Now the fun begins, discover your why?

Hello again,
Well the competition is now closed and thanks and best wishes go to all who entered. Thank you also for all the birthday good wishes. I maybe only 50 and a couple of days but it feels good, so maybe 50 is a new beginning.

Your entries are now with the Judges and as soon as I receive the results they will be posted on here, so watch this space.

Some great entries, wish I could give a prize to all but then that would not be much of a competition if everyone received a prize. Do you remember when schooling became all PC and no one could lose. I don't know about you but it felt like we had become cheated somehow, not me personally, schooling in my day was not politically correct. We were taught that healthy competition was good for you but we were also taught it was equalling as important to take part.

It seems these days in some schools of thought there can be no winners or losers, well I am not getting poetical here as I do not think my blog is a place to share my political views. If there was no winners or losers, everyone was to be equal, how would that effect the Olympics for example?

What are your thoughts?

Do you think competition is healthy? or unfair?

As writers we are in an extremely competitive market, millions of new books every year, new authors discovered. Does that discourage you or encourage you?

What gives you your passion to write when there is so much competition?

What drives you to add more words to your work in progress, to build your author's platform?

In short what motivates you to do what we do everyday?

I can only answer for myself on this point, and no its not money, if it was I may have given up as many writers do, the unfinished work stuck in a drawer somewhere, forgotten. No money is a nice to have, for many writers if they were to rely solely on there writing to pay the bills, many would have given up long ago. For most, will need that  day job! I don't but it still not my driving force, maybe if it was I would write more, blog more, get more done!

My motivation is the stories in my head, I want to make sense of them, I want to share them, with my non-fiction I want to help my readers. If it is from the pain they suffer each day, a health tip, cholesterol whatever it is my motivation in my non fiction is to engage change by empowering my readers with information. In my fiction is where I sometimes struggle, because what is a great story to me maybe not so great for others, so I need to find another motivation for my fiction. My driver at the moment is that I never leave something incomplete, it may take me longer to get to the end goal but I will finish what I start.

So if you take one thing away from my blog today, what is your motivation to keep writing?

If you can honestly answer that for yourself, what your driver is, what keeps you going when all you really want is to hit the delete button!! Write it out if necessary, put it somewhere where you can see it easily, remind yourself daily to keep your why alive.

For some people they may need a visual aid to remind them of their why? Their motivation? Their drive?

If that is you, find a picture of it and keep it close. If your sole motivation is money and for many it will be, we all need to pay bills and eat but apart from letters from the bank manager it is not very exciting. So if your driver is money, or success, how do you measure you have achieved it? What do you want to do with it, once you have it?

Once you are earning enough from your writing it maybe to give up the day job, it maybe to buy a better house, lifestyle? What is your dream, discover what your why is and you will have a stronger motivation to continue writing.

Happy writing everyone. Watch this space for the short stories to be posted in next few days.

Competition update

Well when I had the idea to follow in the footsteps of my very successful friend Rebbecca Emin, little did I know what to expect!

This is my first competition run on this blog and depending on the success of this one I may do more with more prizes! The entries are now trickling in, would love to receive more to give my judges who are non writing folk, they are readers. It will be whose they most enjoy who will win. I will not judge but print them and pass them to them and await their feedback.

Whatever our genre and the topic is not age, despite my title being is 50 the new 40, no the topic is 50.
It could be a golden wedding, it could be 50 red balloons anything you fancy, yes even 50 monsters/ vampires if that is your genre, as long as 50 is in there somewhere. I am not that strict on word count, and I am certainly not going to count them, so have a go, even if you don't want a copy of my book, I am sure someone will. Unfortunately we will all know someone who lives with Chronic pain and my book is easy steps to help them gain control.

Despite all my years of assisting others to control their pain, I have needed to take my own lessons and no I am not always the best patient but I know live with chronic pain but yes I am in control, it does not control me. I have needed to work with my health practitioner to gain the right medication for me but it works. I know have a range of methods to control my pain.I am currently working on the second edition and have made the decision that everyone who has purchased the 1st edition but get the update for free.

