Ducie’s Diary: Taking A Break
I first started writing this blog in December 2007 when, after a career as a technical writer, I decided to try my hand at a more creative style. More than…
Ducie’s Diary: February 2024
It’s three months since I’ve written one of these catch-ups in their normal format. In December, I merely wished everyone a good holiday and in January, I published my annual…
Ducie’s Diary: January 2024
Each year, my first blog post is a review of how I did with the previous year’s writerly objectives and a list of what I hope to achieve in the…
Ducie’s Diary: December 2023
Another Year Closes For several years, it’s been my custom to spend November beavering away at NaNoWriMo and then begin my winter break on 1st December. And this year has…
Ducie’s Diary: November 2023
Well, that’s another November done with and my working year is effectively over. I traditionally take December off to concentrate on friends, family – and me, because, if you can’t…
Ducie’s Diary: October 2023
Another hugely busy month, dominated by a book launch (more of which anon). But we also managed to fit in some ‘us’ time as well. If you are ever looking…
Ducie’s Diary: September 2023
Another month gone by in a flash. September is always a favourite of mine, not least because it was the month I was born. Mind you, last year, we celebrated…
Ducie’s Diary: August 2023
Here in the UK, the last Monday in August is a Bank Holiday and has been for a long time, although when I was a child, it used to be…
Ducie’s Diary: July 2023
Although I didn’t mention it at the time, last month’s post was written on a tiny island in the Cyclades, where we were finally enjoying a much-postponed and much-needed break…
Ducie’s Diary: June 2023
Here in Chudleigh it’s time for the Summer Spectacular, a combination of traditional Carnival and more modern events. So far, we’ve had Open Gardens and the Summer Fete. Lots of…
Ducie’s Diary: May 2023
Here in the UK, it’s Bank Holiday Monday and the start of Half Term week. Usually, that’s a cue for cold, wet weather. But today, the sun is shining brightly,…
Ducie’s Diary: April 2023
For the first time this year, I’ve been working with the doors open to the garden. I can hear the birds singing in the trees above the gently burbling stream,…
Ducie’s Diary: March 2023
British Summer Time, Daylight Saving Time, whatever you call it, we’ve passed the point where the clocks go forward an hour. I have to confess that our walk this morning…
Ducie’s Diary: February 2023
Another month gone by and, despite the particularly chill wind here in Devon today, there are definite signs of spring. We went for an early morning drive and the sun…
Ducie’s Diary: January 2023
It’s been two months since I wrote one of these diary pieces, as I was on holiday last month. But time seems to be flying and our Christmas and New…
Elizabeth Chats With…S. Lee Fisher
Like me, this month’s guest is a scientist with a doctorate and a background in pharmaceuticals. Although we had no idea how similar our backgrounds were when we met as…
Where I’ve Been and Where I’m Going
It’s become a custom for the first post of each year to be a review of how I got on with the previous year’s objectives and the list of new…
Ducie’s Diary: December 2022
Nothing (writerly) to see here It has been my custom for the past few years to take December off in order to prepare for the holiday season and rest after…
Elizabeth Chats With…Robyn Michaels
In my monthly interviews, I try to cover the whole spectrum of writers and writing. Many of my guests have already published books, either traditionally or as indie authorpreneurs. Today…
Ducie’s Diary: November 2022
November has been an interesting month, with lots going on both on the writing and the marketing front. But I did find time to make good on my intention to…
Elizabeth Chats With…Stephanie Caruso
For a change this month, my guest is not an author in the sense that she has not published any books of her own. But nevertheless, books and authors are…
Ducie’s Diary: October 2022
October has simply flown by. It only seems like yesterday when I was enthusing about my birthday celebrations, but a whole month has passed since then. It’s been a packed…
Elizabeth Chats With…Leslie Eva Tayloe
This month’s guest is another writer that I’ve linked with over the past couple of years during lock-down. She lives in Virginia, USA and I live in Devon, UK; and…
Ducie’s Diary: September 2022
September is always special for me. It’s the month I was born, and even at my age, I still get really excited about cards and presents. But this year has…
Elizabeth Chats With…Pat Black-Gould
I first met this month’s guest via Women in Publishing School back in the summer of 2021. Pat Black-Gould, PhD has a diverse background that includes a career as an…
Ducie’ Diary: August 2022
What a glorious month it’s been weather-wise. I appreciate that not everyone enjoys a heatwave, and I’m as concerned about water shortages and other environmental issues as everyone else, but…
Swanwick 2022 Day 7
By the time you read this, me and the chilli plant (I mean, the chilli plant and I) will be in the car, heading for Devon. It’s a long drive…
Swanwick 2022 Day 6
Having overslept yesterday morning and stayed up until very late last night (well, this morning really), how come I’m wide awake before 5am? My internal clock is shot to pieces….
