Vigilant Divers

I am pleased to be able to announce that my friend, PADI Master Scuba Diver Instructor, Rob Willsher and his wife, Julie, have opened Vigilant Divers, their new dive business, in Anguilla, British West Indies.

Operating from beautiful Road Bay, they have a thirty feet long Boston Whaler, 'Vigilant,' which can cater for up to four divers.

Rob, formerly with Dougy Carty at Special D Divers, is offering a range of PADI Certification and Speciality Courses, as well as guided diving in some of the most beautiful dive sites in the Caribbean. Anguilla is known as the 'Wreck Diving Capital of the Caribbean' as it has an abundance of wrecks sunk to become dive sites. They offer the diver a multitude of diving experiences, from the very easy sixty feet dive to the 'Cathley H' to the more challenging, deeper wrecks, 'MV Commerce' and the 'Sarah' at eighty feet.

Rob has been mentioned several times on this blog as he was my diving instructor. He took me from a raw, and very frightened, new diver, through my PADI Open Water, Advanced Open Water, Rescue Diver and Master Scuba Diver Certifications. He is professional, assured, experienced and unflappable. With Julie as Boat Captain, any diver will be in good hands as she has years of experience of working on and around boats.

I wish Vigilant Divers every success and will blog more on this venture in the future.

Penny Legg - Biker Babe

Yes, this is the moment you have all been waiting for... well, some of you have anyway. The photograph of Penny Legg, Biker Babe, is here for all the world to see. (I am too old to be a Biker Chic and, although I toyed with the idea of being a Biker Moll, Rob Innis' name for me, when I checked the dictionary definition of a 'Moll,' I was not so sure that I wanted to be known as one...!)

As you can see, I like pink. I am, after all, a girl.

I braved the roads of the Isle of Wight on the back of my husband's Suzuki SV650 and, after I had got used to gear changes and not careering forward to bang crash helmets with him, quite enjoyed myself. I even got to grips with the cissy bar, which I am told, is perfectly permissible as I am a girl and it is for 'girls and cissies' to hold on to.

More on this new found pastime in later blogs.

Lit Up!

The Lit Up! literary event, to promote all aspects of writing in the Bournemouth and Poole areas was a complete success, despite Mother Nature's best efforts to rain it off.

Members of both the Society of Woman Writers and Journalists (SWWJ) and Writing Buddies were there to support the event, which featured a seminar and talks by writer, Lucy Clarke, agent, Carol Blake, and Dagger Award winning novelist, Peter Lovesey (pictured). A panel of local experts gave valuable manuscript criticism and advice.

The event took place in the pretty walled garden at Uplands Country Park and offered a platform for debate and networking, which is much needed in the area.

Simon Whaley at Writing Buddies

Simon Whaley interrupted his family holiday in the New Forest to come along to Writing Buddies, in the Borders bookshop in Southampton, on Friday.

It was great to see him. Personally, I was really excited to meet him as he and I have been corresponding by email for several years, but had never met. It was good to finally talk face to face with the person who has helped to keep my spirits up when necessary and who has suffered through my writers block, lack of inspiration, imagination failure and a million and one other trials and tribulations that are a part of life for writers. Mind you, he has also shared the highs. He was as thrilled for me as I was for myself when I got my first book contract and when ideas I have discussed with him come to fruition, he is as pleased as punch. When his recent Bluffer's Guide came out, I could not be more pleased for him and I do remember teasing him about how clean and tidy his desk was in the photograph of him in his office, in a recent writing magazine.

He came and charmed the group of Writing Buddies, aspiring and professional writers of all genres, who meet for a cuppa and a chat once a fortnight in Borders. We talked about starting out in short story writing, offered advice to one of our number who needed some help with the credibility of a stereotyped character and marvelled that the piece I had written for Writers' News about Writing Buddies had been published. It was a meeting full of fun and laughter and we left feeling that all was good with the world.

Simon, thank you for coming and we look forward to your next visit, which we hope will not be long!

In the meantime, I have been left with lots of food for thought, as Simon gave me some very sage advice. More on this in due course...

Penny Legg Dot Com - New Writing Consultancy is Launched

It has been a long time coming, but I am pleased to announce that I have revamped my website.

It needed it. I have been busy with other projects and have had little time for my little bit of the Web. Now though I have found time, quite a lot of time over the last few days, and have added pages, photographs and links to liven it up.

The biggest difference to the site is the launch of my new Writing Consultancy. This is aimed at beginner writers, students, job seekers and the self-employed, who have problems with grammar and spelling, layout and presentation of short stories, articles, letters, CVs and essays. In addition, I now offer a one to one telephone tutorial on how to research the right market for your writing. So, if you have a spot of trouble saying what you want to say, have a look at my site. I will probably be able to help!