T. E. Hartshorn

Catching up with old friends, 23 April 2013

I loved The Bad Mother's Handbook, so it was an absolute joy to catch up with Karen, Charlotte and Nan again in this wonderful follow up. It was like meeting old friends after a ten year period.

I read through it in record time because I just couldn't wait to find out what happened at the end. Kate Long's prose also flows very easily, keeping you turning the pages even when you know it's time to put out the light and go to sleep. There are two intriguing mysteries to solve. We the reader know the outcome of one, even if poor Charlotte doesn't, which makes her quest for the truth even more chilling. I kept wanting to say 'Run, Charlotte!'

The lesson I learned from The… Read more

How to write ghost stories - not at all scary!, 14 April 2013

Kathleen McGurl is best known to many as blogger Womagwriter. As author of the popular blog, she knows her stuff when it comes to writing for women's magazines and has always been generous about sharing that information with others. This book concentrates all her knowledge on writing ghost stories. As well as having several cracking ghost stories, Kathleen also explains the differences between different types of ghost story and explains what inspired her to write each story.

But don't believe her when she dismisses one first draft as not good enough to publish. I thought that particular section showed a great example of how one story could be told in two different ways and still… Read more

I am the dancing queen!, 26 Mar 2013

I ordered this last week, and it arrived yesterday. I went on it 'just to try it out' and didn't stop until 9 songs later! That's how much fun this is.

You can choose which Abba girl (or boy) you want to be, which means you can dance a bit differently each time if you want, and there's also a High School Musical that you can take part in, choosing which character you want to be, which is really enjoyable and doo-wappy, so right up my street.

I don't have a microphone for our Wii, but that didn't stop me singing along to all the well known songs. There are some of Abba's lesser known songs included as someone pointed out, but that wasn't a problem for me as they're all… Read more