Blog Tour Stop: There's More to Life Than Cupcakes by Poppy Dolan

Today I am thrilled to welcome the Blog Tour to my blog for Poppy Dolan's new novel There's More To Life Than Cupcakes! The book has been released through new publishers, Novelicious Books, and looks like a cracking read. Poppy was kind enough to write a piece for me to feature on my blog, so here we go!

Novelicious Books are running a fab competition too...

"At midnight on the evening of Thursday 24th October (the tour's conclusion), we will be randomly selecting one person who has left a comment on any of the blog posts on the Poppy Dolan blog tour. That commenter will win a kit of baking and cake decorating supplies from BBC The Apprentice finalist Luisa Zissman’s The Baker Shop. Chock full of gorgeous edible shapes, sprinkles and even some sparkly edible glitter, each kit contains £50 worth of goodies."

So go on, get entering! What are you waiting for?!

There's More To Life Than Cupcakes is available to buy as an eBook now.

My writing rituals by Poppy Dolan

I don’t always write in the most organised, methodical ways (I often get my best ideas on the bus and so send myself baffling emails, typed between stops) but I do have some writing rituals that put me in the right mood for a long writing sesh. I usually can’t focus until I have these things in place:

1. Diet Coke. And tonnes of it. I know whatever’s in it that makes it sweet but still 0 calories probably isn’t super organic, but it gives me a good writerly boost just when I need it.

2. No chipped nail varnish. If my varnish is a bit chipped or peeling, I just can’t sit down and type until I’ve sorted it Call it work avoidance or OCD, but if I don’t fix it I’ll find myself staring at it for the next three hours instead of staring at my WIP. Having lovely nails also makes me feel all Barbara Cartland and she wrote a library’s worth all on her own.

3. A nice big jumper. I sometimes write in the shed (the shed called Terence, for full disclosure) and it gets a bit breezy in there. There are also spiders, so a rolled up newspaper is handy. Eugh.

4. A mozzarella and basil pannino. When I’m not in the shed writing (sorry Terence), I head to my local coffee shop. It’s warmer, it doesn’t have spiders and it does a mean mozzarella and basil pannino. A friend of mine once told me that pannini is actually the plural and now I can’t get that out of my head, so I say pannino and sound like a right twerp. (Sorry, coffee shop people)

5. Notebook. Beautiful stationery cannot be underestimated  - it inspires great things in ordinary people. And although it might be more efficient and whizzy to type my thoughts straight into my laptop, nothing quite beats scrawling down ideas old school, with a pen on paper. Lots of my notes are short and sweet: ‘TV advert?!!!’ ‘TOO much cake maybe?’ ‘Is she a right nob though?’ but they help keep the important stuff front and centre.

6. Spider. Nope, not the squishing kind, the Solitaire kind. If I manage an hour of writing, I treat myself to a few games. Which of course turns into eight games. Then the guilt kicks back in and I make myself write for the next hour. So, really it’s very healthy and productive.

Thanks so much, Poppy!