Positive Thinking

My daughter and son have just returned from a trip to Florida where they visited the Kennedy Space Centre. While they were there they kindly bought a mug for me with this picture/quote on it. I love the idea of positive thinking and am editing in between birthday parties, family visits and a stronking great head cold/vertigo and typing like a...well, like a mad typist.

I'm doing my best to finish my wip so that I can send it off to the RNA NWS in time for the 31 August deadline. The deadline for me will actually be 24 August, because no post is delivered (or collected, I believe) on the weekends in Jersey! So, I'll need to make sure this is posted on the Thursday/Friday prior to the 31 August as it will be going parcel post and will take a couple of days to get to the UK.

Right now, there isn't a cat's chance in blackberries that it's going to be finished in time, but I'm going to keep tapping away and send the best wip possible in the time I have left. The book has already been written, but I've decided to change it - drastically - and therefore am in the middle of an almost total rewrite. Not the best timing to do this I'm sure you'll agree. I'd better get on with it then. Have a great week.

Good Housekeeping Novel Comp - Runner-up

Okay, I know I'm probably driving everyone mad about this, because if you follow me on Facebook or Twitter you'll have already discovered I was one of the runners-up in the Good Housekeeping Novel Competition (out of 7,000 entrants...can you believe it? I can't). However, I couldn't not post about this on my blog too, so here goes...

If you buy Good Housekeeping magasine - August edition, pages 46/47 - you'll see my name. *squeals with continuous excitement*

If you go to the Good Housekeeping online site you can read the first 250 words of both my entry and those of the other two runners-up. You'll also find the link for the other shortlisted entries. My first 250 words would be followed by, 'All changed, changed utterly: A terrible beauty is born. (WB Yeats, Easter, 1916).

Right, I'll let you get on now and get back down to reading my final (for now) edits outloud.

This is the second week of my summer holidays from work and it's been lousy weather, but to be honest, it's suited me fine because I've spent most of my time working on edits. According to our weather forecast the sun reappears on Sunday, just in time for my return to Play.

Naughty Pirates & Better Behaved Graduate

My son wrote this 'story' for me when he was very little and I recently came across it again. Reading this story about pirates and what they can do to you(!) it's hard to imagine that little boy - who was, by the way, the naughtiest child I've ever had to deal with - is now 21 and will be graduating this week with a 2:1 in Politics & International Relations. Who'd have thought it? *whispers* 'Not me!'

I'm incredibly proud and my outfit is hanging up ready for our flight to the mainland. Sister, daughter and mother have been given instructions on: How to work the toaster; when and how much to feed Divadog; to look out for the postman because Divadog particularly hates his bicycle; and a million other concerns. As if any of them have no idea what to do when I'm away? Which they do, but they just let me waffle and probably take no notice at all. I'm only away for a few hours for pity's sake! I thinks I'm probably just a little over-excited.

Daydreams & Edits

I'm in the shed editing.

I'm sure my days are a little like Groundhog Day for my poor family. I'm either in the shed writing/editing, or sitting in the conservatory/outside reading books to review for Novelicious. So, if I'm not at work, you can pretty much know where to find me.

Physically, that is. I'm always somewhere else in my head. Then again, my school reports often said, '...Deborah spends far too much time daydreaming/staring out of windows/in a world of her own.'

Finally I've found something that makes the most of my tendancy to drift away into my own world. One of these days *crosses fingers and thinks positively* I'll see the result of all these daydreams/edits in book/e-book form.

Well, you've got to dream, haven't you?

Voting, HNS Conference & Award

The voting has started for the Novelicious Undiscovered 2012. If you haven't cast your vote yet, please pop over, read the entries and vote, for your favourite. More details on the fantastic prizes. Voting ends on June 20th.

I've just booked to attend the Historical Novel Society Conference in September and I can't wait. Do let me know if you'll be going too, I'd love to meet up with online friends.



Thanks to Rebecca Leith for nominating me for the Sunshine Award. Mama J kindly nominated me for this too a couple of weeks ago, so I'll link to that post here. I always enjoy Rebecca's interesting and fun blog posts. If you haven't already discovered them, you're in for a treat.

My Dream of You Online Launch Party

I'm so excited to be taking part in my lovely writer friend Denyse Kirkby's online launch party for her novel, My Dream of You. I haven't had the chance to read My Dream of You yet, but I do have my copy and loved her debut novel Without Alice and memoir From Zaftig to Aspie, so I know I'll enjoy this book too.

Crime of passion or cruel twist of fate?

One summer’s day Betty let love carry her a step too far. That exquisite sun dappled afternoon became one of her best memories but also the catalyst for the worst experience of her life. Now elderly, Betty has been running from her past since she was a teenager, and it’s about to catch up with her. Will the experience be as awful as she fears or wonderful beyond imagining?

Praise for My Dream of You:

“D.J. Kirkby writes with compassion and energy, creating characters you can really care about.” Sarah Salway (Canterbury Poet Laureate)

"Evocatively written, My Dream of You is an absorbing read filled with interesting characters, plot twists, and emotion." Talli Roland, bestselling author of Build a Man

“A tale of motherhood, of hope and of love. Truly touching” Caroline Smailes, author of 99 Reasons Why

My Dream of You is published today (5 June) by Punked Books as an e-book and is available on Amazon UK for £1.53 and Amazon US for $2.40.

Everyone who leaves a ‘pick me’ comment on the My Dream of You online launch party blog post, and/or shares the post from Denyse's Facebook Author Page, and/or Tweets using the #MDOY hashtag making sure to copy @djkirkby in gets their name entered into a draw for some wonderful prizes.

Names can only be entered until midnight on June 5th and the winner will be announced on Denyse's blog on Sunday June 11th.

Quarterly newsletter sign up page: http://djkirkby.co.uk/newsletter/

Meeting The Queen... (not me, my grandparents)

My grandparents, George and Mary, were lucky enough to meet the Queen a couple of times.

Here are a few pictures from my grandmother's album filled with photos, invitations and menus, etc from those occasions. This is when they met the Queen at, I believe, Government House in 1957.

They were lucky enough to be invited to a Dinner in 1957 and this is their invitation. Many others were also invited of course, but my grandmother was always so proud to have attended.

Here they are dressed in all their finery before leaving home to go onboard the Royal Yacht Britannia when The Queen visited in 1957.


Below is a photo of the menu from the Luncheon where The Princess Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh were Guests of Honour in 1949.

The long white glove was the one she wore to shake hands with The Queen in 1957. Naturally, I've tried it on...

I saw the Queen once, when she visited Jersey about twenty years ago. I was with my grandmother then and other family members, but on this occasion we sat on a low granite wall by the road and waited for her car to drive past. The Queen waved and we were all delighted.