Tag Archives: Glenda Young

My Writing Process Glenda Young

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Glenda Young, author, writer, The Girl with the Scarlet Ribbon by Glenda Young is published 1st October (£7.99, Paperback, Headline)

1.      A bit about you.

My name’s Glenda Young and I’ve loved writing ever since I was a child. I live in the northeast and my novels are set in the coalmining village of Ryhope where I was born and bred. You don’t need to know the village to enjoy the books, which are gritty and dramatic and have a feisty, young heroine at their core. All of my books are stand alone books and you can read them in any order. 

I’m a life-long fan of the soap opera Coronation Street run two Coronation Street fan sites – Corrie.net online since 1995 and the Coronation Street Blog which was launched in 2007.
2. What you have written, past and present.

I’ve written six novels to date published with Headline. The first four are now available and these are Belle of the Back Streets, The Tuppenny Child, Pearl of Pit Lane and The Girl with the Scarlet Ribbon. Still to come are The Paper Mill Girl and novel six which has the title to be confirmed. The novels are gritty sagas, inspired by my love of soap opera, really dramatic with lots of action and some great women characters!

I’ve also built an impressive reputation as an award-winning short story writer.  Plus, I have an unusual claim to fame! I’m the creator of the first ever weekly soap opera Riverside to appear in The People’s Friend, the longest running women’s magazine in the world. My short fiction has appeared in magazines including Take a Break, My Weekly and The People’s Friend. In 2019 I was a finalist in the Clement & Le Frenais Comedy Award.

As a life-long fan of the soap opera Coronation Street I’ve written TV Tie-In books about the show including Coronation Street: The official colouring book, Deirdre: A Life on Coronation Street, A Perfect Duet. The Diary of Roy and Hayley Cropper in Coronation Street, and have written major updates to Coronation Street: The Novel and Coronation Street: The Complete Saga.

3. What you are promoting now.

My fourth novel is The Girl with the Scarlet Ribbon. It’s a dramatic, gritty story set in a small village in 1919. It begins with a new born baby girl being left on the doorstep of a very grand house. The baby is left in a basket that has a scarlet ribbon tied around the handle. The housekeeper of the wealthy McNally family takes the baby into her care and names her Jess. Sworn to secrecy about the baby’s true identity, the housekeeper brings Jess up as her own, giving Jess no reason to question where she came from. But when the housekeeper passes away, grief-stricken Jess, now sixteen, is banished from the place she’s always called home. With the scarlet ribbon the only connection to her past, will Jess ever find out where she really belongs? And will she uncover the truth about the ruthless McNallys?

4. A bit about your process of writing.

I write in the mornings when I can concentrate better. I stop for coffee and have a break, do some thinking and then return to writing. I try to write 2,000 words per day. I find I’m much more able and creative in the mornings than in the afternoon. I live close to a lovely beach so I walk on the beach in the afternoons or go for a bike ride. This helps clear my head after writing all morning.

5. Do you plan or just write?

I always plan, even if it’s just a short story I’ll make a list of say, ten things I want to include from start to finish. I plot and plan loosely as I think all writers know that once you start writing your work takes on a life of its own and you should go with the flow to a certain extent. I liken my plotting and planning to building a frame on which to weave my words. It’s always flexible to change as I go but I always have a structure in place so I know what I’m doing and where I’m going, even if sometimes I go off on a side road for a little while.
6. What about word count?

For novels it’s usually around 100,000 words and for short stories for women’s magazines, it can be anything from 700 words up to 3,000 and beyond.

7. How do you do your structure?

For my novels I take sheets of A4 paper, one for each chapter and lay them out on the floor. Then I take my plot points and spread them out on post-it notes across the book, moving them around until I’m happy. Then I type up chapter plans, just a couple of paragraphs for each chapter so I know what I’m doing within each one. Then once I start writing, characters appear I never planned for, incidents happen I never envisaged and the book takes on a life of its own. It’s quite scary how it happens and I don’t truly understand it. Perhaps that’s the secret?

8. What do you find hard about writing?

Switching off. When I’m writing a novel it’s all encompassing, my entire concentration goes into my work for the duration I’m writing it. I’m living in that world and I love it, it’s all I can think about as I immerse myself into the story.

9. What do you love about writing?

Everything! From getting that initial spark of an idea to seeing my books on the shelves of the bookshops and getting amazing reviews online and in the press and on radio, etc. There’s nothing I don’t like.

10. Advice for other writers?

Never give up. Never.

http://glendayoungbooks.com

@flaming_nora on Twitter.

A Day in the Life – Glenda Young

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Glenda Young by Emily Pentland

My day begins with tea made in the pot and warmed by a tea-cosy. I try to schedule my days in advance into writing and non-writing so that I know, for instance, on a writing day I won’t even look at email or social media or do anything other than crack on with my work in progress.  This may make me sound as if I am incredibly disciplined. But in truth, as anyone who works from home will know, the lure of the hour-long coffee break, daytime TV and the call of the biscuit tin are often difficult to ignore. In order to get any writing done at all, I have to be very focussed. Hold on a moment, would you, while I go and pop the kettle on?

