#sfh2 - Paperback release

Did you know that:

* According to Shelter, 65,000 families will be homeless this Christmas.

* At least one more family becomes homeless in Britain EVERY TEN MINUTES.
* There are 250,000 homeless people in England. That's a quarter of a million!
* 300,000+ in Britain.
* In the worst hit areas, 1 in 25 people are homeless.
* Last year, the lowest number of socially rented homes were built in 71 years. 71 YEARS!
* Tory austerity is linked to 120,000 deaths, according to a study in BMJ Open (medical journal).

These figures are shocking and unacceptable. The numbers seem too big for us 'little people' to do anything about. We are left feeling helpless and hopeless in the face of such desperate need...

Except... Today, you CAN do something to make a difference. YOU can help Shelter, the charity which helps and supports people suffering from bad housing and homelessness. And all because a collective of wonderful people have given their time and skills for free to put together and publish a second anthology of short stories on the theme of home, with every penny of the profits going direct to Shelter. 

Today is Paperback Launch Day:

Stories for Homes, Volume 2 (#sfh2) contains over 50 stories in paperback for £12.99. Already out on kindle, (£5.99) the book has received nothing less than 5 stars in every review it has received so far. We - the folk who've been involved in both the book and the online anthology, as well as everyone who helped with the cover artwork, blog tour, publicity, and line up of events to launch the book - are hoping it will be every bit the bestseller that the original Stories for Homes anthology was.

The paperback - looking good

And we'll achieve it, with your help. Please - buy the book. For yourself, or as a present. Tweet. Share. Retweet the tweets you see. Buy the ebook. Blog about it. Read it. Make a noise about it! Do all of it, knowing that you - yes, YOU - are making a difference and helping Shelter to ensure there's help for those caught up in bad housing or homelessness both now, and in the future. We already know they appreciate it: 

To finish, there's one other statistic I'd like to share with you. 

71 - the official number of deaths at Grenfell Tower; the anthology is dedicated to the victims of that tragedy.  

 

Someone's following me...

I'm always enormously chuffed to hear that someone is following me (and therefore the Scribbles) on Google+. It makes me feel like I'm not talking to myself! I also know that many of you are regular readers but choose not to 'follow' - and I'm just as chuffed when someone who isn't an official follower tells me they've enjoyed a particular post or starts a conversation about something I've shared with the wider world.

I enjoy blogging and sharing my experiences with you all and lots of you seem to enjoy reading, because recently, I've had a flurry of new followers. Well - almost a dozen in the space of five days, which is unheard of for this blog.

Without exception, my new followers are all male, single, and involved in the military.

I have no problem with this. I understand that there are algorithms and the like that search out and suggest people to follow. But it did set me thinking about search engines that exist simply to root out female profiles for men 'looking for a relationship'. And I found that thought uncomfortable, probably because I've never experienced it first hand before - other than to ignore the 'single men looking for women' ads on facebook. I know there is a risk when you 'put yourself out there' on the internet - and I don't mind being followed by people I don't know. That's part and parcel of being a blogger.

But somehow, I don't think I'm going to be providing what these guys are looking for with a blog about writing and life.

That said, if you are one of my newer followers, stick around. I hope you DO find something to catch your eye and keep your interest on the Scribbles.

PS. And I'm not talking about my profile pic or the fact I'm female...

100 days of writing. Tick.

Yesterday, I achieved my target - 100 days of writing. Almost a third of a year - in words.

Not exactly pretty...but it does the job

I started back in April, inspired by a friend whose husband had made her a writing chart. I didn't think I could realistically go a full year, (as she is well on the way to achieving) so my chart stopped at 100 days.

Here's what I learned about my writing patterns over the last 125 days...

Overall, the ratio of writing to non-writing days on average is 4:1. (In June, I achieved a 6:1 ratio)

The longest unbroken stint of daily writing was 13 days.

It took 74 days to complete the first draft of King Stone.

The summer holidays were responsible for just over half of the non-writing days.

I tend to be able to write for 5 days comfortably and then need a break. However, more than a couple of days 'off' in a row and I get twitchy...

Having a visual prompt helps me to keep focused and reminds me just how much time I'm not spending writing.

Will I carry on? Definitely.

Here's to the next 100...

Blogging stats.

I am taking part in the ultimate blog challenge, and am determined not to miss a single day in July. However, today is the closest I've got to doing that, having spent the afternoon at the hospital with my son while the doctors tried to work out why he had severe stomach pains. Fortunately, T is OK, though extremely tired and very tender from being poked in the tummy by so many different people in such a short space of time.

Anyway - today's blog is on something I'm finding rather fascinating; who logs onto this blog.

Fellow bloggers will know that you can watch your stats, finding out where readers are logging on from, what countries they're in, which search engine they're using, even the time when they view the blog.

 It is amazing and quite humbling to know that my words are being read, quite literally, all over the world. Well - I hope they're being read. Perhaps a few folk drop in on the off-chance and decide they're in completely the wrong place, or that I'm talking a lot of tosh and they'll never come back again...but I suppose, like most bloggers, I'm hoping they find something they want to bother with. I certainly have no idea whether 1000+ page views in 3 weeks is a good or bad thing.

What I enjoy seeing most is the variety of countries who visit. (Ha! Imagine that - a whole country visiting my blog!) I'm a little disappointed to only be able to see the 'top ten' because very quickly the interesting ones disappear. All countries are interesting of course, but I sort of took it for granted that I'd get hits from Europe and the US. What I didn't expect was a sudden rush from Russia, a visit from Venezuela or a mooch from Mexico. I was delighted to see Quatar, Israel, and Oz - though in most cases their single-digit visits disappear really quickly from my limited stats list and are lost to the mists of time.

I wish the stats for 'all-time' really were that; I would celebrate every single visit and hope not to miss anywhere else interesting...