S.C Newland - Writer

I'm currently enjoying BBC Maestro and access to innumerable writers, and blow me, today is the day Isabel Allende the Chilean‑American author walks to her office, has a coffee, sits down and begins writing her new novel.  She chooses January 8th as the sacred day to start. The end day, is not clear. But it's all about making a start. Wonder what she'll come up with this year? Fun fact: She once wrote a Zorro novel. She is one of the world’s most widely read Spanish‑language authors. Her breakthrough novel,  The House of the Spirits , began as a letter to her dying grandfather and established her signature blend of memory, politics, and magical realism. Exiled after Chile’s 1973 coup, she transformed personal loss into stories marked by resilience and fierce compassion. Her later works, from  City of the Beasts  to  A Long Petal of the Sea , continue to explore identity, exile, and the endurance of love. She has received major honours, including the Preside...

Today celebrates the birth of J.R.R. Tolkien, famous for writing The Hobbit. He began it almost accidentally after scribbling “In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit” on a student paper in the early 1930s. It took several years of work as he shaped the Middle-earth world. The style is warm, archaic, and audience‑centred, inviting readers to imagine alongside him. He used a past‑tense, storyteller’s voice with occasional first‑person intrusions from an implied narrator. It was published in 1937. He wrote it partly for his children and partly from his love of language, legend, and you could say world discovery. Picture AI generation

Here’s to another twelve months of chasing sentences, wrestling with commas, and finding inspiration in unexpected places. May your drafts surprise you, your characters challenge you, and your stories lead you somewhere you didn’t know you needed to go. Now where's that coffee... Cheers

Merry Christmas to Writers everywhere :-)

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens was first published on this day, 19th December, 1843. It follows Ebenezer Scrooge, a miser who despises Christmas and human warmth. On Christmas Eve, he is visited by the ghost of his dead partner, Jacob Marley, who warns him to change. Three spirits then guide Scrooge through his past, present, and possible future, revealing the consequences of his greed and the humanity he has long denied. Witnessing joy, hardship, and his own lonely fate, Scrooge undergoes a profound transformation. By Christmas morning, he embraces generosity, compassion, and community, becoming a symbol of redemption and renewed hope. His Writing Process  Manuscripts show Dickens worked with meticulous care , revising heavily to shape a tightly structured narrative. He wrote A Christmas Carol as a novella quickly in late 1843, driven by both creative urgency and financial pressure. The structure, five “staves” instead of chapters, mirrors a piece of music, reinforcing th...

  A statue of the English writer, poet and musicologist  Sylvia Townsend Warner (1893–1978)  was unveiled in Dorchester, Dorset, on Sunday, 14th December.  Her work blended wit, subversion, and a quietly radical imagination. She is often celebrated as a feminist and queer literary figure , though she herself resisted labels. Her debut novel,  Lolly Willowes (1926) became a sensation. It follows a woman who escapes her suffocating family to become a witch—an early, slyly feminist narrative about autonomy and refusal. Warner wrote novels, poetry, biographies, translations, and over 140 stories for The New Yorker . Her fiction often blends the domestic with the uncanny, the political with the intimate. Significant works include:  The Corner That Held Them  (1948),   Kingdoms of Elfin  (1977). Numerous short stories, many now considered modern classics. A committed leftist, Warner was active in anti-fascist movements and wrote with ...

  In-Between Dartmoor is on the shelves in Tavistock library! How exciting is that? A wonderful Christmas present to see the anthology written by Tavistock Writers Independent Group -TWIG -  catalogued under LITERARY. There we are, sitting beside the greats: George Orwell, Billy Connolly and Dawn French ;-)

  Three of my stories feature in this incredible anthology.  A great read any time. Available from :  Amazon

 

I am delighted to say I have three stories in a new anthology called 'In-Between Dartmoor' by the Tavistock Writers Independent Group (TWIG). They are: Killer Instinct, The B-Word, and Nanny Tea. For the publicity we notified several local newspapers and magazines, and had an Open Evening for the launch.  General reader reaction has been very good. The book is available as a Kindle E-book and a Paperback via Amazon.  In-Between Dartmoor, Amazon

Heritage Open Days, meant a trip to Greenway House, near Torquay, once home of the famed crime and detective novelist Agatha Christie. The house is part of the National Trust, and usually an astronomical fee prevents us from visiting, but for a week or so at this time of year, their properties are free to visit (although this one required reserving a parking spot online for a couple of quid).  What was it like? In a nutshell, a large white house with dark rooms, high ceilings and a lot of dated furniture, which somehow seemed out of date when she was living there. Lots of her baggage from the twenties, thirties. Stacks of books penned by her, and others she and her husband at the time - Max Mallowan - might have read.  Rooms with items of unexpected interest: The Kitchen - a peculiar cockerel umbrella stand. The Sitting room: Two magpies on the mantle-piece. The Toilet - a wooden seat with a hole in it - I kid you not - apparently she loved it and dragged it around Afric...

