Nikita Jane Garner

For several years now, my handful of Twitter followers have been audience to multiple weekly retweets of articles, stats and news stories concerning the problems faced by the NHS and junior doctors, largely thanks to Jeremy Hunt’s expediency and ineptitude. Is there a single statistic the man hasn’t yet managed to warp for his own ends? More recently, my (re)tweeting regarding the NHS has increased has increased, (probably to the dismay of the 90% of my followers who are sheep farmers; they’re more interested in Michael Gove’s ineptitude these days) and the reason for this is because I’ve started researching and working on a novel where the protagonist is a junior doctor. It’s early stages yet, but the plot is slowly taking shape. Writing about current, raw, politically-sensitive issues is something I’ve dabbled in previously when talking about farming, but it was nowhere near on this scale. I realised instantly that in fictionalising something which for many is real, exhausti...

Anyone who's been near my social media channels lately will know that I've been engrossed in Gabriel Tallent's much talked about debut novel, My Absolute Darling, the instant success of which has been partially attributed to an unsolicited blurb by Stephen King . I have no doubt, however, that this book would have made waves very quickly without that endorsement, had it been so .   I finished reading My Absolute Darling last night and have been unable to stop thinking about it today. There were times I couldn't put it down. I had to force myself to close it at 2am because I had work the next morning. There were times I was so appalled at what I was reading I simply couldn't carry on. Turtle Alveston is one of the strongest, most convincingly flawed, rounded, incredible and terrible characters ever written - and she's 14. A million-and-one synopses online will tell you she is a dead shot, a loner, equipped to survive anything and anyone - except the person w...

Summer is coming to an end, but before it vanishes completely, I've slipped a garden party into the schedule on Sunday to celebrate all the work we've been doing at home. However in the four days since I first drafted this blog post, the weather forecast has now taken a rather drizzly turn and I’ve ended up lighting the fire twice this week. Still, I'll keep my fingers crossed for a dry, if not warm weekend. Work on the house and party planning are just two of the many things keeping me busy lately, but I've been trying to keep some time aside to read, even if I'm not doing a great deal of purposeful writing just now. With this in mind, here's a round-up and review of some of the things I've been reading over the course of this summer, followed by a handful of things on my ever-growing ‘read this' pile. This has turned this into a rather large post, but I hope you enjoy it and please let me know if you read any of them and let me have your thoughts. ...

Having done precious little in the way of writing since December - when I finished the final draft of the 16,000 word dissertation for my Master's Degree in Creative Writing and felt like I might never want to write again - today I gutted my writing desk and sat down to work on a little idea that's been niggling at me for weeks. In the process of said desk-gutting, I found the pinboard I use for photographs/writing notes/oddments and several old assignments and commentaries discussing my creative process. One of my most-read blog posts here is entitled Writing Prompts for the Creative Scribe - The cover words from a notebook I bought some time ago. Of course, everyones prompts and processes are different, but I'm a fairly visual person and long before writing workshops and the need to analyse my process for academic purposes, I always set off to create myself a 'writing moodboard'. I find this particularly helpful at the beginning of the writing process when...

I'm sorry I'm the world's worst blogger and have abandoned this blog for well over a year... inexcusible but life just got in the way of itself. In a nutshell: 1) I graduated from my MA in Creative Writing at Northumbria University. If anyone is considering studying there, feel free to drop me a message for a chat about the course. 2) My house is still a partial building site, but I actually have a sofa and a desk now, which helps. 3) I can now share some of the writing I submitted for my MA course - I'll share this in the next week or two. I also did a reading of said work at The Lit and Phil in Newcastle last year. I won't go into detail about the plot here but it's about an isolated, elderly farmer and his relationship with the landscape and community around him. 4) I've started playing with flash fiction as a way to keep writing when life is busy. I'm finding it a really fun way to explore ideas without the pressure of a plot. It's making m...

Sorry for the radio silence! A short summary of non-writing life: We bought an amazing new house. It's a listed country house, built in the 1500's, and it needs some huge amounts of work. However, it does have a library with the most incredible 1920's style wallpaper. It also comes with land (hurrah!) so the horse I promised not to mention on this blog is coming home to live, which is basically all my childhood dreams right there. A short summary of writing life: I handed in my assignments, got my grades back and was thrilled with the feedback for the farming/immigration piece I'm writing. I can't share it as I write as I'm submitting chunks of it for future assessment, but will share a piece I have already submitted. On to the title of this post: I found a sweet little notebook in TK Maxx (their stationery section is my downfall) entitled Writing Prompts for the Creative Scribe . Inside, each page has a little subject to write about. Some are more thoug...

I'm As I write this, I'm well aware that I should really be writing some of the 15,000 words I have due by 10th December. I am a chronic procrastinator, not a good trait for a writer, though, I understand, a very common one. I'm sure you've gathered by now that I generally like writing about city life. However, I recently finished James Rebanks's acclaimed bestseller The Shepherd's Life . I borrowed it from my favourite old farmer friend who described it as 'bleak' and 'depressing', yet I devoured the whole volume in a couple of days and thoroughly enjoyed the way it conveyed the history and purpose of farming in the Lake District and beyond. Its pages were filled with honest people who had no desire for fame, fortune or recognition (except maybe for their prize-winning tups), but who, instead, were part of a tradition and who would live on in a landscape and a flock, rather than in any grand or narcissitic legacy. So, I find myself mulling o...