Christina Hollis: Thank Goodness For Holidays…

This year started with a bang for me. First, I was asked to write Women Of Bristol for publisher Pen And Sword’s major series on women’s lives between 1850-1950. Then a few weeks later, my crime novel Love Lies Bleeding was accepted by Endeavour. That’s great news, but it means I’m researching and writing non-fiction at the same time I’m trying to create a follow-up to Love Lies Bleeding. Dead Woman Walking is slowly taking shape in the odd moments when I take a break from Women Of Bristol.

OH timed a week’s holiday to include the recent Bank Holiday, and was going to spend it working on the house.  Then the rain stopped, and we had some fine, dry weather. It was too good to waste, so we both escaped into the open air for once. The first thing we did was to go out for our 2016 Christmas dinner. Yes, really! I love partying but OH hates it, so the deal is I drag him to his office’s Christmas party each year, then treat him to dinner at our favourite local restaurant. Work and other commitments (including a tooth broken at the last minute) meant we haven’t been able to have our dinner-for-two until last week. It was well worth it, with four courses of local, seasonal food. Mushroom soup was followed by pigeon, then slowly roasted pork with lots of colourful vegetables and finally cheesecake. 

Find out more at myBook.to/HeartOfAHostage 

After that, our holiday went from good to great. We caught up on lots of reading, took a lot of long walks in the wood with the dog, and did quite a bit of retail therapy. 

I ended the week with a word count of zero, but the garden is looking a lot better as I was able to spend plenty of time outside working on it.

I was a bit worried about the work piling up and deadlines approaching, but it turned out a break helped me focus. I was so keen to start writing again, I soon caught up. 

What’s your idea of a perfect holiday?

When she isn't cooking, gardening or beekeeping, Christina Hollis writes contemporary fiction starring complex men and independent women.  Her books have been translated into more than a dozen languages, and she’s sold nearly three million books worldwide. Catch up with her at http://www.christinahollis.blogspot.com, on Twitter, Facebook, and see a full list of her published books at christinahollis.com

Her current release, Heart Of A Hostage, is published by The Wild Rose Press and available at myBook.to/HeartOfAHostage  worldwide.

Christina Hollis: The Worth Of Workshops

 Hard at Work! 

I’m a keen member of the local branch of the Romantic Novelists’ Association. The Marcher Chapter takes its name from the border country of the Welsh Marches, where England meets Wales. We have meetings every six weeks or so between March and November at The Courtyard, Hereford’s centre for the arts. Our members are scattered far and wide over the West Midlands and East Wales, and Hereford is easily reached by train and road. The possibility of rail delays and the state of the roads puts us off travelling in the short, cold and dark days of winter. That’s when we stay at home and write.

Each Spring and Autumn, the Marcher Group holds writing workshops. Members taking part submit a piece of their work to our Chairman-Co-ordinator, Ann. She makes sure the writer’s name doesn’t appear, then allocates a number to each piece and distributes them via email to the rest of the workshop participants. We then read and critique all the pieces, ready to spend the day of the workshop discussing each of the entries in turn. You can see RNA authors Fay Wentworth, Georgia Hill, Christina Courtenay, Joanna Maitland and Ann Ankers hard at work in the picture above.

Find out more at myBook.to/HisMajestysSecret

The Marcher Group has been running biannual workshops for several years now. It really helps to have several other sets of eyes concentrating on a piece you’ve toiled over until you’re too close to appreciate its worth-or see its flaws! 

I feel my writing has improved a lot since I’ve been attending these sessions. The chance to network, and learn how to accept criticism as well as how to frame it tactfully are invaluable, too. I live deep in the countryside and can go for days without seeing anyone outside my immediate family, so the chance to escape from behind the keyboard once in a while is something I always enjoy. Face-to-face interaction with professionals who have read my work has improved my confidence and speaking skills, too.

I submitted the opening pages of the book which became His Majesty's Secret Passion for The Wild Rose Press to one of the Marcher Group workshops. You can find out more about the book a workshop panel inspired at myBook.to/HisMajestysSecret. 

Nearly all the works put through the scheme by other authors have been published. It's Beta reading to the max!

On the strength of the Marcher Groups comments on a piece of mine submitted to a more recent workshop, I worked the sample pages up into a full-length novel. Love Lies Bleeding will be published by Endeavour books later this year, and the encouragement I’ve had from the Marcher Group was invaluable. 

To me, that really proves the worth of workshops.

When she isn't cooking, gardening or beekeeping, Christina Hollis writes contemporary fiction starring complex men and independent women.  Her books have been translated into more than a dozen languages, and she’s sold nearly three million books worldwide. Catch up with her at http://www.christinahollis.blogspot.com, on Twitter, Facebook, and see a full list of her published books at christinahollis.com

Her current release, Heart Of A Hostage, is published by The Wild Rose Press and available at myBook.to/HeartOfAHostage  worldwide.