Swanwick 2022 Day 5
Morning all! I’ve overslept this morning, which is a sure sign the week’s activities are starting to tell on me. Of course, everything is relative: it’s still only 6.30am, but…
Swanwick 2022 Day 4
“Halfway through the week already. Who can believe it.” I know that’s what people will be saying over the breakfast table this morning. Hard to believe, after all the planning,…
Swanwick 2022 Day 3
A fist banging on my door at midnight is not something I would normally associate with Swanwick! (Apart from the year we had the fire alarm, of course.) When we…
Swanwick 2022 Day 2
I had cause to look back through my Swanwick blog entries yesterday. (We were trying to remember the name of one of the guest speakers from way back. But that’s…
Swanwick 2022 Day 1
Okay, so I know in last month’s diary, I said I wasn’t going to do a daily post this year. But I also qualified it by saying I might change…
Elizabeth Chats With…Leslie Powell Ahmadi
I met this month’s guest via the Women in Publishing Summit. Leslie Powell Ahmadi discovered her attraction to language and all manner of cultural traditions in her parents’ home at…
Ducie’s Diary: July 2022
There was a certain inevitability about what happened this month. After two and half years of feeling vulnerable and keeping ourselves to ourselves, plus two major bouts of knee surgery,…
Elizabeth Chats With…Elson Miller
I’ve been talking about the Women in Publishing summit for a couple of years now. And for the past few months, I’ve been introducing some of the members of ‘the…
Ducie’s Diary: June 2022
It’s been a month of two halves, has June. I’ve achieved quite a bit, as you can see below. We had great weather for the Platinum Jubilee celebrations here in…
Elizabeth Chats With…Alexa Bigwarfe
I’ve been talking about the Women in Publishing summit for a couple of years now. And for the past few months, I’ve been introducing some of the members of ‘the…
Ducie’s Diary: May 2022
I may have said this about other months during the year, but May really is my favourite. It’s the time when the garden seems to explode with life and colour….
Elizabeth Chats With…Jess Kotzer
For a while now, I’ve been talking about Authors in a Pickle, my internationally-based networking and support group. This month, I want to turn the spotlight on another of my…
Ducie’s Diary: April 2022
April is supposed to be quite a harsh month, weather-wise, with lots of sharp rain showers and some chilly breezes. But we’ve got off quite lightly here in the UK…
Elizabeth Chats With…Michelle Oucharek-Deo
For the past couple of months, I’ve been talking about Authors in a Pickle, my internationally-based networking and support group. This month, I’m delighted to be introducing you to another…
Ducie’s Diary: March 2022
What a beautiful spell of weather we’re having here in the UK. For the past week, I’ve been working with my office doors wide open and we’ve eaten lunch in…
Elizabeth Chats With…Eileen Joyce Donovan
Last month, I talked about the internationally based networking and support group I’m part of, although I didn’t mention its name. We call ourselves Authors in a Pickle and over…
Ducie’s Diary: February 2022
Well, that’s February done with. It’s only two or three days shorter than the other eleven months, but it seems to make a huge difference, doesn’t it? I spent most…
Elizabeth Chats With…Carol Amorosi
One of the unexpected, but most welcome, benefits coming out of the past two years has been the expansion of my virtual writing ‘tribe’. In particular, I have spent a…
Ducie’s Diary: January 2022
Okay, so I can read a calendar as well as anyone. I know it’s the first day of February. I know this should have been posted yesterday. But I have…
Designing My Path Through 2022
For a number of years, my first post each January has been a review of the previous year’s writerly achievements followed by my plans for the coming twelve months. I…
Ducie’s Diary: December 2021
For the past few years, I have put my writing and editing to one side in December and spent the month cooking, reading, writing cards and preparing home-made gifts. And…
Elizabeth Chats With…Sophy Layzell
This month’s guest is relatively local to me, living as she does in Somerset. However, in true twenty-first century style, we met online, via the wonderful network of Devon Book…
Ducie’s Diary: November 2021
Don’t look now, but I’m actually posting this on the right day, the last Monday of the month. I’m finally back on track, after two months of only just making…
Elizabeth Chats With…Marcia Clayton
I was introduced to this month’s guest a couple of years ago when she was just beginning her journey towards independent publishing. I watched with delight as she mastered all…
Ducie’s Diary: October 2021
