Kristen Bailey

Sometimes you just meet someone and you know. I met the lovely Cheryl at a book launch a couple of months ago. She's a writer of crime fiction and a fellow Accenteer. Anyways, talk turned to how we handled public readings and appearances....this is when Cheryl told me she practised in her front room, talking to a life-size cut out of Daryl Dixon. Who the hell is Daryl Dixon? Well, Google it...Daryl's only my TV husband! That's how I instantly knew she was a little bit c

So....finally, someone has bought some alcohol to the party! Yay! And double yay for the lovely Jackie Kabler who's blogging with me today. I had the pleasure of meeting Jackie in October at the launch of her second book, The Deadline. It was a fab event because up until that point I'd not really met many Accent folk... so I was truly grateful to have been given the chance to meet lots of talented authors and network with some fantastic book bloggers. A warm festive welcom

It's all about the Accenteers for the next couple of days and today it's lovely to welcome Karen to my blog: a fellow writer of contemporary women's fiction. She also writes children's fiction and YA and I'm really happy to see she's a great advocate of creative writing and reading in schools....with little ones myself, this is always a great inspiration to see a writer so heavily involved in promoting the arts. A pleasure that she's dropped by today... Thank you for inviti

For a while, Lynne and I were always mentioned in the same sentence..but it was all for a good reason, we both found our way to Accent via their women's fiction writing competition run in association with Woman Magazine. Lynne, very deservedly, won that competition and I placed second. I met Lynne for the first time about a month ago and we did say it felt as if we knew each other already! Really pleased to be welcoming her here today..... One of the things I like best abo

The lovely Laura is a fellow Accenteer. I was first introduced to her via a mutual friend and after a year or so of emails, we finally met at a book launch about a month ago where we discovered we both have a fondness for metallic shoes. She has been a constant source of counsel and laughs, and is a wonderful writer of evocative women's fiction with engaging and sincere stories at the heart. Extremely pleased she's kicking off my blog party today..... Fairytale of New York (

What. A. Week. Are you still standing? I'm just about vertical at the moment. The other night, I passed out at 9.30pm clutching half a bottle of bellini, trying to binge watch OITNB but waking up and realised I'd slept through episode two in its entirety. But then it has also been a week of awesomeness. Souper Mum has been launched. What a strange word. It feels like we loaded it into a catapult and sent it flying into the atmosphere. The launch will stay with me as on

It's a weird one, writing. The fact is you do it from the age of four or five. Letters become words and words become sentences and we illustrate it ourselves with strips of blue sky, green grass and trees that look like broccoli. Case in point: this is something my #2 daughter wrote at the beginning of this school year. Look how ruddy skinny I am! And my 'glarses!' And the fashion forward yellow boots... love it. I loved writing as a kid - I loved writing poems that rhy