Welcome

Hello, welcome, come on in.

This was supposed to be a blog about fiction and writing, but it’s been invaded by mountains, running, wild swimming, and adventures with children.

I’m glad.

All of the above:

Eden half-marathon (my first!)

October 14, 2019

Life, Dog

October 8, 2019

When to give up?

September 29, 2019

Bookmarking the moment (a running update)

September 26, 2019

SNUGGLES at 101 Fiction

September 14, 2019

Scafell Pike in a gale (and soggy pillows)

September 6, 2019

Reading: The Choice by Edith Eger

August 22, 2019

Inspirations

August 13, 2019

Old homes

Tryfan, of course (Bwlch, not summit)

Yr Wyddfa / Snowdon – Ranger path with 3 children

Not the Rhyd Ddu path: hiking in the mountains while injured (Llyn Idwal)

Pop the cork! The importance of celebrating the good times

Review: the everrumble by Michelle Elvy

The terrible, dreaded TBR pile

Race for Life 2019 (Penzance)

Magic

Going up Pen Y Gogarth – The Great Orme

Places that find me

Running up Godolphin Hill (Godolphin Trust 10)

Walking up Mount Vesuvius – vulcano e vino

BEST MICROFICTION 2019

Children’s book review: Mole’s Sunrise by Jeanne Willis

Each Peach Pear Plum and the comfort of mum-hugs

February 11, 2019

Clearing out junk and listening to author interviews

January 29, 2019

Where are the quiet, male heroes in children’s literature?

January 25, 2019

Book review – The Only Child by Guojing

January 17, 2019

Brown Willy: the hill of swallows

January 13, 2019

Christmas holiday reading list

December 30, 2018

Two great kids’ outdoor craft books: The Little Book of Whittling by Chris Lubkemann and Rock Art by Denise Scicluna

December 30, 2018

House, Parlour, Pigsty, Petty – Merry Christmas

December 22, 2018

Happy Solstice

December 21, 2018

Moonpoop and friends: lost stories and childhood memories

December 17, 2018

Running with 500 people – Remembrance Day 2018

November 11, 2018

On reading with your own child in school

November 8, 2018

Running up waterfalls

November 5, 2018

Only in English

October 27, 2018

Failure and rejection

October 16, 2018

Smiles and miles: a few tips for taking small children up mountains

October 14, 2018

Planning to read Romany and Raq with my children (wildlife and night walks)

October 7, 2018

Reading with seven-year-olds (turn, turn, turn)

September 25, 2018

A note to my children in defiance of all things illness-related

September 15, 2018

Autumn… fall… the season of spiders

September 4, 2018

I ran a race and I liked it

September 2, 2018

It’s Not A Race

August 27, 2018

Cader Idris and a lot of fog

August 23, 2018

Taking the kids shopping in HAY ON WYE

August 19, 2018

Fan y Big (it’s a hill!)

August 18, 2018

Corn Du and Pen y Fan (easy walk for children)

August 16, 2018

Swim for Logan 2018

Yr Wyddfa / Snowdon – Miners’ path with 3 children (and I fall in love with Glaslyn)

Hurling jellyfish

A tea party from The Magic Faraway Tree (and taking fiction back into real life)

In the Kingdom of Overwhelm (writing about chronic illness)

PLUM SKIN — in RIPENING, NFFD Anthology 2018

Race for Life

THERE WILL BE NO LACE — Flashback Fiction

THE WHALE – Necessary Fiction

If I won the lottery, I’d build a reading garden

What do children like to read?

I read The Lost Words by Robert Macfarlane and Jackie Morris

Mother’s Day

Reading Born To Run: The Hidden Tribe, The Ultra-Runners, and The Greatest Race The World Has Never Seen by Christopher McDougall

February 14, 2018

2018 Reads to recommend

February 6, 2018

Reading Paver’s Chronicles of Ancient Darkness series for children (and could we survive in the wild?)