For the second month running, I’m posting this late, but have just made it before the month end. (I was thinking of posting it in the early hours of next…
Elizabeth’s Chatting With…Stephen Male
My guest this month is a Swanwicker and fellow member of Chudleigh Writers’ Circle. He is interested in the fundamentals of what we humans are. Do we have souls or…
Ducie’s Diary: September 2021
This post is coming out a couple of days late, but I wanted to make sure it appeared in late September, rather than slipping into October. It’s been a busy…
Elizabeth’s Chatting With…Paul K Joyce
My guest this month is multi-talented. I met him when he joined Chudleigh Writers’ Circle and we were all thrilled when he published his first novel, The Will of the…
Ducie’s Diary: August 2021
I’m writing this on August Bank Holiday Monday, the last official holiday in the UK until Christmas. At 6.30 this morning, we watched the sun rise over the sea at…
Elizabeth’s Chatting With…Suzanne McConaghy
I first met this month’s guest when she attended Chudleigh Literary Festival back in 2018. We were running a competition, a kind of Chudleigh Dragon’s Den, for the first page…
Katherine’s In The Garden This Year
Today’s Virtual Swanwicker is Katherine Bolton, former Vice Chairman and events organiser, well-known to regulars for her meditation sessions by the lake each morning. To me, she’s simply my friend…
Cheryl’s In The Garden This Year
Todays’ visitor is Cheryl Holland, one of the School’s IT team, who usually spends the week tweeting about what’s going on in The Hayes. This week, she’s making use of…
Zana’s In The Garden This Year
Today’s guest on the Virtual Swanwick blog will be a familiar face to all Swanwickers. Zana Lamont, together with her husband John, has acted as host for guest speakers for…
Mark’s In The Garden This Year
Today we’re meeting someone who has a greater claim to being close to the Summer School than anyone else. Mark Dakin was brought up in Swanwick and returns at different…
Geoff’s In The Garden This Year
In this first of this year’s In The Garden interviews, I’m talking to Geoff Parkes, who will be known by many Swanwickers for his enthusiastic involvement in Page to Stage…
Who’s In The Garden This Year?
It’s the start of the second week in August, and time for an important annual event. And no, I don’t mean the Perseid meteor shower, although that often features in…
Val’s New Police Procedural
This week, I am delighted to hand my blog over to fellow author, Swanwicker and friend, Val Penny, as she prepares to launch the first in a brand new series…
Elizabeth Chats With…Maureen Boon
My guest this month is a fellow member of Chudleigh Writers’ Circle. She retired as Headteacher of Vranch House, an independent school for children with physical disabilities in Exeter, having…
Ducie’s Diary: June 2021
It’s become a bit of a habit to open these posts with a comment on the weather. How very British of me! In April, I complained about how cold it…
A Passion For Audio Books
Today’s blog post is a little different from my usual interviews. I’m handing over to fellow Chudleigh Writers Circle member, Celia Moore, who is going to talks about her love…
Ducie’s Diary: May 2021
What a difference a month makes. In April’s diary, I was talking about spending Easter with friends in the garden wrapped in blankets and cuddling a hot water bottle. For…
A Rose For Every Sense…
This time last month, we came to the end of my gastronomic tour around the world. If you missed it, you can find the start of the tour here. Today,…
Elizabeth Chats With…Margaret Barnes
Today, I’m welcoming an old friend back to the blog. Margaret Barnes and I have been writing buddies for years. We both started writing fiction after retiring from professions where…
Ducie’s Diary: April 2021
As predicted in last month’s diary, the Easter weekend saw us taking tea (and other beverages) with lots of friends in the garden. Our brand-new gazebo wasn’t needed, as the…
Eating My Way Round The World: Oysters in Paris
Today, we reach the final stage on my gastronomic trip around the world, looking back on some of the more memorable meals I’ve eaten during my travels. We started by…
Elizabeth Chats With…Sally Jenkins
My guest this month is an author and speaker. She has written two psychological thrillers, many short stories and articles plus non-fiction books on public speaking and self-publishing. I met…
My Working World: O is for…
It’s time for another in the occasional series looking at places I’ve worked around the world. We’ve covered the first half of the alphabet in the past couple of years…
Ducie’s Diary: March 2021
In the introduction to last month’s blog, I suggested winter was on the wain. Last week we passed the Spring Equinox; and last night we moved into British Summer Time…
Reflecting On A Year In A Bubble