It has been an interesting week, I attended an webinar on how to attract more attention to my blog run by Gary at Bubblecow and Freya at Bookbuzzr. If you have not come across either of this fabulous folk before, please check them out. I have hyperlinked there names. It is the second webinar I have attended and I will certainly attend more given the opportunity. If you cannot make the allotted time slot to hear it live, provided you register, you can download it and listen to it later.

I will certainly be implementing some changes to this blog baised on the excellant advice from Gary.
So my tips from this blog, one enter the competition, no seriously if you only do one thing check out the links I have included on this blog, you will learn so much as I have, afterall if you want success as we all do in one shape or another than what better than to follow and emulate successful people.

Any questions regarding this or the competion please feel free to comment below. Look forward to hearing from you soon

Is 50 really the new 40? Short Story Competition

In a few short weeks I turn 50, I was hoping to have a huge big party and celebrate with a bang. After all isn't 50 supposed to be the new 40 so life will begin again. Certainly the last 10 years have brought there fair amount of change.

I enjoyed watching felllow writer and online friend Rebecca Emin launch a competition of Flash Fiction for her recent birthday. I enjoyed the excitement it built towards her big day. She recommended I follow suit, so I thought I am useless at her skill of Flash Fiction but short stories would be more suited to me.

So I thought what does 50 mean to you?

You can write any genre and 50 does not need to mean age but I would like your story around the topic 50 and to be around 500 words.


First prize will be £10 (or equivalent) plus a copy of one of Take Control of your pain.

Second prize will be a copy of Take control of your pain.

Third prize will be a choice of a copy of Festival on Lyris Five  by Nick Daws.


Here's the obligatory list of rules:

1. E-mail your entry to sloanwriter@btinternet.com Your entry should be in word format. Please do not include your name on the word document itself. 

2. Wordcount is 500 maximum including the title but not your name. This can be plus or minus 5%

3. Please only submit your own work. Previously blogged/published/adapted works are allowed, and copyright remains with the author at all times.

4.If you enter this competition, you agree that your entry may be published on my blog after the competition closes.

5. The competition is open to anyone, until the last timezone passes midnight on 6th June 2011

6. Your entry will be disregarded if it does not include the theme 50.

7. Any genre is allowed.

8. Only one entry per person please.

9. Judging will be by a carefully selected panel of readers. Their decision will be final, whether I agree with them or  not ;o)

10. I will acknowledge receipt of every entry. If you do not hear from me within 3 days of submission, please feel free to query.

You can find an update on the competition here

Rules kindly adapted from Rebecca Emin 

Five of the Best who have helped me on my writing Journey

Today I am drafting many of my blogs for the forthcoming weeks. My problem is that I have never been able to blog on a regular basis.

Some may think why bother anyway. Well what I have learnt along the way is that whether we want to publish lots of ebooks, Indie publishing or aim for that traditional publisher. The joy of seeing your book on the shelves of a bookstore. Whatever your goal you need people to know about your work. Your Author's Platform.

Well here is my top five websites and the people behind them that could help you as they have helped me.


Number 1 has to be Nick Daws writer/author of over 80 books and courses. If I had not come across him and his inspirational courses, I would not have started, let alone come this far. His first course I purchased was "Write any book in 28 days" which is still relevant and successful today as when he first produced it.His chatty style, made me think he was in the room next to me. Teaching me and guiding my hand, If you haven't already follow him on Twitter and Facebook along with Nick's writing blog. I also signed up for his e-newsletter and his MWC writers forum. All well worth diving in to!

Secondly I joined Twitter, you do not have a clue when first joining and I know it can be off-putting. So I looked to see who followed who, up came Gary Smailies from Bubblecow.
I have learnt so much from his experience, They give hints and tips of which publisher will accept authors without an agent! The have a mentoring program and will edit your work for a fee. If you visit the Bubblecow website and Gary is at his desk then a pop up window arrives and you can ask any question and Gary will answer via live chat. Gary may not know this but he has been there to motivate me to carry on writing.