  Just started a new job delivery driving to get a bit of an income. Still giving me enough time to write. So, I wondered what kind of jobs famous writers might have had to make ends meet. Here are a few: JK Rowling – had several jobs before the arrival of Harry Potter, including working as a bilingual secretary and researcher at Amnesty International, for the Manchester Chamber of Commerce and in Portugal teaching English. Stephen King – the prodigious horror/fantasy author once worked as a janitor in a school. His novel ‘Carrie’ was allegedly based on the said experiences. Harper Lee – worked as an airline booking clerk before her famous Pulitzer Prize winning novel To Kill A Mockingbird took off. Kurt Vonnegut – famed for works like Slaughterhouse-Five – one time opened a Saab dealership in Cape Cod with limited success. By his own account, he made a terrible salesman, but the lack of customers gave him time to write The Sirens of Titan . The dealership even inspired t...

Hah! In the local newsagents and discovered Grand - The Journal of One Grand Books. Very enjoyable read. Fiction, Poetry, Memoirs and interesting biographies - Edna O'Brien the standout read.  Now, interesting aside - the article shows a black and white picture of Edna sitting by a window in her Chelsea home in London, in 1971. That's just about the time I used to travel to see my grandparents in the same area. Not saying I saw Edna, but in a peculiar way, it's comforting to know a writer of her literary talent was just around the corner. Sad to read about her soured relationship with husband Ernest Gebler (an author - yes, I had to look him up). Turns out, Ernest was a divorcee when he met Edna in 1952. His fame was a novel which became a movie starring Spencer Tracy: The Plymouth Adventure. Edna was working in a pharmacy. He became a Svengali of sorts - introducing her to publishers, perhaps encouraging her writing and probably wished he hadn't when her debut novel Th...

  I'm pleased to announce that the Tavistock Writers Independent Group - TWIG - have released their first anthology - an E-book exclusively available from Amazon Kindle. A couple of short stories of mine are featured together with some excellent fiction from other members of the group including poetry.  In-Between Dartmoor on Amazon

Inspiring words from a coaster I picked up from a gift shop in Lynmouth, Devon. Typewriter looks a bit out of date though. Maybe a smart phone or tablet or lap-top would have been better. But the message is sound. Something to aspire to.  

It was Ian Fleming's birthday yesterday and I noticed several lists popping up on the internet citing the best Bond books in order - a countdown if you like from 14 - 1. I haven't read them all, but when I do pick them up, I usually enjoy them. The books are not all novels. Fleming wrote two Bond short story collections: For Your Eyes Only and Octopussy.  One thing I noticed was that the least favourite story was: The Spy Who Loved Me. It's written in first person from the point of view of a female character called Viv. It's about her life. Bond doesn't appear until halfway through or so. I found this frustrating when I read it years ago in my teens, but did enjoy the gangster plot and the tension Bond brings to his scenes. It's become one of my favourite's over the years and doesn't in any way match the plot of the Roger Moore movie - which is cracking. An oddity in the Bond canon, but then Fleming also wrote Chitty, Chitty, Bang, Bang. Nuff said. Here...

It's world Dracula Day today. The seminal vampire novel written by Bram Stoker was published on May 26th, 1897. Bram Stoker's Dracula was meticulously crafted, drawing from folklore, history, and extensive research. Here are some fascinating facts about its construction: Epistolary Format : The novel is told through letters, diary entries, and newspaper articles, creating a fragmented yet immersive narrative. Historical & Folkloric Influences : Stoker researched vampire legends and historical figures, including Vlad the Impaler and Countess Elizabeth Báthory, though recent scholarship suggests he may not have directly based Dracula on them. Whitby Connection : While vacationing in Whitby, England, Stoker discovered the name "Dracula" in a public library and chose it because he believed it meant "devil" in Romanian. Extensive Notes : Stoker compiled over a hundred pages of notes while developing the novel, ensuring a rich and detailed world. Binary...

Today is Sherlock Holmes Day. A way to celebrate his creator Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's birthday. The author was born 22 May 1859. The great detective character first appeared in 1887 in the story A Study in Scarlet. His fame for deduction soon caught on and many came to believe he was actually a real person living at 221B Baker Street in London. Together with his side-kick Dr.Watson, Sherlock appeared in innumerable novels and short stories.  My personal favourite is The Hound of the Baskervilles. Doyle threw everything into the novel - Dartmoor, escaped prisoners, and a monstrous hound that make it still enjoyed to this day.

Hooray! I'm excited to announce - my short Flash fiction piece 'White Goat', came Runner Up in the Tortive Lit Flash Fiction 101 March Competition.  The theme prompt was: A Flaw in Time. Entries were restricted to exactly 101 words. And the guest judge was writer Richard Curnow. You can read 'White Goat' - a one-minute read on their website via this link:  March 2025 Runner Up: White Goat Hope you enjoy it. Pic AI Generation.

Crutch Words are fascinating.  What are they? Words frequently overused in your writing. I discovered mine was soft  and all derivatives - eg: softened, softening.  Used it seven times in a 3,000 word short story! The story made sense with them, but it was annoying. Needless to say, they were surgically replaced. Talking to other writers: that, slightly, look, probably and seem are quite popular.