Fi Phillips

First off, Happy New Year! The first almost three weeks of 2019 have sped by at a rate of unforeseen, well, speediness. The holiday season, besides a chance to spend lots of time with my family, was very much a period of thoughtfulness and reflection. The image for this blog post is incredibly pertinent because, after all of that thoughtfulness, mince pies, and reflection, I've decided that 2019 will be a fresh start for my writing. Haven Wakes, and its following novel Haven Journeys are, if not shelved, put on hold for the time being. I've polished and pushed the first novel as far as I'm able for the time being and I don't want to further develop the following novel until I'm sure what is happening with Haven Wakes. So where does that leave me as a writer? My content and copy writing business still continues successfully and the plan for 2019 is to increase my customer base and the variety of work.  However, the dream is still to b...

This is how I started the second day of the new year, walking around in rainy Venice with my husband to celebrate my fiftieth birthday. With our children safe at home with their uncle, we spent a wonderful long weekend in a city that constantly inspires me. Come the Tuesday morning, my children returned to school, my husband to work, and me to my writing and plenty of post Christmas housework. Smack down back to earth. January is my birthday month but unfortunately it's also a month that acts as an anti climax after the festive break. It's cold, often rainy and, let's face it, most of us have usually spent all our pennies until the next pay day comes around. It always seems like a terrible time to me to be making resolutions so I keep those until the spring. This month, therefore, continues without a lot of change. I'll continue to wait for responses from the literary agents whom I've submitted my novel to. I've had three no's (with encouraging feedb...

It's that time again, the breath before the final leap into the new year. It's that chance to take a moment to look back before we shut the door on the old year, to check over our intentions for then and our wishes for the future. Back in January , I talked about what I had accomplished in 2013 and how I wanted to approach 2014. I think I managed to maintain that wish to see my life, good and bad, with new, refreshed eyes. Later that month , and again in February , I set myself a reading list. I got around halfway through that list, reading some wonderful novels and poetry. The rest are for next year's reading list. Towards the end of February, I began a new series of blog posts - Something Useful for 2014 - that provided my readers with monthly writing exercises. That's something I'll be continuing in 2015, along with my monthly photo inspiration posts. In the first half of the year, I took customer commissions for three separate murder mystery plays...

With the start of this year, comes a new start for my novel, Haven Falling. Having completed the third draft, I've decided to re-write it for the 9-12 year age range. Although it is really the fourth draft, it feels like a first draft in many ways so I was interested to read this article from Bookbaby - How to write your book's first draft like a professional.

2014 is upon us but I didn't want to start this shiny, new year without reflecting on the one that's just passed. 2013 was the year when I proved to myself that 'I can' if I believe in myself. I can: finish that murder mystery play that's had me dumbfounded for over a year - Fresh Blood guest write for a professional work from home blog - Guesting on Work From Home Wisdom attract new customers to Murdering The Text and finish the third draft of my novel.  On a personal note, 'I can' lose weight and keep it off. Between June and December, I lost 2 stones in weight. I have more to lose yet but I'm confident that I can be down to my target weight  by the summer.  My word for 2014 is 'refresh'. I have so many good things in my life already but I feel that I need to look at many of them with new eyes. I have no new year resolutions as such, just an incredible amount of optimism and excitement for the next twelve months. I have two m...

2013 is almost here, bringing with it the chance to start something new. How do you feel about that? Excited? Worried? Brimming over with ideas? Or are you simply carrying on as before? A lot of people will and there's nothing wrong with that. I'll still be making the weekly trips to school with my children, cooking, cleaning, paying bills and writing (of course). Some things never change. And yet, to take this opportunity of a new year as an inspiration to start at least some things afresh seems to me to be a gift that we should prize. Call it new year resolutions or turning a page, but the act of re-creating something, anything can be just what we need in the middle of the winter. The Words on my Blank Page 1. On 1st January, I start a new diary, literally a new blank page to be filled with the multitude of words in my head. 2. Once my husband has returned to work and the children to school, I'll start work on the third draft of my novel. I've spent the fest...

Yesterday, my husband went back to work but it wasn't until today, when my children started the new school term, that I began to feel that life had returned to normal. Of course, it's a new normal for us all. We moved home just before Christmas and although we now have a working house, we're still unpacking boxes and bags with the resulting "That's where that went to" or "I'd forgotten about that". This morning, without husband or children, my home is peaceful. I'm indulging myself with a coffee and my laptop. Soon I'll get on with more unpacking and tidying away but for twenty minutes or so, I'm going to own this moment. If you're finding it difficult to get back into your creative stride, have a look at my post - 7 ways to get back into your writing routine . Return Expectant faces raised to the light of a new term, my children skipped into school with no backward glance or wave. I released the breath that had dragged me...