Rain coming across the distant hills

It’s a cold and wet Friday here in the UK, so the gorgeous girl and I are having an ‘at home’ day. We’re getting a few chores done and there’s fun planned too – movies, snacks and some cooking adventures – it’s just lovely to spend time with her while she still wants to hang out with me.

So I thought today might be a fairly quiet day, but my email has been pinging away with new likes and follows for my blog. The lovely SuzieSpeaks shared a post of mine from earlier this week and it seems to be fairly popular, which is wonderful. Thanks to Suzie for sharing, and welcome to everyone visiting – stay a while and make yourself comfortable, there’s plenty to read here 🙂

I’ve also been nominated by Jonathan and Aaron at Husband&Husband for a blogging award – the Blogger Recognition Award, in fact! Thank you so much for thinking of me guys, I really appreciate the nomination.

As part of the award, I’m to write about why I started blogging, and also pass on some advice to fellow bloggers, so here goes:

I started blogging just over a year ago, though I was very nervous about it at the time. I’d already written the first two Ambeth books and the rest were underway, plus I was writing freelance, but I knew I needed to look into expanding my media platform as well. A friend had started a blog on WordPress and, when I looked into it, I was intrigued by the possibilities. I do love to write, and so I started out with three small posts on what I’d learned about writing so far – I was a bundle of nerves when I hit the Publish button for the first time! Even though I’d had work published before, it felt quite confronting to share my own thoughts in a public forum. However, what a year it’s been! I’ve learnt so much about blogging and writing, read some fantastic blogs, made some wonderful connections with people around the world plus my little blog is starting to be seen by more people every day. It really has been fantastic, and I’m so looking forward to attending the first Blogger’s Bash in London next week and finally putting faces to some of the voices that have enthralled me for so long.

So my advice to other bloggers would be to keep writing. Just keep on going – write posts, write your own work, share your thoughts and dreams and ideas, even if you think no one else is going to read them. You will be surprised!

I have to nominate fifteen bloggers for the same award. This isn’t easy, as I follow a lot of great blogs, so I’ve chosen fifteen that I read regularly and always enjoy – here they are:

Dark Knight Chronicles

Everything Indie

Nicholas Rossis

Ali Isaac Storyteller

Tara Sparling

Stephen Baird

The Sound of What Happens

Sue Vincent

MissRachelChanel

Suzie81Speaks

Chris The Story Reading Ape

Sacha Black

That’s So Jacob

Louise Allan

The Mathemagical Site

You may have already been nominated for this award, or simply not wish to participate – that’s completely fine! If you’d like to know more about it the original link is here. Whether you accept the award or not, thank you for keeping me entertained in the blogiverse. And, if you’re visiting, please check out some of these blogs – they’re all very much recommended.

Finally, to celebrate the upcoming release of No Quarter, the second book in the Ambeth Chronicles, I’m going to be running a giveaway on Goodreads soon. I’ll be giving away five signed copies of Oak and Mist, the first book in the series. Details coming very soon!

Seems as though Friday has turned out to be a big day after all 🙂 xx