stacey, a lecturer at the University of Worcester, as part of the Autumn Creative Writing reading series and was entitled 'How To Become a Writer'. As well as the poet Michael Thomas and I launching our books, we each took part in Question and Answer sessions alongside local publisher, Black Pear Press about writing, the publishing process and running an Indie press in 2019. 

There was a good turn out of people and once I'd introduced myself and begun reading an excerpt from the lead story, Smashing the Mask, I relaxed and enjoyed myself. The inspiration for the story was a poem read out at my writing group entitled simply The Mask. It questioned whether we really know what happens behind closed doors and deals with an issue that's very topical at the moment. I took it further by including an actual Venetian mask and used the symbolism of the colours in that and a scarf to hopefully get my message across. It was a great feeling to hold the audience's interest as I read. I'd picked a strategic place to stop with the intention of the audience wanting to know how the story ended and the hopefully want to read the book! 

Michael and I alternated our sessions. My next excerpt from Missing Without Trace was written as a result of reading Ferney by James Long. The novel may be described as a timeslip story where the characters have had past lives.  

  

'You know that car that cut us up today?' said Lizzie.

'That old blue and white one?'

'Yes. Well, I've been in that when in it was brand new. I had tan leather seats, I remember. He was so proud of it. His first new car.'

Of course. That's why I'd reacted the way I had. More was coming back to me. I knew from Mark's open mouth that this was not going to be easy. 

'You do know that car was brand new about fifty odd years ago? Twenty years before you were born.'

'Yes, I remember the year. 1962. "Brand new car, brand new model," he said.'

Los Gigantes Carnival

The third excerpt I read was from a story that came to me when on holiday in Los Gigantes in Tenerife. We were there at the time of the annual carnival and the Burning of the Sardine ceremony. From our hotel balcony, we had a wonderful view of the procession. Looking down on the hoards of visitors lined up along the route, I thought What if you lost your child in that crowd? The idea for Burning Our Sardine was formed. 

If you like the sound of my stories, you may find them here  at https://blackpear.net/authors-and-books/jan-baynham/ Thank you.

I'd like to give a big thank Polly, Tony and Rod at Black Pear Press for publishing my first collection. It was a good feeling to hold my book in my hands for the first time. 

Thank you for reading. Have you attended a book launch recently as a reader? Have you held your own book launch? I'd love it if you shared your thoughts about those events. Thank you.

You may also follow me on Twitter @JanBayLit and on my Jan Baynham Writer page.

Short Stories

On Thursday, I shall be at The Hive in Worcester for the launch of my first collection of short stories, Smashing the Mask and Other Stories. There are twelve in all and although they are short reads, a number touch on serious issues including broken relationships, domestic abuse, grief and dementia. With the problems faced, each one has a hopeful ending that maybe the characters are able to move on from the experiences in the future, not in a simplistic way but with a positive outlook.

While preparing for reading extracts and answering questions about my writing on the night, I have been thinking about why I am so passionate about short stories. I've realised how much I have neglected the genre recently while concentrating on my novels. Here are some of those thoughts:

• I love the fact that you can read and write a complete story in relatively few words.
  Like poetry, no words are wasted. Della Galton, in her very useful book 'The Short Story Writer's Toolshed', says 'it gives the reader a chance to spend a brief time with
  
  some interesting characters.' She believes, 'writing a short story is like painting in miniature. It should have all the depth and colour that a full size canvas allows, but there is no room for waffle.'

• In short stories, we don't have time to explore your characters in the same detail as we can in a novel but the characters still need to read as real people, with real emotions and feelings. The reader needs to relate to that person, to like or dislike him or her, to understand the conflict or dilemma that the character encounters. 

• I enjoy getting inside the characters' heads, tapping into their thought processes. Perhaps that is why many of the stories in the collection are written in the first person. To do that, sometimes I've had to research real life stories just as I've had to do for my novels. 

• Short stories are meant to be exactly that, short, and read in one sitting. They are precise in their delivery and should capture the reader's attention very quickly. To create a complete tale with credible characters who have overcome some sort of struggle or internal conflict is immensely satisfying. 

• I also enjoy writing short stories that are outside my comfort zone. Naturally I am drawn to family orientated situations and relationships that I write about in my novels. However, I have been very pleased to have my stories published in specialist anthologies - my first horror story, a highly commended Welsh legend and a cat story. I have written about stalkers and hoarders, ghosts, characters' past lives and several crimes.

