My Life as a writer - When I'm not scribbling

I love comfort food; it makes you feel all warm inside.  Once of the meals I love to make as comfort food is hearty rustic lasagne.   Originally I learned to make this when I was around ten or eleven, I had a bit of an obsession with Italian food so I started to experiment.  Over the years I've tweaked, changed and adapted my recipe.   This version was partly inspired by the brilliant Mary Berry and uses wraps as a pasta substitute and partly by my mindset of trying to eat as many vegetables as I can.  Hopefully you'll enjoy!  Ingredients to make four servings  Mince 500g (steak mince at 5% Fat)  Olive oil (1tbsp)    Two medium Red Onions    2 Carrots    Frozen garden Peas    Mushrooms (Button or chestnut)  Broccoli    Green Beans    Tomatoes  Beef stock (1 cube)    Worcestershire Sauce (to taste)   Sugar tsp.    Tomato Passata 500g  1 cup Water    Fresh Basil  Mediterranean Wraps    Grated Cheese    Red Wine    Garlic Step 1  I st

Okay, I know right now it hardly feels like summer - I'm still wearing jumpers and a coat!  But I do have some summer make up loves that I wanted to share. My first is the Clarins Lip Oil, this has been out for a while but there is a new flavour out now called Red Berry which I'm loving.  I leaves my lips with a light reddish tint, feel gloriously rich when putting it on and last ages.   My lips which can sometimes feel dry especially at the moment as the temperature is all over the place feel moisturised and soft when using this.  one bottle (0.23 fl oz) is lasting me around three months.  At £19 this may seem a bit excessive for a lip balm but it does go a long long, gives a great summer shine and tastes lovely.  The sponge applicator is soft and swipes the product on evenly and doesn't leave a sticky residue. My second Clarins product is the Summer bronzing compact.  I've been using this for the last two months to give a subtle glow, partly to convince my very

I love makeup.  I have worn it everyday since I was about 8 or 9 years old.  I've tried hundreds of ways of applying my make up, experimented with colours and changed my look from heavy to light to somewhere in between over the years. The one thing that's always remained a constant though is on a regular basis cleaning my tools.  My grandfather always said you can tell a good workman by the way they treat their tools.  I'm careful with my make up brushes and renew them every few years as they start to loose hair and shape. Currently I have two sets which I use combined, this also allows me to have one set cleaned and using a second set while they dry.  I have sensitive skin and I can always tell if I've left it too long between cleansing sessions.  Usually I try to wash my brushes once a week, usually they are okay for two weeks, longer than that I start to notice my make up isn't as smooth as I like and my skin may start showing signs of breakouts. To clean m

As you know I love movies and I have a long list to see this year.  It's been a good year so far in terms of movies, there's been quite a few that I've really enjoyed and Monday Night I got to see another good movie. Me Before You in Cinemas 3 June 2016 Me Before You is based on the novel by Jojo Moyles, I must admit I haven't read the book.  It was originally published in 2012 and having just lost my father who I was carer for I wasn't really up for reading it given the subject matter. Roll on a few years and the book is now a movie starting Emilia Clarke of Games of Thrones fame and Sam Claffin (Pirates of the Caribbean & The Hunger Games).  The screenplay penned by Jojo Moyles gave me hope that the movie would be true to the spirit of the novel which the book groups I am in do rave about. When the opportunity came up to go to a preview screening at Cineworld I thought why not, I'll just ensure I take a box of tissues! Tissues was a great call,

I was catching up on my Face book groups the other day and someone had asked the question, if you blog and work how do you fit it all in and it got me thinking how do I fit it all in and am I achieving what I set out to? Well as the old saying goes - "When Life Gives You Lemons, Make Lemonade" 1. Day Job As an independent author I still need a 'day job' to earn a living, I'm not in a position yet where the money I earn as a novelist is enough to cover my expenses,  I am working towards that but for now I need to support my writing by working. I'm a Personal Assistant in the Fire Service, I'm lucky in terms of my job is flexible.  A lot of writers and bloggers starting out are in jobs where the time they are in the office is set and unchangeable.  I'm lucky that mine is flexible.  Having this flexibility allows me to plan my days effectively. Most days I'm at my desk by 7.30,  depending on what the day holds which being an emergency servic

Everyone has a story, some sound like a best selling novel, others seem a little more middle of the road.  But the art of the story is what you learn from it, the moral that stays with you, the changes it makes to you as a person.   Everyone lives a story, life is the biggest and best book you'll ever write, so you have to write the best one you are able.   Learn from your past but don't be bogged down by it, use it  to make your future the best and biggest it can be.  You can also learn from the stories around you, from the people you love, the chapters of the lives of the people who build your family.   There are a lot of stories in the chapters lived before I was born  There are so many I'll never know, so many I know pieces of and some like a good mystery I'll never really know the end to, but each one teaches me something about who I am and who I want to be.   This weekend it seems very apt to tell the story of something that happened on

The evolution of my hair, well there's a story; When I was born, my mam always reminds me, I went missing in the hospital for a while because the nurses were amazed at my thick jet black hair and decided to show me off as my mam slept.  I'm sure if that happened now there's be some major case review and heads would roll!  Anyway, the point is I was born with a lot of rich dark hair and while the thickness has never changed, the colour well..... Before The Cut  As I grew my hair grew long and dark changing from jet black to a deep brown/black with a hint of red. I think at one point it was waist length that was until I found a pair of scissors and thought I'd make a great hairdresser - the results horrified my mam and I ended up with my first ever bob. This should have been a life lesson and I should never have let another pair of scissors near my hair again, only well as I came in to my teens I decided to cut my hair off and have a pixie style only