Fi Phillips

Yes, that's the same image that I used for March. April will be much the same as last month. Murdering The Text This month, I'm concentrating on finishing my twenty year anniversary murder mystery. It's still as yet untitled but already the characters are sharing their stories. I can tell the writing process is going well when I can picture the characters moving through the play on-stage. Once the script is finished, that isn't the end of it. I then have to put together character histories, motive sheets and a guidebook for the director. Copywriting I'm now firmly settled into this career path. I have one main client for now which is fine while I gain valuable experience. I do wonder why I didn't try this out before now. Apart from that, I'll be enjoying the spring weather and getting the family out and about over the Easter break. There'll be chocolate eggs and dog walking, not a bad combination. See you next month.

After an introductory month to my new role as freelance copywriter in February, I'm now set firmly on the course of this fresh career path. With plenty of work on the way, I'm enjoying the challenge of writing for a different arena. Writing to order isn't new for me. Plenty of my murder mystery plays were commissioned by customers. Being economic with time and wordcount, however, is something that I haven't had to deal with much in the past but it's a new development that I'm relishing. Murdering The Text This year, I will have been writing murder mystery plays for twenty years. Twenty years! How did that happen? To celebrate this impressive anniversary, I'm writing a new, as yet untitled murder mystery that relates back to the original script that started this journey. I already have a cast, a setting and a decade (the 1980s). I'll let you know when the script is finished and ready to be performed. Shadowbinder I'm still working on the re...

Where have the last few weeks gone? I wrote September's post about my plans for the month with the full intention of posting lots more in the following weeks. Then, our house move happened and somewhere in there our internet connection was cut off for several days too.My time has been hijacked by continual carrying, unpacking, searching and way too much cleaning. I'm still surrounded by boxes but at least now they're only knee high and I can see my family over them. Yesterday, I handed over the keys for our old house and so today, I can finally sit in my new study without any immediate deadlines to drag me off my chair. So what's happening in October for me, as a writer? My Novel I'm still working on my novel, editing and polishing. I was excited to return to it this week but nervous too. Time away from my writing allows me to look at it with fresh eyes and I worried that I might have lost the thread of my storyline in all my editing but that doesn't...

Yes, you did read that right. Festive Reapings is the third of the customer commissioned murder mystery plays that I wrote this year. With a cast of three men and five women, this murder mystery has a Christmas theme. Things aren't going well in the Grotto at Fairman's department store. The fairy has been sacked, Santa is drunk in the gents toilet, and to top it all, there are hardly any customers. What else could go wrong? Festive Reapings had its first outing in November this year and you can find more photos of the Purley Players' production  here . Find more details about this murder mystery on the Murdering the Text website .

"Stretch and breathe. Are you with me, ladies?" Priscilla Vincente, mature, glamorous, aerobics instructor has the world at her well-manicured fingertips. Men fall at her feet. Other women just don't stand a chance. And as for her class, she has them just where she wants them (under her thumb and paying for the benefit).  What could possibly spoil it all? This is the second of my new murder mystery plays, set in an aerobics class with four male and six female characters. You can now buy it from my website. Have a look .

Tom, Dick and Harry use Dick’s shed as a hideaway from their wives’ expectations but Wendy has other ideas for the space. Will she get her way and demolish the shed to make way for her summer house? Will Harry’s Star Wars collection remain safe in the attic? Will Bridget be sent away to live in a nursing home? Spend some time in the shed to find out. This is one of the new murder mystery plays that I wrote this year for my business, Murdering The Text . All three plays were commissioned by customers. Two have been performed so far. The last takes place in late November and has a Christmas theme. With four male characters and five female, you can find this new play on my website now .

This weekend, I started on one of my 2014 writing projects. 'Dead Fit' is the first of the two murder mystery plays I plan to write this year. I had January pencilled in for working on my novel but a request from a friend on Friday night led to a massive brainstorm session this weekend. Requirements: a 20 to 30 minute murder mystery play, first act needed in a week, known cast of 10 (4 male, 6 female) aged from late 20s to 70s, 9 motives for murder, and a setting that requires minimum staging and props. Stories, of all kinds, always have a starting source. Perhaps, it's a character - that little old lady you saw at the  bus stop - that begs for a plot, or a newspaper story that places a 'what if' in your mind. With my murder mystery plays, there are always two starting points: Who is the murder victim? Why would anyone murder this person? I have an answer to the first question. Priscilla is a flamboyant aerobics instructor in her sixt...

I've recently finished a new murder mystery play called Thoroughly Murdered Millie . Set in the 1920s, rich young widow Millie Harper-Smythe shocks her family (and the staff) with her plans for the future. Her stepchildren will lose their home, William the butler has no choice but to emigrate and who knows what she has in mind for the gardener? Can anyone stop her? You can find this play over on the Murdering The Text website. Have a look .

I have an old, battered copy of this novel that belonged to my mother. She loved a good murder mystery, in a book, on stage or on TV. Maybe that's part of the reason I write murder mystery plays for a living. I have always found Agatha Christie's writing to be very readable: entertaining, clever and involving. She doesn't force feed you her detective work (as I've seen some murder mystery writers do) but instead draws you in paragraph by paragraph. In Curtain , Poirot's last case, we find ourselves at the scene of his first case, a  country house called Styles, and his companion, as it was then, is his old friend Hastings. Poirot is elderly, his familiar black hair and moustache augmented by a wig and dye. He is seeing out his final days doing what he has always done, investigating a murder. The inside cover description reads, 'Styles is now a guest-house, and Poirot one of the guests. He invites his old friend Hastings to join him there, and confides th...

Not really. Who am I trying to kid? The last six weeks may have formed a glutenous mass of imagination, frustration and end result, but they've been enthralling too. I'll explain. 1. Zazzle My husband and I have always been all round creative lunatics. If we're not writing, we're discussing plans. If we're not doing that, then we're doodling designs. The list goes on and on in our constant creative endeavours. The result, almost two months ago, was the decision to do something constructive with our humour (well, it makes 'us' laugh) and our designs. Combining the two led us to a website called Zazzle . Zazzle is an online organisation that creates quality custom products. Put simply, you can upload a design and create a t-shirt, business card, tie or gift, either as an individual or as a store. Although Zazzle is based in the USA, it has bases in many other countries too, including the UK. We have become what is termed by Zazzle artists as a pair...

Jungle Red brings together eight published murder mystery writers, Julia Spencer Fleming Jan Brogan Roberta Isleib Hallie Ephron Rhys Bowen Deborah Crombie Hank Philippi Ryan and Rosemary Harris to talk about their books, their motivations and their writing process. There's also news on book signings, interviews and general discussions about the world of publishing. Well worth a visit.

The pantomime script is complete. After swapping around a few scenes and changing a couple of songs, the script is finished and has been submitted to the ladies of the PTFA. I can't describe how satisfying it was to click on the 'Send Email' button. Do I get a rest? No. The murder mystery season has begun in earnest. Or rather the purchasing of murder mystery scripts by am dram groups has begun. Tis the season to shout "he did it" and other deductory expletives. And to top off the creative rapids that are my life, I now have a butterfly mobile and painting to get done for my daughter's seventh birthday at the weekend. I think I may have to settle for just doing the mobile for now. Without a tardis, I just do not have enough hours left in the day. So excuse me while I root out a stick and some silver glittery spraypaint from the garage. I may be some while.