• Novels take a very long time to write, edit, submit and get published. Short stories are an excellent way of honing your writing in between stages of that process. In fact,  publishers often ask authors to keep their names active in their readers' minds by writing short stories or novellas.  

Together with the editors of Black Pear Press, I'll be sharing the event with poet Michael Thomas, whose anthology The Stations of the Day will be launched at the same event. If you're in the Worcester area on Thursday evening, it would be lovely to see you there. The event is free, but you need to book. Please click HERE for details. On the surface, I shall be aiming to appear 'calm, cool and collected', but that will be my mask!

Do you enjoy reading and/or writing short stories? What is the appeal for you? 
If you've had a launch of a book recently, how did you feel as the day approached? Do you have any advice? I'd love it if you commented and shared your thoughts. Thank you.

Thank you for reading. You may also follow me on Twitter @JanBayLit and on Jan Baynham Writer Facebook page.

RNA York Tea 2019

It's many years since I'd visited York and on Saturday, accompanied by my daughter, Jo, I returned to attend the annual RNA York Tea. Memories came flooding back as we walked from the station in brilliant sunshine. The event was held in the beautiful Merchant Taylors' Hall, a medieval guildhall near the city wall in the Aldwark area of the city. 

Walking in, it was good to be greeted by many faces I already knew from previous RNA events but by the end of the afternoon I'd been able to meet in person many more writers I follow social media. We were seated at circular tables and served a wonderful afternoon tea with a wide range of delicious sandwiches, cakes and scones. And there was Prosecco!

This year for the first time, the Joan Hessayon Award was presented at the tea. If you are not a member of the RNA and not familiar with the award, it's one given to members of the RNA's New Writers' Scheme whose manuscripts have subsequently gone on to be published as debut novels. The award is sponsored by Dr David Hessayon in honour of his late wife who was a member of the RNA for many years and a great supporter of the scheme. This year there were fifteen contenders and the winner was Lorna Cook for her novel, The Forgotten Village. 

Lorna receiving her award

The novel '. . . is set in the real village of Tyneham in Dorset, requisitioned in its entirety in World War II and never returned. The story moves between 1943 and present day as secrets about what happened on requisition day are finally revealed.' I'm looking forward to reading it on my holiday next week. Huge congratulations to Lorna!

Before leaving, I had a photo taken with all the Choc Lit and Ruby Fiction authors present. It was so good to meet Marie Laval, Sharon Ibbotson and Angela Barton for the first time.

I thoroughly enjoyed the day - it has a definite date on my calendar now. Thank you to everyone for making Jo welcome, too. Congratulations to John Jackson for his efficient organisation to make the York Tea a very successful event. 

Thank you for reading. I hope you enjoyed my account about attending my first York Tea. What event have you attended lately where you got together with fellow writers? Did you get to talk to any you'd only 'met' on social media?

You may also follow me on @JanBayLit and on Jan Baynham Writer Facebook page.

Location, Location, Location

If you read my July blog post Reading 'in Situ', you will know that a sense of place is very important to me when I'm reading and I especially like reading a novel in the place where it's set. But what about my own writing? There is always a decision to be made whether to choose a fictional or a real location. For me, I prefer to imagine a fictional place based on a real or an amalgamation of real settings. This allows me to use my imagination and create a location where my characters and their stories take place. I try to make it vivid enough that readers will be transported there with the characters. Because it's fictional, they will not bring any preconceived ideas of what the place is like and I will be introducing them to the location for the first time. They may have been somewhere similar and they may have visited a place it reminds them of especially if real main towns, rivers or landmarks surrounding the fictional place are mentioned. Beforehand I like to collect images and collate my own photographs to help me imagine the places I shall be describing.

In Whispering Olive Trees, most of the novel is set on a fictional island in the Peloponnese, Southern Greece. It's very roughly based on the island of Spetses where my aunt and Greek uncle had a summer house and where I visited a number of times. You will find the solitary olive tree that plays an important part in the novel growing in the sand outside my cousin's house on the mainland opposite the island. However, it's a long time since I've been to that particular island and I'm sure things have changed so my island of Péfka is a mixture of the islands I've visited more recently. The Guikas taverna and Yiannis's wood turners workshop are based on ones we visited in a Cretan village, for example. Apart from Athens, Kranidi and Ermione, all the place names are fictional. Location is more than place names, of course, and the climate, landscape, cuisine, the character traits of the local people all can add authenticity. By setting a fictional island in a real area, readers will hopefully get a sense of place. 

