Phew! What a busy couple of months I’ve had. After the great response to the VWC tree at the Festival of Trees I was invited to help out with the organisation of the group’s Get Writing 2010 conference. Naturally I jumped at the chance.
The event is on Saturday February 20th, just a couple of days away now, and promises to be a fantastic day. We have several guest speakers, ranging from published writers such as Adele Geras (with over 90 titles to her name!), to editors and agents. There will be a range of workshops for delegates to nurture their skills, some delegates will be pitching their work to the editors and agents and there will even be a book signing area at lunch time. I can’t wait, it’s going to be hard work but great fun.
Meanwhile I have started some badger surveying, sadly delayed due to the snow. We found a fantastic sett which is so perfect that I will be using it to train the Stevenage Tree Wardens on how to identify badger signs. The site will also be used as a Field Studies Centre so I will be helping out with some other survey work soon.
Talking of the Tree Wardens, I will be starting the Whomerley and Monks Wood survey in the next couple of weeks, which I am very excited about. There will also be a Big Bio Event in June which I will be getting involved with, watch out for more details about that soon!
The big personal news was my graduation. I will get the photo’s downloaded soon, but what a fabulous day I had. All my life had built to that moment, and I honestly thought at one stage that it wasn’t going to happen but I kept fighting. The author Philip Pullman was awarded an honorary degree at the ceremony and gave a very inspiring speech. Me being me, whilst I was on stage I went up to him and shook his hand, I feel very proud to be able to say I graduated on that day.
So, what about the writing? Well, Libertine is coming along beautifully and proving very popular. I have written up to chapter 12 and am now rewriting those first chapters, to get them absolutely right before I press on. The plot is planned and I have researched several locations. I will be getting a personal behind the scenes tour very soon at Forty Hall in Enfield, which I’m really looking forward to.
As well as Libertine I have decided to rewrite Alex’s story completely. The theme will be similar, Alex will be getting a new name and the setting will be very Steampunk. There’s a lot of research to be done, but I’m starting to get my teeth into it and I have written an opening scene, starting to get to know my new female lead and male support character. It will be very different to Libertine, that much is certain!
Just this week I had a new idea which is developing nicely, but I’m not giving anything away on that one for now.
I think that sums things up for now, I should be able to blog more often again, having got the busy period out of the way!