February 3, 2018

Christmas: season of joy or giant overwhelm?

December 20, 2017

Back down from the mountain

September 18, 2017

Llyn Idwal — a mountain lake swim and an ideal walk for a six-year-old

August 24, 2017

Yr Wyddfa / Snowdon – Part 3: The Llanberis path and Hafod Eryri

August 23, 2017

Yr Wyddfa / Snowdon – Part 2: the prep and clobber involved in taking children up hills (and my kit list)

August 22, 2017

Yr Wyddfa / Snowdon – Part 1: do I take my children up?

August 21, 2017

Adventuring again

August 20, 2017

Swim for Logan charity swim for Cystic Fibrosis Trust

Wearing the sea

A story of ten women and the NHS

Reading Roxane Gay and talking about fat

The story of Mr B

Short short short stories (adult and child writers)

Watching a few episodes of The Handmaid’s Tale (TV adaptation)

Holes by Louis Sachar

My copy of The Bell Jar

250-word challenge #storygym

The school librarian

Writing opportunities for children

February 23, 2017

OCCASIONALLY — Bath Flash Fiction anthology, To Carry Her Home

February 20, 2017

When you start a new project… and fall into a swamp (again)

February 8, 2017

Looking back to the lost pieces

January 12, 2017

On short stories in which nothing happens (writing with children)

January 4, 2017

Hello, 2017

January 1, 2017

The last day of 2016

December 31, 2016

The battle of Christmas tree vs. 2016

December 22, 2016

The freelancer versus employee debate — Who wants to be Whale 52?

December 21, 2016

Please can we keep Father Christmas under control?

December 14, 2016

Quirky books: The Times Concise History of the World

December 7, 2016

Best reference books for children aged 3 to 12 years?

December 5, 2016

To the music

November 2, 2016

Shortlisted — Bath Flash Fiction Award

October 31, 2016

SMILE up at 101 Fiction – Hallowe’en issue

October 30, 2016

Writing to music — what’s your inspiration?

October 29, 2016

Hummingbirds

October 23, 2016

Which are the most beautiful (or weird/furry/ugly) children’s books?

October 20, 2016

2016 School library update

October 11, 2016

On The Color Purple by Alice Walker

October 4, 2016

Jump!

October 3, 2016

After ten years of volunteering in school

September 27, 2016

The landscapes that dwarf us

September 22, 2016

Wild storytelling with Grendalilly and Two Shoes

September 7, 2016

Guardian Witness

September 6, 2016

Review: ELEANOR AND PARK by Rainbow Rowell

September 4, 2016

BARE REALITY: 100 WOMEN, THEIR BREASTS, THEIR STORIES by Laura Dodsworth.

August 29, 2016

EVERYTHING LOVE IS by Claire King (@ckingwriter)

Summer updates and two summer reads

The Chree

Boys, boys, boys

Sheep

The Grammatical Kittens and other SPaGs

Reading The Hobbit aloud to children

THE STONE BABY — Blue Five Notebook

February 29, 2016

And so I read SKELLIG

February 24, 2016

WHEN JANEY SEES CATS — The Pygmy Giant

February 22, 2016

Real-life narratives — staying safe

February 17, 2016

Creative nonfiction: should we write about the people we know?

February 13, 2016

After, again, and any road

February 7, 2016

Children’s books — my 2016 reading list

January 12, 2016

Going off-topic: how does it feel to not eat for two days?

January 10, 2016

The rain bird

November 25, 2015

It’s been twenty years since I wrote a love letter

November 18, 2015

Words that should exist: Smugnome

November 15, 2015

Bridport 2015 shortlist

October 17, 2015

Empurple

October 7, 2015

Morrab Library book sale and a copy of AMBIT

September 27, 2015

Another 100 books — comment on the @TES top 100 books for primary children

GO SET A WATCHMAN by Harper Lee — erm, is it supposed to look like that?

Books for children — which titles would you buy?