From the  'White Almond Sicily' blog

Because I've been to the area where Whispering Olive Trees is set and have collected many photographs on the holidays spent in there, it was relatively straightforward to create a believable setting. But is it possible to set your novel in a place you haven't visited and achieve the same sense of authenticity? The novel I've recently been editing, Keeping Her Secret, involves the main character, Jen, traveling to Sicily in search of an Italian PoW who was imprisoned in a camp near her home during WWII. Not having been to Sicily (yet!), I have had to rely on researching places on Google, looking at maps and talking to my lovely neighbour who is from Sicily. I am grateful to author Jo Thomas, whose latest book My Lemon Grove Summer is set on the island, for recommending an amazing blog White Almond Sicily  In my novel, Jen concentrates her search around the area of Cefalu on the North East coast. Imagine how pleased I was to find a whole blog post about visiting the resort together with lots of photos just a few weeks ago. By the time editing is finished, the location will have a fictional name and be an invented area near Cefalu but based on a real area in Sicily.

Thank you for reading. Do you set your novels in real or fictional locations? Maybe you combine the two? I'd love to hear how you choose settings for your stories and how you go about researching them.

You may also follow me on Twitter @JanBayLit and on my Jan Baynham Writer Facebook page.

RNA Conference 2019

This was my fourth conference and it was good to return to Lancaster University where the 2016 one was held and where I met so many writer friends for the first time. What made it very special this year was that I shared a flat with the friends I'd got to know over the four years and it felt a bit like a reunion. It was lovely to look back and consider how much has changed in four years. Individual writing journeys have moved on with a pace - some friends have a number of novels published now, others have acquired an agent, others are writing subsequent novels and others are anticipating the publication of a first novel. It was so good to celebrate the successes. By pooling our provisions of Prosecco, gin and wine, chocolate, biscuits, crisps and snacks, the kitchen became the centre of our social scene once dinner was over each night! Thanks to Jane who drove to the conference for shopping beforehand. 

Sue McDonagh, Lynn Forth and me

Friday morning was spent helping to fill the goody bags. Every year it's well planned with everyone moving around quickly so that the job was again soon done. It allowed time to spend time catching up with, Lynn, a friend we met at the first conference.

Carol Thomas, Sue McDonagh, Evonne Wareham,
Me, Lynda Stacey

Before dinner on Friday, I was very pleased to meet with members of the Choc Lit/Ruby Fiction  team of which I am now proud to be a part. On Saturday, I met Sadie Ryan for the first time, too.





As well as all the socialising, there was a wide range of workshops, talks and interviews to attend. It was difficult to choose as ever but here are some I enjoyed this year:

- Keep That Sexy Momentum Going Sue Merrett and Liam Livings
- The Art of Revisiting the Past Jo Baker, interviewed by Janet Gover 
- The Heroine's Journey  Fiona Harper
- An Introduction to Blog Tours Kim Nash
- Convincing Crime. Getting characters in and out of jeopardy Stuart Gibbon and Stephen Wade

Over the last four years, I have learned so much and value the opportunity to listen to experienced authors share their expertise and experiences. I came home with a notebook packed with information, advice and tips to refer to as I edit my second novel.

Catherine

Dressing up for the Gala Dinner on the Saturday night is always fun. This is the event when the Elizabeth Goudge Trophy is presented. The 2019 competition was to write an opening to a novel entitled 'The Thrill of the Chase' and the winner was Jan Jones. Congratulations to her! I was especially thrilled that second place went to my lovely writing friend, Catherine Burrows.

And then it was all over for another year.  My thanks go to Jan Jones and everyone who works so hard to make each Conference such a success. You are all stars!

Thank you for reading. If you went to Lancaster, what was the highlight for you? Did you meet writers you 'knew' on social media in person for the first time? I'd love to read your comments. Thank you.

You may also follow me on @JanBayLit and on my Jan Baynham Writer Facebook page.