Writer and photographer
For myself, I have a new novella being published soon, I’m finally getting back to editing my novel-in-progress and I’m taking part in a workshop on lucid dreaming for creative writing.
For you, I’ve a little writing competition coming up. Prizes: publication here plus a book and chocolate.
Check back soon for more on all of this.
Happy New Year – Happy New Writing
Dewpond on the Deri above Abergavenny
October
Met up with my novel-writing buddies, as I’ve done throughout the year. They’re super-supportive
Drinking a toast to us
November
Began to learn woodworking skills. A revelation and so enjoyable.
Countersinking
December
Bookselling with other Marchers Authors at Christmas Fairs
At Llanvihangel Court Christmas Fair
I’m ending the year unagented as yet, but with renewed determination to get my circus novel out into the world next year. And I’ve novella #3 being published in January.
I’m hugely grateful to all the people who’ve supported me in my writerly endeavours over the past year, and in particular:
My novel-writing buddies Jude Higgins, John Wheway and Alison Woodhouse
My fellow Marchers Authors
All in the Afon Llwyd Writers
All my writer friends on Twitter
Sara Cox and all involved in the Cheshire Novel Prize
Isobel Copley for the chance to run a bookshop in France for a week, and Katsy Blamont for doing it with me
And, more than I can say, my dear heart, Oliver, and my dear furry purry boy, Feely.
July
It got mighty hot! OB and I took a trip to Hereford on the bus to hear a concert in the Three Choirs Festival. It felt like going to another country. Well, of course that was literally true!
Church Street, Hereford
August
By mid-month the weather broke. Phew!
Walking in the rain
September
Went to South-West France to look after a second-hand English bookshop for a week with my friend Katsy. Loved it!
Two Go Mad in Tarn-et-Garonne
Lots of good walking with friends over this period, though not in the blistering heat, when I sat in the shade in the garden and read. Did no writing and didn’t worry about it. And – major excitement – an agent asked to read my novel!
Find out what happened next in Part 4 – coming on New Year’s Eve.
April
OB and I had a short holiday in Dorset. We stayed in a wooden cabin surrounded by woods. Walked, read, ate and slept. Just what we needed.
On Golden Cap
May
The year blossomed, in our garden and others too. We visited old haunts, met old neighbours.
Open garden in Harry Stoke
June
Had another little holiday, at one of our favourite places, in West Wales. The weather was variable. We watched a lot of Wimbledon which – fortunately – we love.
Visiting the pigs in the rain
I also had some lovely walks closer to home over this period. In writing news, I got onto the Long Longlist of the Cheshire Prize, which was very good news, and meant that my work would – later in the year – be included in an agent showcase. Very exciting!
Parts 3 and 4 follow next week.
January
The year began for me with some good walking, including regular Monday morning walks up the Deri with my friend Mary. I calculated I’d done more than 30 miles on the hills by the end of January.
Horses breaking the ice on the dew pond on the Deri to get a drink
February
Plenty more walks, in between periods of stormy weather.
Sign of a Welsh trig point
March
By March daffies were out and trees budding. But OB and I both caught Covid. Neither of us was very ill but the tiredness put paid to walking for a while.
Ladybird on medlar
All this time I was editing my circus novel, Thistles in the Cirrus. That was the focus of my writing. Such flashes that I got published – Big Top in Roi Fainéant Press in February and That Yellow Bedspread in the Flash Fiction Festival Anthology, Volume Four in March, were extracts from the draft novel. Over this period I also entered the first chapters into a number of novel competitions.
Read what happened next in Part 2, coming on Christmas Eve!
Cath Barton 