Cheryl's 'By the Letter'


The Great Well discovery - books on sale - K.L. Small, author - local history - book reviews - characters	View in browser

Welcome (back)!

I suspect those of us in the northern hemisphere hoped March would bring sunshine and flowers. And yes, there have been tiny buds of blackthorn (as above), crocus, and my hyacinth and other bulbs planted last year are showing their faces. But as I type this, it's snowing ... and 1C ...

Our wonderful kitchen builders turned up despite the white stuff and got on with the roof, but by 2 pm even those hardy guys had had enough. Who can blame them. Work is progressing though.

There was excitement a couple of weeks ago when a brick-lined well was uncovered beneath the utility room. Wine cellar was suggested, as was the possibility of treasure and/or skeletons. But as it's right under planned cupboards and half filled with rubble, we regretfully recorded its existence and filled it in. Sorry to the Save the Well campaigners!

In other important news, me and the air fryer never did make friends and it has gone to a better place, to someone who will love it. I now have a small electric oven (with air fryer setting, shrugs) which is briliant!

NEWS

Thank you to those who have read (and reviewed double thanks) Walking in the Rain. Comments such as these cheer a girl's heart no end!

‘Altho I was going to read it slowly, I finished it in one day.’

'A quick and satisfying read infused with beautiful prose and deep emotion.'

Locally, Walking in the Rain paperbacks are now available from Forest Books and Crafts, Coleford and, from Monday, Chepstow Books, Chepstow.

As a special treat, here's a link to the wonderful Johnny Ray song which gave me the title - and is also a perfect reflection of the book itself. Enjoy!

Keepers remains on sale through March, with the eBook at 99c/p and the paperback also reduced, as it's part of a promotion of women's fiction books. Click on the button and browse - you may well find something to your liking, and/or inspiration for Mother's Day!

PS River Witch is also on sale, for this weekend only. And is always free on KU of course.

Women's Fiction books

OTHER NEWS

Various writing projects are juggling for attention. I have two or three short story ideas in mind based on Forest history; I'm working on the research for the Great Flood novel; and the other day I hauled out my plot outline for a Guardians of the Forest sequel, and discovered I last looked at it three years ago. It's quite a plot, I have to say! So I have enough to keep me occupied and something will come out in autumn, I promise.

Forest corner

Bilson Mission

A Voices from the Forest project

At the end of last year I was briefly involved in this project to record memories of 'the tin chapel' from people who had attended the Sunday School and church there. One of the outputs is this wonderful film telling people's own stories in their own voices. I watched it with some of the participants this week, a real joy and privilege.

Sadly, the building itself (erected as 'temporary' 140 years ago) has now been demolished, but the film will be used in schools to pass on this corner of the Forest's rich heritage. Congratulations to the Voices from the Forest team.

Bilson Mission Stories

Guest author K.L. Small

Katherine Small has had two dreams since she was ten years old. One was to write, the other was to own a horse. She has now achieved both, and while she has been writing (and owning horses) for some time, it’s only this month she’s released her debut novel – a wonderful Young Adult fairytale, A Dress to Remember. Meet Katherine here.

WRITERS ARE READERS TOO

What have you been reading this month? I've gone through a range of books from a history for children to romcom - I have eclectic tastes. Here's my reading list:

The Distance Between Us - Maggie O'Farrell. My book of the month, read my review here.

The Day the Sea Came In: 1607 on the Gwent Levels - Rose Hewlett. A hugely informative and easy to read story of the Great Flood, read for research and enjoyed for itself.

The 41st Disaster - R.S. Jonesee. A fun romcom with wonderful characters, much enjoyed - follow the link for my review.

Women Talking - Marian Toewes. A fascinating and different novel, reviewed on my blog.

WRITER'S CORNER

Differentiating characters

A couple of months ago I wrote about multiple POVs - were they a good idea or not. I mentioned that, however many characters you have, your reader should be able to identify them instantly without you naming them. So how can we do that?

Click on the button for some tips, and happy writing!

Differentiating characters

COMING UP

Let's hope that April does what we expected March to do, and brings spring flowers. Looking forward to the wild garlic too.

Mostly, more kitchen progress! And something about how the writing is going too.

Until then,

Cheryl

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Cheryl Burman

Forest of Dean
United Kingdom

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