Fi Phillips

Is it just me or has it got chilly since October started? Brrrr. I had to root out my slipper boots because the dog won't let me use her as a foot warmer when I'm working. October looks to be a full month - lots to do, lots to decide and lots to enjoy too. Haven Wakes That's the new title of my middle grade futuristic fantasy novel. What do you think? After finishing the latest (and hopefully last pre-editor) draft, I've been submitting my novel to literary agents in the UK. I've had one rejection so far but I'm not letting that dishearten me. Preparing for November - or not? NaNoWriMo will begin again in November and I'm in a bit of quandary over (a) whether to take part, and (b) what to write if I do NaNo this year. The Camp NaNoWriMos have always been really successful for me and given me a real boost each time I've taken part, but I've never yet succeeded at the 50,000 word count of NaNoWriMo. I think it's to do with the time ...

Seeing as it is Hallowe'en in a matter of days, I thought it only fitting that this month's photo inspiration should be suitably scary. Or perhaps, you don't find this image or graveyards scary. There's a leaf strewn path leading through a shady graveyard to an area of bright sunlight. Do you walk along the path? Do you stay where you are? Do you investigate the gravestones, leaving the path to tread in between the stones? Are you walking the dog? Are you meeting someone? Are you escaping someone? What does this photo inspire you to write?

It's cold. My coat is rarely off my back, the garden has gone into hibernation, and my feet are freezing all the time. I finally gave in and switched the central heating on yesterday. My feet are still cold. I may have to buy slippers. It's going to be a weird month as 'real life' takes over. Well, not so much real as mundane and non writing. The house purchase has progressed, although no dates are firm as yet, so that frantic decluttering I mentioned this time last month has become even more frantic. Frantic-er? Is that a word? It is now. You know in the film Top Gun  where Tom Cruise's character Maverick and his friend Goose say, "I feel the need, the need for speed"? Well, I feel the need, the need for obsessive and to within an inch of its life organisational skills at the moment. Energy would be good too but I've given up caffeine. This is probably the last full month I'll have in this house so along with the household organising, ...

A little red devil just hanging around on a street corner. This was taken in York over the summer. It's easy to put your head down and miss so many of these little details that adorn that city.  Is he friendly? Waiting for someone? On holiday? What do you think? What does this image inspire you to write?

Is the image a big enough hint? Yes, my October is all about writing. The rest of my life has settled back into its autumn routine and I can concentrate on getting the words down on paper/laptop. Novel With my first novel polished and doing the rounds of literary agents, I'm flipping between working on the plan for the rest of the Haven series and editing the draft of my second novel in the series. I'm using my murder mystery writing head to pick up the clues from the first novel to develop in the following books. The plan is a bit of a hotch potch at the moment as I keep swapping around the order of events to find the perfect fit. I know the ending. Now, I just have to decide on the middle. Learning I didn't intend to concentrate on anything but my novels this autumn but when a friend flagged up a new online writing course, I just had to have a look. Then, I signed up for Storied Women , run by the International Writing Programme at the University of Iowa. It ru...

I recently walked into my study and noticed that there was a white smear on the window. When I looked closer, I found this.  Can you make it out? It's an imprint of a bird that must have collided with the window. You can see its beak, breast feathers and the feathers from an outstretched wing. I checked the garden but there was no dead or injured bird, and no sign of feathers either, just in case a local cat had taken advantage. The imprint was created by something completely normal but it signifies a suspended moment in time, a reminder of the past, a ghost. What would it inspire you to write?

It's autumn. The trees are shaking off their greenery. My morning journeys are wrapped in fog from the fields that I drive past. There's a chill in the air even when the sun is shining. I can feel it in my bones (or maybe that's a touch of rheumatism). Everything is on the shift. This month's exercise is inspired by a word that, for me, denotes this time of year. Change is ever present although sometimes the change is so gradual that we don't notice it. On other occasions, change can be brutally quick, shocking even. If you were to write about 'change', what would your story tell me? Who would it be about? What would be its tone? How does change inspire you?

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...

On the way back to the car after a family walk, I came across this signpost and it struck me how the name of the street, 'Paradise' didn't really match with firstly, the condition of the signpost and secondly, its location in an area of city terrace houses. Even though I'm not a Christian, for me the idea of Paradise still links to the original, biblical idea (ideal?) of a beautiful garden, not a built-up row of red brick dwellings with tiny amounts of outside space. How could this be Paradise? Perhaps, the mistake is in my thinking. Perhaps, each of us has a different idea of Paradise: a break from the children and some adult conversation, freshly laid, untouched snow, or the buzz of the city. Where could you find an unexpected Paradise?