Number 3 has to be Joanna from The Creative Penn. Joanna frequently gives Podcasts, webinairs, writing tips and author interviews. She is a published author herself, her most recent being the "Pentecost".
 Through her downloadable ebook on the author's platform, she gives the benefit of her experience.

My last two I have grouped together as they work together, Problogger and Copyblogger. They have tutorials of how to get started with your blog. They make it all so simple, break it down, you learn from very successful guys.

I love learning, love a challenge. Recently this blog has not been as regular as I would have liked. Unfortunately I have been dealing with my own health issues. I have been diagnosed with Fibromyalgia and one of the ways I have been coming to terms with it, is through my blog called Fibroliving.wordpress.com. On there you can read my story of how I am leaning to live with Fibromyalgia and it is learning to live with me.

Who inspired your writing career and who helped you along the way?

I will post my writing tips in my blog as I come across them, alternatively you can follow me on Twitter and Facebook as Sloanwriter.

Look forward to catching up with you soon.

Who was or still is your favorite Chidren's author

What children's author inspired you and why?

The first intention was to blog about my  favourite childhood Author. Then I realised apart from the odd Enid Blyton my reading was directed by my schooling. What I  needed to study and pass exams and then I remembered  Walt Disney and Hans Christian Andersen.

How could I have forgotten the magic of the many many tales of Red Riding Hood, Cinderella, Sleeping beauty Snow White and Seven drawfes. 

Hansel and Gretel, The 3 little pigs, I could go on but I realised books were not the main feature I remembered from my childhood. 

Comics, I used to "borrow" my brothers Dandy and Beno, I was a Jackie fan, with the latest heart throb adorning my wall. Donny Osmond was my hero and I still have a soft spot for now. My music tastes varied but thats another blog!

It was not until children arrived and I reread stories to them that I really started to look at the authors. 

One stood out,  Roal Dahl and my son's favourite was fantastic Mr Fox. I became convinced however he knew the book off by heart and was not really reading it.

 I  wanted to expand his reading and it was about the time when there was a buzz around that i did not understand. So eager to find out what it was and found  Harry Potter and the author JK Rowling.

By then book three had been leased (not knowing any of this as I was too working night shifts as a cardiac nurse).

So I went out on a day off and purchased all three in paperback.

  Sat up in bed, I discovered it was a real page turner.  Harry Potter and the Philosphers Stone, it was a different world of magic and mayhem.

The next morning.  I simply said to my son.  Please read this if you get page 5 and you didn't like it it's okay.  Deep down I knew he would be hooked as I was. 

Then became  fun waiting for films to come out and each book in hardback as soon as it was released.  Yes, my husband and daughter went to a store at midnight to buy a book for me on release and we sat up  most the night to read it .My husband has the photograghic proof!

My son,  by this time was away in the Royal Navy but still bought the books when he could. We often would have friendly family competitions guessing where the story was going. It was something for all the family to enjoy around a  time when often you feel you can use touch with your teenagers, Harry Potter series of books and films shared some of the magic.  My son has since moved on to Dan Brown and the Eragon  series. I can visulise him on his ship somewhere enjoying a good book.

So what story or author inspired you to have a positive impact on you and your family?

To Blog or not to Blog and the Frequency 1, 3, or daily that is the question?

They say to write about what you know.

If you were ask anyone to sum up my knowledge and what they know about me; it would be Health matters, closely followed by Cooking/baking and now writing. 

There are lots of ideas of how often you should blog and from what I have read it seems the optimum appears to be 3 times a week. The advice also states no matter how often you blog, DO IT REGULARLY!!

Due to commitments and family tragedies last year that was not easy to achieve.
So New Year, fresh start, to turn a new leaf to coin a phrase, I am starting now! 

