It’s two years since I started my writer’s blog – huge thanks to all of you who have stayed with me, followed me and encouraged me over the past two years. It has been much appreciated!

Crystal ball reflections – floor at VW Wolfsburg

A lot has happened. My first post in September 2013 was about a visit to VW in Wolfsburg, a sparkling, perfect world of pristine production lines and workers dressed in white. Hmm. Things have certainly changed there. They’ve changed and developed for me too – but in a good way! I’ve learned a lot, completed quite a few stories and poems on a variety of themes, and met and shared ideas with some great people along the way. I’m probably a bit nearer to realising I prefer short pieces, but I haven’t ruled out The Novel at some stage in the future.

The good news is that I’ll be celebrating two years of the blog by (finally!) publishing some of my stories in English. There were a few catalysts. Mslexia rejigged their website, withdrawing competition winners’ stories, including my ‘Shifting Sands’.   This meant the German version of ‘Shifting Sands’, published by Edition Narrenflug in Kiel, was out there to read, but not the English one. Not logical. Then Edition Narrenflug asked me for a ‘long short story’ for a future German anthology. This finally gave me the impetus to complete the story version of ‘Ships That Pass’, a radio play I had done for my OU course, over the summer. It had been ‘resting’ for a while, so I seized the opportunity to be re-inspired, added a few new angles and produced a long short story or a short novella in English and German.   This gave me a substantial story to add to a few others from my OU course.

My work will be coming off the production line in November.  And they’re all good, honest stories!

I’ve been working with Lumphanan Press, Scotland on the collection entitled ‘Shifting Sands’ about life’s surprises and gear shifts. We’ve done the cover design and discussed the layout, and I’ll be letting you know a little more about the stories in the next few weeks. It will  be out before the end of the year in book and Kindle format.