Back On Track

There comes a time in every writer’s life – well, lots of times, actually – when your confidence is at rock bottom and the idea of ever getting another book sold is a distant dream. And that’s the moment when you crave chocolate very badly but you also desperately want someone to like what you’ve written. My story, Naked in the Rain, was intended to be a novella but decided it had had enough. Good job really, or it would never have fitted the word count.

Going to Exeter with the other Exeter Story Prize short-listed seven was just the shot in the arm needed to get me back into the writing zone and stop feeling so pathetic. And there were even chocolates as a bonus prize just for being there! It was almost too good to be true. Here are some memories of a fabulous weekend of relaxation, the chance to meet the organisers Cathie Hartigan, Margaret James and Sophie Duffy and a great Q&A panel with Cathie, Linda Mitchelmore, Trisha Ashley and Juliet Greenwood. It doesn’t get much better than that when you thought you’d lost your mojo.