What I need however is your help, your comments and interaction will assist me in keeping to this pledge!
The advice I have read is to keep to set themes, do not go off track, so have decided to blog on three main topics.
1)  My continuing journey of writing and sending out any helpful hints and tips along the way I find.
2) A blog on health matters hints and tips to just assist with those little concerns and I love to hear from you regarding your concerns.
3) Cooking and baking with a focus on reducing the bloating we feel, tiredness etc., this can be linked to wheat intolerance, so will put tried and tested recipes for you to try. 
Sometimes all three will be linked as I write on health and how it can be improved with what we eat. 

Don't get me wrong I am not an expert, nor profess to be, I am not a Dietician but a health professional who has personal experience of Wheat Intolerance. 
Just to clarify Wheat Intolerance is totally different to an allergy or gluten intolerance for which you need to see your medical practitioner for diagnosis and treatment.

Why cooking and baking, well to me it is a kind of therapy.  If stressed, baking calms me.  If I hit writers block as we all seem to do from time to time or inspiration just flies out of the window, then I whip up something tasty or bake and bake until family and freezer full!

Apart from watching my mother as a child and a few regimented domestic science (cookery) lessons at school, I am pretty much self-taught.  My mother said I had a knack to look at a recipe, be able to follow it and produce a fairly accurate result first time.

These days we all want tasty, healthy food we can enjoy without the guilt.  Hopefully through these posts I can show you that you can. I will include recipes that have been thoroughly tested and enjoyed by family and friends.

They will be
 1) Low fat,
 2) Low salt,
 3) Low GI ( keep you fuller for longer)
 4) Low wheat, some even wheat free.
Lastly there will be no Coconut Why no Coconut I hear you ask?  That is because I am allergic, cannot stand the smell, taste, texture at all.  So if you love the stuff please feel free to add I will mention when I have substituted coconut for other ingredients.
The blog will demonstrate how you can look at any recipe and adapt to suit your needs and the needs of your family.

Any questions on this or anything, please feel free to comment below, I welcome, your questions, feedback and comments and promise to answer.

Journey of learning to write

Well as a few of you will know from following this blog, I have been having an eventful year but through it all I have met some wonderful people in the writing world. I say meet them I mean through Twitter, Facebook, email, writing blogs etc. We have never met in the physical sence.


I can honestly say Joanne at The Creative Penn, Gary at Bubblecow and of course Nick Daws (who without his courses and support none of this would have been possible) have truly been there with hits and tips and just the right amount of motivation to lead to the success of finally having my first ebook published. It is now with Smashwords.com at  http://bit,ly/aAgHV . Take Control Of your Pain is an ebook to help the reader be in charge of thier pain.


Copyblogger is another inspiration to continue to blog and learn the alien world (to me) of SEO. I have not mastered it yet. I know amongst the emails, the blogs and twitter updates find time to learn on a constant basis. The skills of writing, connecting with you the reader and the technical side of things. Producing a webpage, converting a word document to a pdf or a jpeg file ( that you need for a cover for your book).

These are all new skills to me, and in many ways a forgien language, one I feel I am at best currently a little better schooldays pigeon French! The big thing I am prepared to learn, I sometimes feel overwhelmed by it but don't we all when learning something new. It can be scary, outside our comfort zone from learning to drive to our first day at a new job. Just as you have a teacher at school, at tutor at universecity, a driving instrutor to teach you how to move a ton of metal from a to b, your parents encouraging your first steps and speech, we are constantly learning from the day we are born to the day we leave this planet. If we stop learning, stretching ourselves, we do not develop.


We all fell numerous times when learning to walk and our parents where there to guide us and pick us up. Just as I have met along my journey new people who have helped me and guided me even when they did not know it.
The writing world is like that, we may type at home alone but we have our support network, not just our friends and family who have supported me. Yes my biggest champion is my husband and he was the one who master the book cover I struggled with.

I am throughly happy with my third career, I have support now, never dreamed of from my previous careers. From real people I may never meet who just want you to succeed. That to me is priceless.