On writing days I aim for 2,000 words and no matter if I’m in the thick of it or not, once I reach those 2,000 words, I force myself to stop. This leaves me itching to get started again the next day, rather than being stuck as to how to start. It might sound odd, but it works for me!

And if it’s a non-writing day, then it’s admin – emails, social media, appointments, arranging talks and events. As a debut novelist, giving talks is very new to me. It’s exciting but more than a little scary as I’m really quite shy and have to force myself out into the world to stand in front of people and talk. Fortunately, all talks so far have gone down well, and (I hope!) people are laughing at my anecdotes rather than laughing at me.

Research is also a key and ongoing part of writing a novel and it’s one I enjoy tremendously (although, yes, just like the hour-long coffee breaks mentioned above, I know it can work as displacement activity from the real task in hand of writing!). My novels are set in the northeast village of Ryhope, where I grew up. It prospered as a coalmining village and there is still a very strong sense of community there. My family still live there and I visit Ryhope often. The Ryhope Heritage Society have been extremely generous with their time and resources in helping me research for my work.

On a Wednesday afternoon all writing of my novels and admin come to a halt. Wednesday afternoons are sacrosanct. This is when I write my weekly soap opera Riverside for The People’s Friend magazine. I’m honoured to be writing the first ever soap opera in the history of the longest running women’s magazine in the world.  I love Wednesday afternoons and writing Riverside. It’s a fun, sunny break bringing life to a community I’ve created.

And whether it’s a writing day or not, one thing I like to do as long as the weather allows, is take a bike ride outside in fresh air. I’m very lucky to live on the coast and we have cycle paths stretching for miles in each direction. As a writer sitting at a desk all day, getting outside to cycle is a real luxury and one I enjoy a lot. It’s also important for me to get out and talk to people and so I try to arrange meet-ups with other local writers. Mondays are my “day off” when I’ll go shopping in town or treat myself to the afternoon at the cinema – phone off, cup of tea in hand, cocooned in the dark and utterly, totally switched off.

 

Belle of the Backstreets by Glenda Young is out now in paperback

Headline £6.99 RRP also available in E-book and audio

Glenda Young credits her local library in the village of Ryhope, where she grew up, for giving her a love of books. She still lives close by in Sunderland and often gets her ideas for her stories on long bike rides along the coast. A life-long fan of Coronation Street, she runs two fan websites for which she sometimes interviews the cast of the show. For updates on what Glenda is working on, visit her website glendayoungbooks.com and to find out more find her on Facebook/GlendaYoungAuthor and Twitter @flaming_nora.

Belle of the Backstreets by Glenda Young

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Belle-of-the-Backstreets-Glenda-Young

When Meg Sutcliffe’s father returns from the Great War he teaches his fifteen year old daughter, Meg the ways of the rag and bone man. But when tragedy strikes Meg has no other option than to carry on alone with her trusty dog, Spot at her side and her beloved horse, Stella pulling the wagon. 

Meg is a beauty and attracts attention wherever she goes – not all of it of the right sort, and when she catches the eye of charming Clarky it looks like she might have found a protector and a chance of happiness. But is Clarky really what he seems? And could Adam, Meg’s loyal childhood friend, be the one who really deserves her heart?

Meg Sutclifffe is a feisty beauty who will do whatever it takes to keep her family fed, and a roof over their heads. The Sutcliffe family may not have much but they have each other. Totally unsuited to the hard, heavy work of her father’s rag and bone round, Meg will not be deterred and sets out to build up the business to provide for her family.

Set in the mining village of Ryhope in the north east, Glenda Young paints such a fine picture of the area and the period that by the end of the book I felt I had been there. Her descriptions of both character and setting are wonderful and although Belle of the Backstreets has its fair share of villains, there are enough good honest people in the community to support and encourage her. There is a warmth and humour in bucket loads and you’ll be rooting for Belle to overcome all the trials that beset her.

A warm-hearted debut from Glenda Young.

Lovers of Dilly Court and Rosie Goodwin will enjoy Belle of the Backstreets.

About Glenda Young

Glenda Young credits her local library in the village of Ryhope, where she grew up, for giving her a love of books. She still lives close by in Sunderland and often gets her ideas for her stories on long bike rides along the coast. A life-long fan of Coronation Street, she runs two fan websites for which she sometimes interviews the cast of the show. For updates on what Glenda is working on, visit her website glendayoungbooks.com and to find out more find her on Facebook/GlendaYoungAuthor and Twitter @flaming_nora.

Headline – Paperback Original – 7th March 2019- £6.99 Also available in E-Book and Audio