Fi Phillips

This last weekend, I persuaded my family to head into Chester to watch a local parade. The Midsummer Watch, obviously linked to midsummer's day, is one of Britain's oldest festivals apparently, dating back 500 years to medieval and Tudor Chester. You can find out more about it here . Accordi ng to an extract from the  Book of Days, The pageants became general in the reigns of the Tudors and Stuarts .. and have, like their predecessors the mysteries, their relation to English drama; not only were they composed for the purpose of flattering and complimenting their princes, but a moral end was constantly kept in view; virtue was applauded, while vice was set forth in its most revolting and unpleasing colours; and the altercation between these two leading personages often afforded the populace the highest amusement. The day was sunny and the square outside the town hall wasn't as busy as I thought it would be, although there was a cheerful, family crowd waiting for th...

Summer is here. The birds are singing, the grass is rampant and the temperatures are rising. Joy, joy, joy. Well, not if you work from home like me. Weekends are wonderful but my working week is dominated by the heat. My husband moans about how cold the air conditioning at his office is, while I melt as I type away at home. So, how do you cope if the weather is gloriously hot but you're a home-based worker? Stay hydrated I'm a big coffee drinker but in this weather that amount of caffeine really doesn't help. In hot weather, I limit myself to a mug of coffee first thing (for me that's around 6.00 am before the rest of the household stirs). After that, I stick to water. Now I know what you're saying, "water is boring". I can't completely disagree with you there. It doesn't taste of anything. I add a little variation by dabbling in sparkling water on occasion, and if you like you can add a dash of lemon juice, but it's the water bit ...

One of the dilemmas that many unpublished, or even published, writers fall into is how to cope with differing advice. One agent says this about your manuscript, another says something completely different. One publishing company expresses their slant on what is market-worthy fiction, while a competing publisher disagrees. Even editors and writing coaches don't see eye-to-eye. Who can you listen to? For me, the answer usually lies with other writers, the people who have gone through the grindmill and hammered it into submission. One such writer is Chuck Wendig, novelist, screenwriter, and game designer. For me personally, his website terribleminds is a delight to read and darn-right useful too. A recent offering - A Hot Steaming Sack of Business Advice for Writers is just what I needed at the moment. Have a read. Borrowed from The Writer's Circle Facebook page

The writer Iain Broome first drew my attention to ' Creative Mornings ' when the CreativeMornings chapter in his home town opened. Have you heard of Creative Mornings before? I hadn't. Here's what it says on their website . CreativeMornings is a breakfast lecture series for the creative community. Our free, monthly events feature a short talk and breakfast! CreativeMornings are held in over 170 cities all over the world, from  Sheffield  (Iain's hometown), to  New York , to  Barcelona  and  Johannesburg . Click on the links to see the chapters for those cities. What is CreativeMornings? Now, unfortunately, there isn't a meeting near me but what's great about CreativeMornings is that each lecture, from all those cities, is accessible through the CreativeMornings website . Here's a recent lecture, by Mr Bingo, that I love - 37 things that I have learnt . Each month there's a theme. The theme for June is ' Survival '. ...

Tick tock, tick tock. It's going to be a busy month for me this time round which isn't a  bad thing. It just needs a whole load of preparation and many many cups of coffee. That Work-y Thing The Murdering The Text website is still undergoing a lot of changes and my deadline is to finish them all by the end of June, in time to start on a new play in July. The copywriting work is still ongoing. I'm learning so much with each piece I write, both about the writing craft, what kind of copy sells, and how to work to client-imposed conditions and deadlines. I can already see that what I've learnt will benefit Murdering The Text. Novel With my latest murder mystery play out of the way last month, I can concentrate on writing my novel on an evening. This will be the final draft and I have definite plans about what to do with it once it's finished. What else June is the birthday month for both my son and my husband two days apart (one of them's due to bec...