Fi Phillips

Yes, I know it's mid month and I really should have posted this at the beginning of September but it's been a hectic couple of weeks and I've only just sat down (reaches for coffee). No, really, it has. The beginning of September saw my children return to school (youngest child joining his big sister at high school) which should have given me a chance to catch up on everything. I say 'should' because around the same time, my husband and I decided to start the cogs turning in the 'moving house' process. The documents are signed. The boxes have been purchased (and several of them packed). We have keys to collect and measurements to make in the new house. It's all good but it's also time-consuming. My daughter also turned into a teenager, this weekend just gone. There were presents to buy and wrap, and arrangements to be made for a birthday weekend away. We got back late last night. So, back to the topic at hand (need more coffee), my post, th...

One of the delights of my recent family holiday was having the time to read. The literary gem that I took away with me was The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern . I love a book that enthralls me so much that I forget time and my surroundings. The Night Circus was just such a book. This is a novel of magic, illusion (magical, mechanical and emotional), gameplay and love, set at the turn of the twentieth century in Europe and the USA. These are the first lines that I read. The circus arrives without warning.    No announcements precede it, no paper notices on downtown posts and  billboards, no mentions or advertisements in local newspapers. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. To me, this opening does two things. It announces the arena that the novel will take place in, the circus, and it employs the magic of the circus (that most of will have experienced) to pull us in as an audience. We want to read on and find out what happens. The various cover desi...

It's the first day of September (pinch punch, white rabbits, something like that) and the last day of the summer holidays for me and my children. Tomorrow, I go back to being a grown-up. Today, however, I can still relax - phew. So along with the first day of September, this is the first monthly Choice Words post. Today, I'm sharing an article about another 'first' from the Writer's Digest website written by novelist Jeff Gerke, 4 Approaches for the First Chapter of Your Novel . I've started my novel with approach no. 2. Have a read and you'll see what I mean.