MR STINK at Penlee Theatre

Little Fest stories and poetry at Penlee Theatre

LONDON — in LANDMARKS, NFFD Anthology 2015

WIND SPINNER on the Fictionaut blog

Shortlisted (Queensferry Press, Best Small Fictions 2015)

Writing Short Stories (nice surprises and new starts)

January 21, 2015

MAYBE A FOX — Ink Sweat and Tears

January 13, 2015

So who is Father Christmas?

December 15, 2014

Just this

November 28, 2014

The perfect writing competition?

October 25, 2014

Does anyone know where I can find the anchoress story, please?

October 6, 2014

If I could change one thing about my writing career…

September 22, 2014

The Rogue Theatre Summer Ball

August 28, 2014

Stories that I tell my children #1 The Bookcase and the Boy

August 11, 2014

Review: A Girl is a Half-formed Thing by Eimear McBride

Forty-four (Eighty-eight)

Morrab Library

June

Metazen?

Website design & how I started blogging @TheThemeFoundry

VINEGAR in EATING MY WORDS — NFFD Anthology 2014

#bookadayuk — June 2014

The abandoned things

My submissions diary

Small social deaths: the literary gaffe (and a literary sofa, and a literary giant)

So who puts mahoosive porkies on their writing CV?

Love this: nickname

Oak-aged

Lost lands and old stories

February 24, 2014

Plots, pants, etc

January 20, 2014

THE SUGAR-FREE SCENT OF TODAY at Metazen

December 17, 2013

LITTLE HANDS OF HAPPINESS — Mslexia

December 8, 2013

I have moved!

December 5, 2013

Northwrite — collaborative fiction

November 1, 2013

Working for free

October 14, 2013

Gravity spine poems

August 18, 2013

An alternative writer’s retreat? Adventuring in the Scillies

August 17, 2013

The World’s Fastest Flower by Charlotte Simmonds

Forays: Madron Well

A few competition links

A COIN, TWO COINS — What The Dickens? ‘The Busker’ Anthology

Heads up on flash fiction

Flash Mob ’13: Lots of groovy flash (and… me)

ROSE PETAL EYES in SCRAPS — NFFD Anthology 2013

ALL PROUD — Flash Mob 2013

NFFD 2013

A most excellent book dedication

Being compar’d

On Goodreads

Flowery prose

From the sublime…

Thank YOU, World Book Day — for making us cry

One man’s meat: Which writing competitions should you enter?

February 15, 2013

What’s a typical debut novel advance?

February 11, 2013

Reading: The Night Rainbow by Claire King

February 4, 2013

Reading: Mother America by Nuala Ní Chonchúir

December 27, 2012

The Next Big Thing

December 17, 2012

Other people’s shorts

December 6, 2012

Conversations with S. Teri O’Type by Christopher Allen

September 14, 2012

Why I have not bought a Kindle

The books we read (versus the books we expect to read)

Are you about to peak — or are you past your writing prime?

Housewife with a Half-Life — Author interview with A. B. Wells

At 2am

All About Flash — NZ

Wet kennings

FIRST PERSON and WRAPPED in JAWBREAKERS — NFFD anthology

Groovy radio moment

RIPENING and ALMOST in KISSING FRANKENSTEIN AND OTHER STORIES

THE COWARD’S TALE and author interview with Vanessa Gebbie

Highly commended in 2012

Why do we write (letters)?

January 28, 2012

The Normblog Profile 401: Martha Williams

December 23, 2011

Too young to write, too old to count

November 22, 2011

Are you a hermit?

October 7, 2011

Jonathan Pinnock, Proxima Books, and Tentacles — It’s Mrs Darcy versus the Aliens!

September 25, 2011

Words for Breakfast (and why we love longlists and Tania Hershman)

PAY ATTENTION: A RIVER OF STONES (two mindful nano pieces)

February 16, 2011

JOSHUA’S HAND – Cazart Flash Fiction

September 1, 2010

Welcome

February 24, 2009

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