Llongyfarchiadau, Catrin! What a wonderful achievement! We are SOOOOOO proud of you!
P.S. I LOVE the hat
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Diolch everyone!
Iām really excited to be able to tell you that it will be hitting the shelves next April! 
Also, if you happen to be in Caernarfon on Thursday evening the 7th of May 2020, then Iāll be officially launching my book in the Galeri. Iāll post more details as I get them.
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Wow, Catrin, thatās an amazing and awesome achievement! Llongyfarchiadau mawrion mawr! 
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Llongyfarchiadau, Catrin!!
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Iāll be buying it next year then 
Congratulations. Iād be happy to finish writing a book in English at the moment. Huge achievement
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Sounds like Caernarfon will definitely be the place to be that night 
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Amazing, @CatrinLliarJones, many, many congratulations!!
My book club are asking for suggestions for the next year at the momentā¦ but I donāt think Iāve seen the title anywhere? Maybe we could order it as soon as it comes out!
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It will be called Adar oār Unlliw!
Iāve just heard from my publisher that the proof copy is coming back from the editor next week and that the illustrator is busy working on the cover illustration - Iām super excited!
Iāll give you a heads up - itās aimed at young and middle aged women. Itās generally about life, love, family. It touches themes such as self esteem and anxiety and also social classes, adultery, grief and many more. Itās contemporary and uses a lot of informal language in the dialogue. It also has a sprinkling of swearing and some sexual references. 
I also may very well have a Welsh novel for young adults on the boil soon, because of thisā¦ 
.
The Books Council of Wales and Literature Wales are proud to announce the names of the successful writers chosen to take part in our debut Welsh-language Writing for Young Adults course, tutored by Bethan Gwanas and Manon Steffan Ros in February 2020.
This course will offer guidance in the craft of writing for young adults and will hopefully encourage more writers to venture into this area, leading to the creation of brand new, original Welsh-language books in the future. This week will include practical workshops, a study of the field of writing for young adults in Wales and internationally, and readings from visiting writers.
27 strong applications were submitted, and choosing the final participants wasnāt easy for the panel. The group is a mix of emerging writers looking to write for young adults for the first time, and some who already has some experience.
The writers are, Llio Maddocks, Megan Angharad Hunter, Mared Llywelyn, Ceinwen Jones, Helen Llewelyn, Rhys Thomas, Lowri Taylor, Lleucu Non, Morgan Dafydd, Catrin Lliar Jones and Gareth Evans-Jones.
Writersā Development in Wales is one of the three Activity Pillar in Literature Walesā work. The course is a part of their main priorities of Developing Emerging Writers, as stated in their Strategic Plan for 2019ā2022.
In the same way, filling the gap in provision for young adults and developing the field is one of the Books Council of Walesā Welsh priorities following a review of the field by Dr Siwan Rosser of Cardiff University. This course, which is held at TÅ· Newydd with the financial backing of the Books Council, is therefore extremely timely.
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This is so awesome, Catrin! HUGE congratulations! 
Having completed a first novel must surely feel a bit like having reached the summit of Mount Everest. Now I have the best reason to keep learning Welsh ā¦ I want to be able to read your novel! 
(How do you shut up your inner critic while writing? 
)
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Llongyfarchiadau mawr i ti @CatrinLliarJones!
Buying it as soon as it comes out. Hardly wait. However, you have to know Iām extreamly slow reader and even slower Welsh reader though so my thoughts and feelings about the whole thingy might come in in a very distant future. But, I donāt doubt itās awesome to read even before I actually have read it.
Hwyl!
Tatjana
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One thing that shuts up your inner critic is to do National Novel Writing Month where you write 50000 words in 30 days. Quantity over quality. Thatās a good way to train your brain. I try to remember quotes like āThe first draft of anything is sh**ā and another one says that the first draft is where you tell yourself the story.
Give yourself permission to write drivel, maybe set a timer and write anything until it stops. Just one unpublished writersā humble advice
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Oh, I wanted to join the NaNoWriMo, but guess what? - Yes, I fu***d up. I couldnāt bring myself to write one single shitty sentence without immediately correcting or rewriting it. 
āThe first draft is where you tell yourself the story.ā This is a great way to look at the writing process, mille grazie, Jen! Iām going to open a new file tonight, name it āĆbungsgeschichte (exercise story)ā and write just for myself.
Thanks a million for your advice and all the luck in the world for your writing! 
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Thank you all for your warm support and encouragement. It really means a lot to me!
I was absent from here all of last week as I was on a writing course at TÅ· Newydd, the National Writing Centre of Wales. The course, organised and paid for by the Welsh Books Council and TÅ· Newydd, aimed to encourage budding authors to write fiction for young adults. They received just short of 30 applications for only 12 spaces and I was so honoured to have won a place. I had an amazingly creative week, writing, reading, sharing, receiving invaluable tutorage from Manon Steffan Ros and Bethan Gwanas and making friends with a dynamic group of talented writers. It was such an inspirational experience and I came away with a full synopsis and detailed character descriptions for my second novel - fiction aimed at 16 year olds,
As I mentioned before, it was a two day course at TÅ· Newydd in 2014 which encouraged me to follow the dream of becoming a writer Iād had since my school days. So it was quite apt that last week, my publisher came to visit me at TÅ· Newydd to hand over the proofs for my first novel!
I will be spending my āspareā time this week working my way through the proofs and looking forward to hearing from the illustrator with regards to the cover.
Iāll keep you posted as to when it will be on the shelves!
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Wonderful news. Llongyfarchadau. Dal ati
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I just google-translated the title into German and it gave me: āMonochrome Vƶgelā. āBirds in Monochromeā in English - ist that correct? Love this title, it sounds mysterious. 
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Wow! Llongyfarchiadau!
Iām thinking back to your āwhat do you do for a living?ā thread ages ago. I guess this means youāve figured it out! You said then that youād like to be paid to narrate stories for children. Thatās now sounding a lot like an āIām really a writer but Iām not going to say it out loudā. 
Well done for getting there - with bells on!
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Thatās really interesting! Not quite the same, but almost, I guess. It means ābirdās of a featherā and comes from the saying ābirds of a feather flock togetherā and in Welsh, 'adar oār unlliw, ehedant iār un lleā. It basically means that birds of the same colour and type will fly/come together to/in the same place.
Without giving too much away, one of the strongest story threads in the novel is about the main character often finding herself in the same place/in the company of another character, she struggles with understanding why, as they are both, in her eyes, completely different.
Would you like to be my therapist? My old one doesnāt understand me half as well as you doā¦
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Iād have to find someone to therapise me first! 
Thanks a lot for your reply. Iām glad that I asked, as it shows me once again, that a language expresses the culture, mentality ā¦ the soul of a people. In every country, the pictures people paint with words are different, but they mean the same thing.
Oh, I must go on learning Welsh, I really, really want to read your novel! Sometimes, I think that people express themselves differently, act differently, come to different conclusions, solve problems in other ways - but at its heart, they struggle with similar issues, have similar hopes and dreams and fears ā¦
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