Fi Phillips

Now that my first novel Shadowbinder is doing the literary agent rounds, I thought I would use the Camp NanoWrimo experience to kickstart my next novel. My first go at the April writefest was this time last year  when I managed just under 25,000 words during that month. This time round, I'm setting the target at 30,000 words. Surely I can manage 1,000 words a day. I'll post my progress on my Facebook page each day, and Twitter too. Wish me luck.

The second writing exercise I ever posted on here was called ' Through the Window '. This month, I'm using another kind of threshold for inspiration - a door. Closed doors. Open doors. Locked doors. Hidden doors. An image and a description of any of these can tell a story in itself. Some doors make us feel uneasy. Others welcome us in. Today, I'd like you to choose one of the door images below as your inspiration. What story does your door  tell?

At the beginning of the year, my camera broke. Then a couple of days later, the camera on my phone stopped working. Thankfully, our visit to Venice didn't suffer as my husband took his new posh, multi lens camera with him. It produces incredible shots but I find it too large and bulky to carry around with me. I wanted something that I could have with me on the off chance that I saw something I wanted to photograph. My husband came to the rescue with a surprise mother's day gift, a neat, little digital camera that is small enough to fit in a jacket pocket. I've been trying it out, and all its settings, ever since. The result of one such experiment is this. What do you think? Spooky? Inspirational? What story does it bring to mind?

No matter what stage of my life I was in (childhood, teens, adulthood) or what roles people identified me by (daughter, secretary, colleague, wife), I always thought of myself as a writer. There have been stops and starts, and lulls in my writing, but it's something I have always persevered with, even when it seemed that the world was telling me I was wrong. I will always be a writer. I will always write. Novelist Pat Walsh is very much of the same opinion. In this interview ( Keep Writing, Keep Reading and Never Give Up ) on the Notes From the Slushpile blog, she discusses her love of the supernatural, mythology and fairytales, her novels and how she came to be published.

Spring starts this month (20th March in the UK) but there are already daffodils and crocuses in the garden, and birds chasing each other around in an amorous fashion. I like spring. Seeing the buds on the trees and petals poking through the earth makes the world seem a happier place to live in. With the milder winters in the UK, I'm not sure if any of our animals hibernate anymore, but spring always feels like the land (and my motivation) is waking up. Writing Not a great deal to report here except that I'm getting on with what I was doing in February. I initially had a plotline for the whole trilogy but after making so many changes to novel 1, I had to rethink the entire story arc. I discussed part of the process of doing this in Cut, Paste, File Away and now I'm dipping back into novel 1 to make sure all the clues needed for the big reveal at the end of book 3 are in place. Literary Agents I'm still waiting on hearing from a couple of agents. The latest ...