Pulling my socks up

2017 has been a bit of a rubbish year for me so far what with one thing and another. And no here we are just after the summer solstice and I'm still waiting for my brain to fully wake up. And I think it's just about there. Our lovely chapel is now on the market and getting lots of interest but no firm offers yet. We don't want to go but needs must.

The Old Chapel

We are moving to...don't gasp...Middlesbrough. Don't listen to what people say. Like all cities, it has bad areas but there are a heck of the lot more good ones than you think. The min reason is we both need to be within a few miles of the brilliant James Cook University Hospital there. And despite the fact that we don't want to love from Yorkshire, where we're moving to is on;y one step across the country boundary. More of this at a later date.

Now we've bitten the bullet, I am more motivated to actually do something with my writing. So this week, I have submitted a novel to a publisher new to me. It will probably be rejected but as I well know that is par for the course if you've been writing fiction for as long as I have! At least I'm back in the saddle again. And it feels good.

Meanwhile, I'm still editing my medieval novel which has been sitting on the back burner for a long time. I hope to get that out in the world later this year. But of course, it all depends on all the other things going on in my life.

And taking of Middlesbrough, there's an awful not of history there that I want to explore. Did you know that in the Industrial Revolution it holds the dubious accolade of having the greatest increase in its population.In 1801 it was a farm community with a population of 25. By 1851 Middlesbrough's population had grown to 7,600! There are many novels there and I will definitely write them. Whether they're ever finished, let alone published, who knows. But I'm damn well going to write them.

St Hilda's Church. JS Lowry