Newsletter Time! Sparkles, School Talks and Colin’s Antics
Welcome to this month’s round-up from your friendly neighbourhood author (that’s me, Ruth Leigh). I’ve finally handed over My Own Darling Child for editing—yes, it’s happening—and I’m already plotting the next book with some familiar Issy Smugge flavour stirred in. Between literary festivals, creative writing workshops, school visits and the ongoing adventures of Colin (who is, once again, upright and adored), it’s been a joyful whirlwind. There’s even a surprise book review and a chance to meet me (and possibly Colin) in person. Pop the kettle on and have a read…
Peaks and Troughs
I’m back! It’s been a while since I wrote anything for my own blog. I’ve been busy writing the three Isabella M Smugge books, my first collection of Jane Austen short stories (I’ll tell you about that in the next blog) and generally throwing myself headfirst into the life of a full time writer. Back at the end of 2021 when I considered what that would look like, I visualised days full of ideas and creativity, books selling in huge numbers, people coming up to me in the street and murmuring, “Aren’t you – Ruth Leigh?” Lots of fun stuff has happened and it’s been great, but glamorous it ain’t.
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Andy Chamberlain interviews Ruth Leigh as part of the blog tour for The Continued Times of Isabella M Smugge
Writer, Andy Chamberlain, interviews Ruth Leigh as part of the blog tour for The Continued Times of Isabella M Smugge.
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Creating a World: Hashtags, Selfies and Self-Plumping Pillows
It’s been quite a while since I published anything on here. In my defence, I have been quite busy, writing novels (three published in eighteen months), doing my freelance work and keeping the family alive. But you know, it’s time! It really is. These days, all the evidence points to me being a Proper Writer.
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Happy Second Anniversary, Isabella!
Just for a laugh, I made up a woman who was the complete opposite of me. Rich, posh, skinny with an agent and a publisher and a gorgeous Grade II listed house. Out it went in April and got good comments. On 7th May, I wrote about her again and to my utter amazement received the following message from Tony Collins, a literary agent.
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And She's Off!
The online book launch for the Trials of Isabella M Smugge. Back in the day (by which I mean when we didn’t routinely wear masks and bandy terms like, “LFT” and “PCR test” around), authors, what had written books, would have book launches. These would take place in bookshops, or pubs, or libraries, they tell me. Lots of people would come, buy their signed copy, listen to the author speak and sip fizz and nibble canapes. It was all jolly good fun, apparently.
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No More Eeros Anymore
Simple elements of modern life, which everyone else takes for granted, pass the Leigh household by. Suffolk isn’t known for its fast internet speeds, and that’s fine. If I wanted super-duper all-singing all-dancing full-fat broadband I’d have stayed in Essex. However, even by the county’s standards, out here it’s lamentable. It drops out at least twice a week. Even when we upgraded to the Very Posh Router it still disappeared from time to time, waiting until I was up against a deadline and then deciding to go off and do something else.
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#shoplocal
Only a few days till Christmas. How did that happen? It seems like yesterday that we were struggling through yet another lockdown, unsure of what the future would bring. It’s been quite a year. Queues at petrol stations, new Covid variants, Christmas parties that happened, then didn’t happen, then probably did happen but it was OK because everyone stuck to the guidelines and they were really, really tired with running the country and all, so they deserved to let their hair down.
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Shameful is the head that wears the crown
A lifelong Guardian reader, I followed the links my friend sent me. The embers blazed up into those old familiar flames as I read about the shameful part the then Foreign Secretary (our current PM, bless his fluffy little blond noggin) had played in Nazanin’s incarceration. Anger grew in my heart as I did the background research I should have done when this story made headline news the first time around.
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Isabella Smugge says #challengeaccepted Part Two
PART TWO - I love a challenge and so does my heroine, insanely successful lifestyle blogger Isabella M Smugge. Some kind person (I know not who) came up with a book challenge, helpfully named #31daysofoctoberchallenge. The idea is that you post every day on your socials with that hashtag, in whatever style you like. Top mate and writer Wendy H Jones alerted me to the challenge – thanks Wendy!
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Isabella Smugge says #challengeaccepted Part One
I love a challenge and so does my heroine, insanely successful lifestyle blogger Isabella M Smugge. Some kind person (I know not who) came up with a book challenge, helpfully named #31daysofoctoberchallenge. The idea is that you post every day on your socials with that hashtag, in whatever style you like. Top mate and writer Wendy H Jones alerted me to the challenge – thanks Wendy!
So for every day in October, I celebrated a National Day and look at how it ties with Isabella’s world. Welcome to the ride!
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Trials, Tribulations and Hashtags
“You never have to change anything you got up in the middle of the night to write.” These wise words are ascribed to Saul Bellow, a multi-award-winning man of letters and general Very Clever Chap, and if he thinks it’s true, it probably is.
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Hashtag Heaven Winners Announced!
With Hashtag Heaven, Ruth Leigh invited her readers and viewers to think of a hashtag Issy might use in her next adventure. The winning hashtags feature in the trials of Isabella M Smugge (now available to order) and their creators also make an appearance in the book.
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Issy Rides Again
It’s been a while since I wrote a blog for my own website. My staggeringly successful creation, top lifestyle blogger and mumfluencer Isabella M Smugge would be horrified and her recently Botoxed agent Mimi Stanhope would be apoplectic with rage. I hope you, dear readers, will overlook this silence as I have been rather busy getting Issy’s continued adventures down on paper.
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Book Cover Reveal for The Trials of Isabella M Smugge
Here, at last, is the long-awaited book cover, the sequel to Isabella's adventures, the trials of Isabella M Smugge. You can get your hands on a signed first edition in late September if you sign up here on my website (below), or get it in all good bookshops and on Amazon in early October.
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Island Life
Nearly sixty years ago, two people decided to go away on holiday. Both were in their thirties, both single, and both had decided that they were never going to meet “The One” so might as well resign themselves to the single life. They travelled to Shetland, the archipelago flung out into the sea, nearer Norway than Scotland. In the guest house, the woman noticed a good-looking man glancing across at her. Whichever trip she booked up, he would be at her elbow, chatting. By the end of the week, they were going out and two years later they got married. They were my parents (pictured above in 2008). Without Shetland, I wouldn’t be here, so it seemed appropriate to have a family holiday there this summer.
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From Pawnee to Bloomington: Indiana Stories
And that’s how we find ourselves in the fine state of Indiana. One of my favourite films is set there (Breaking Away), as are two of my favourite TV shows (Parks & Recreation and Stranger Things). Watching the Parks and Recreation Department of fictional Indiana town Pawnee (America’s fourth fattest town!) I started musing about the state…
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In Which Ruth Wields a Lance
Do you ever find yourself writing a word or phrase then looking at it as if it were the first time you’d ever encountered it? Every so often, I’ll write that something is full to the gunwales and think, ‘Heck, I need to know exactly what that means and look it up. (It’s a nautical term referring to the upper edge or planking of the side of a boat). I was reading a novel not that long ago, traditionally published by someone quite famous and it was spelt as gunnals. Which made me very cross because I am such a pedant.
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A Tale of Two Extraordinary Gentlemen
I read nearly everything in the paper and the supplements and over the past few weeks, two stories have leapt out and smacked me between the eyes. They were fascinating, surprising and gave me a window into someone else’s world. Here they are. I hope you enjoy them.
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The Rational Elasticated Waist Movement
I sit here, in my draughty Victorian house, at a mid-19th century kneehole walnut desk, writing. The room in which I sit was built in 1892, its only heating an open fire. My feet rest on the original red tiles and my little writing nook is nestled in the corner of the room, by an exposed brick wall.
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