Fi Phillips

It's going to be a busy month with two family birthdays, Father's Day, client articles to write and a murder mystery to finish off for another client. Add to that the fact that we won't be having our normal June getaway because my daughter has exams and I don't think there'll be much of a chance for a breather this month. Having said that, I like busy. Busy pays the bills and keeps away the boredom. All that 'busy'  means that this month, more than most, I'll be planning like crazy. Here's my tick-list for June: Buy presents: For my son that'll probably be Overwatch related. Zenyatta is his current favourite character to play, plus he's now got a bank account and is very keen to earn interest on his money. My husband has had his main present already so we'll be looking for a selection of smaller offerings for his birthday and Father's Day, but nothing gimmicky so I'll be steering the teens away from the comedy socks. ...

Summer arrives this month in the UK, with its warmer days (mostly and not necessarily without rain), vibrant colours and the chance to unwrap from winter woollies (or is that just me?). As a mum, this season is dominated by the summer break and amusing my children. What new adventures and fresh horizons will the long break from school bring this year? For the last couple of months, my life has felt chaotic with new interests and the latest addition to our family, puppy Bailey devouring a large slice of my time. Now she's settled in and I've got my head around the additional activities in my life, it's time to reorganise. Catching Up I've let a lot slide over the past few weeks so June and the summer will be all about catching up with the tasks that I've pushed to the back of my mind and only touched on recently. Along with the housework and my health regime, I desperately need to carve out a daily niche for my writing. I managed last month's writing t...

January seems to have flashed by in the  blink of a watery eye and suddenly February is here with its promise of spring. I feel like I've spent the month in a curious limbo, coming down after my birthday trip to Venice and reeling at the loss of so many icons. First, there was David Bowie, such a wonderfully creative man, the brilliant actor Alan Rickman who I'll always remember as an irreverent angel, Glenn Frey from the Eagles, then finally the velvet tones and kindly ways of Terry Wogan. January seems to have left the world a little less colourful. So February needs to be a new beginning, with fresh colour and creativity, and a renewed intent. That's how I'm treating it. Let's get this year started. Novel(s) Novel 1 is still away with a handful of literary agents so I'm working on the next two novels. After eight rejections that all had much the same feedback (loved reading this, keep sending it out, but it's not for us), I posed the question to...

As I've said in the past, new year resolutions don't generally work for me. January never seems like the right time to 'begin' anything. It's cold, an anticlimax after the festive break and generally, I'm skint. Spring always sees me much more motivated and likely to start new things. So instead of new year 'resolutions', I'm setting a number of goals for the year - realistic, doable goals that I've a more than fair chance of achieving. Firstly, there's my novel (Haven: Shadowbinder). It's currently in the care of the writer, Brian Keaney as he assesses it for me, via the Writer's Workshop . Brian writes novels for children and young adults and once I finish my current reading list , I've decided that I must buy a couple of his books. His report should reach me before the end of January so once I've read, re-read and mentally digested his words of wisdom (and probably dried my eyes), my first goal of the year will be to...

Where do you write? You can usually find me at the dining table with a pad and pen or typing at the computer desk, but occasionally I set up on the couch or in bed. I say 'occasionally' because working away from a chair and table/desk always leads to me developing backache. In Writers - Be Careful How You Sit , Elizabeth Spann Craig writes about her own health problems caused by sitting in the wrong position to write and her problems with RSI too. It's well worth a read. Vlogging for Writers: with Leena from justkissmyfrog