When Boris Johnson announced a National Lockdown on 23rd March 2020, most people thought it would all be over in about three weeks. And many complained that three weeks was…
Eating My Way Round The World: Barbecue In Brazil
Today, we have another of my themed posts. As food has always been one of my favourite subjects, we’re taking a gastronomic trip around the world, looking back on some…
Elizabeth Chats With…Patricia M Osborne
My guest this month is friend and fellow-Swanwicker, Patricia M Osborne. Born in Liverpool but now living in West Sussex, she is married with grown-up children and grandchildren.. In 2019…
My Working World: N is for…
It’s time for another in the occasional series looking at places I’ve worked around the world. We’ve covered the first half of the alphabet in the past couple of years…
Ducie’s Diary: February 2021
As I sit writing this, I can see out of the corner of my eye custard coloured daffodils, tiny narcissi with trumpets of orange, pale yellow and purple crocuses and…
Eating My Way Round The World: Watching Sports in USA
Today, I’m returning to my latest series of themed posts. As food has always been one of my favourite subjects, we’re taking a gastronomic trip around the world, looking back…
Elizabeth Chats With…Allison Symes
Today’s guest is a fellow Swanwicker. She is a writer of short stories (including flash fiction), novels and some poetry; and she loves writing what she calls fairytales with bite….
My Working World: M is for…
Looking back through my blog, I am surprised to find it is eleven months since I last wrote one of these pieces about My Working World. But there’s been a…
Ducie’s Diary: January 2021
We may be almost at the end of January, but hopefully it’s not too late to wish you all a very Happy New Year. It’s been while since I’ve written…
Eating My Way Round The World: Georgian Tables
Today, I’m returning to my latest series of themed posts. As food has always been one of my favourite subjects, we’re taking a gastronomic trip around the world, looking back…
Elizabeth Chats With…Jo Barton
My guest this month is someone of great importance to writers everywhere: a book blogger. Those wonderful people who agree to read our books, talk about them, review them, recommend…
A Game of Three Halves
For the past few years, my first post each January has been a review of the previous year’s writerly achievements followed by my plans for the coming twelve months. I’ve…
Taking A Break
I’m taking a short break from blogging. I will be back in the new year.
Blog Tour: Gilding The Lily by Justine John
Today, I am delighted to be hosting Justine John on the latest leg of her blog tour to celebrate her psychological thriller, Gilding The Lily. My thanks to Kelly of…
It’s Been A Strange Kind of Year…
I’ve always been a planner. Every year, I set up a list of writing objectives to be completed over the coming twelve months. From this, I produce monthly plans, which…
Elizabeth Chats With…Kimwei
This month’s guest is a singer-songwriter; spoken word artist; music tutor; and the current Grand Bard of Exeter. When you become Bard you take an oath, a commitment to the…
Eating My Way Round The World: Barbecue in a Cave
Today, I’m returning to my latest series of themed posts. As food has always been one of my favourite subjects, we’re taking a gastronomic trip around the world, looking back…
Ducie’s Diary: July 2020
It’s hard to believe we are already into the second half of the year. One minute we were in mid-March, waiting for spring to begin, and suddenly we’re already well…
Blog Tour: Temple of Dreams by Carolyn Mathews
Today, I am delighted to be hosting Carolyn Mathews on the latest leg of her blog tour to celebrate her time-slip novel, Temple of Dreams. My thanks to Kelly of…
Blog Tour: Let’s Get Published by Val Penny
Today, I am delighted to be hosting Val Penny on the latest leg of her blog tour to celebrate the launch of her fabulous guide for newbie writers, Let’s Get…
Blog Tour: Whatever It Takes by Tadhg Coakley
Today, I am delighted to be hosting Tadhg Coakley on the latest leg of his blog tour to celebrate the launch of his great new thriller Whatever It Takes. My thanks…
Eating My Way Round The World: Wedding in St Petersburg
Before we were so rudely interrupted by Covid-19, I began a new series of themed posts. We’re taking a break from my usual ‘seven decades of’ pieces and going for…
Independent Publishing Webinar
Join me for a free webinar on Saturday 20th June at 3pm BST when we will review the key decisions you need to take to prepare for a successful indie…
Elizabeth Chats With…Joy Wood
I first met this month’s guest when she arrived at the Book Room with copies of her novels at the start of the annual Writers’ Summer School at Swanwick a…
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