It started with a ....

Valentine's Day. Where did it start?

One of the answers I've come across is that it began in Rome during the third century. Emperor Claudius II wanted to fill his army but many men were unwilling to leave their wives to join the army. So the Emperor decided to ban marriage hoping it would create a whole army of single men willing to join. What he hadn't bargained on was a priest, Valentine, who continued to perform the banned marriages until the day he was caught.
The jailer's daughter visited him often before he was executed for his crime. On the day of his death, 14th February 269AD he is said to have left her a note, signed, love from your Valentine.

Have a Happy Valentine's Day!

Passionate Flamenco, Culture and Writing

Last week I travelled to Madrid to visit a friend I'd met whilst attending Sharon Kendrick's writing course at The Watermill two years ago. After leaving behind a snowy landscape I was a little surprised to see most people bundled up in scarves and gloves as we headed into the centre of Madrid for Tappas, but believe it or not, it was only marginally warmer there than back at home.
We treated ourselves to a night out at a Flamenco Tablao, where we had a fantastic meal and watched in awe as the dancers performed with passion and unbelievable energy.

We also visited the famous Prada Museum. Here we concentrated on paintings by several of Spain's artists, Bosch, Velazquez and Goya. Also we went to Museum Reina Sofia to see Picasso's Guernica. All of this opening up a whole new world to me.

I enjoyed strolling through Madrid's Retiro park, despite the cold and wished I'd been fast enough to get a photograph of the red squirrels as they scampered up and down the trees. The boating lake behind us looks very cold now, but must be fun in the summer.

In the middle of the week we took a train to Seville, where it was quite a bit warmer. There we saw the city from an open top bus and then visited the majestic Seville Cathedral. My favourite place was the orangery, where workers were trimming the trees, filling the warm sunny air with the beautiful scent of oranges.

It wasn't all play. As both of us are writers working hard towards publication, we settled down each day to some serious work and I was pleased to arrive back in a frosty Britain having written lots.

It's a Beautiful Day!

Finally the dreary wet weather has gone here in Wales and this morning it was a beautiful mix of sunshine and mist.

It is also Friday 13th, a day linked with lots of superstition and bad luck, yet today is crammed full with things I shouldn't be wanting to do on Friday 13th -if I were really superstitious. Our cat is at the moment in the vets with an abscess on her face, the farrier is shoeing the ponies and my daughter is about to leave Austria on a twenty-four hour bus ride after a week of skiing with the school. So I suppose I'm not really superstitious, but I always count magpies and never walk under a ladder?

It's also said a bird leaving a message on you is good luck, and with hundreds of starlings with us at the farm each winter I'm often the recipient of such messages and did in fact receive several whilst walking the dog this morning! With this good luck in mind, I'm reading over my synopsis and first chapter ready for a course with Kate Walker in Fishguard next month and on her blog today are more venues and dates if you want to take a course with Kate.

A Short Day

Today is the shortest day here in the UK. The day when you wonder if it will ever get light, then before you know it the darkness is back. The good thing of course is it can only get better from now on!

The last few months have been hard and writing has taken a back seat. The loss of my father-in-law in October left a big gap in our lives and writing anything was extremely hard. But now, with a new year fast approaching I'm getting myself back on track.

I did manage to enter two contests over the last few months. The first being the High Five with Romance Writers of Australia. The competition was fierce with only points of a percent separating contestants, so I was happy with my 87% awarded by my judges, as well as the helpful comments given in the feedback.

So You Think You Can Write is the other contest I entered and I'm waiting on that one along with many others! Good luck to anyone who has entered.

I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and Happy New Year!

First Snow

No - don't panic! The first snow I've just seen was on the mountains in Champery, Switzerland, where I met up with friends and aspiring romance writers for a weekend. I arrived in Geneva on Thursday and as the plane descended I saw very clearly Jet d'Eau - Geneva's Fountain, but was totally unprepared and didn't have a camera at the ready. On Friday, once we were all together we journeyed around Lake Geneva towards the chalet in the mountains.

Saturday turned out to be a wet affair, but that didn't dampen our spirits as we headed up the mountain on the hourly train to see Arrive du troupeau de moutons, which is the local farmers bringing their sheep down from the mountains to lower ground for the winter. One thing I really liked was the sound of the cow bells, which could be heard almost everywhere. Even some of the sheep wore them!

After the sheep experience we began back down the mountain heading towards a thermal spa, where we spent the afternoon outside in lovely warm water, as rain fell on us and snow covered the mountain peaks.

On Sunday, the mountains looked totally different as the sun shone, so before the weather closed in again we went for a walk among the chalets. Some of them several hundred years old.

This final photo is of Lake Geneva and the snow covered mountains, which made me feel quite cold.

Published!

I just had to share this. I can finally say I'm published. An article of mine is out now in farmingscotland.com It's all about our farm here in Wales and should be available online soon - unless you live is Scotland and get the latest edition.
It's strange how you focus on one market and then a chance appears in a totally different one. Next stop Mills and Boon!! Fingers crossed!

On the romance writing front I had planned over the summer to dig deep into my recently completed manuscript and prepare it for submission, but then the summer holidays happened and I spent time out and about with my children. Now that September is here and they are back in school I can get back to what I love - writing romance!

Exciting News

After much nail biting and wondering how my latest submission to Mills and  Boon was received I now know that this time, it is not what they are looking for. Perhaps I should feel disappointed but I don't. To have a long letter full of advice and comments on my three chapters is brilliant. I also have my next submission almost ready to go - once I've finished digging deep!

There is also the New Voices competition organised by Mills and Boon which opens for submissions next month, details can be found here and on facebook. All very exciting!

 Good Luck to all those entering!