Board to Death

by Jen Elvy, posted in My books

My YA Paranormal short ebook story

Kaitlyn and her family have come to Clovelly as part of their holiday. Kaitlyn believes this sleepy, North Devon village has nothing for her but soon meets some friends and settles in.

However, when a night with a ouija board holds an unpleasant surprise for Kaitlyn, she begins to wonder if she really is safe in this small village.

Can she find help before it’s too late?

Board to Death is out on Kindle and Kindle Unlimited

🇬🇧 https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0FKYZBZHB

🇺🇸https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FKYZBZHB

Novel Writing and Me 1: Let’s Do This

by Jen Elvy, posted in Novel Writing and Me

This is a repost from my Savannah R James blog, written on 9th August 2025. In the interest of streamlining, I’ll be posting all past entires of this journey over the coming weeks. If you missed it the first time around. what are you waiting for? Read on. If you read it before, why not refresh your memory of how my journey began?

I can’t quite recall the exact moment I decided to write a novel. The idea has been brewing for some time. My interest has been piqued by editing the novels of other authors and I guess, in the back of my mind, I’ve been starting to wonder, Could I do this too?

Gradually, that burning question in the back of my mind grew wings and I went from Could I write a novel? Maybe one day I’ll try, to Yes! I’m going to write a novel. Let’s do this!

I have been reading the book, Save The Cat Writes a Novel for a few months now. The author is Jessica Brody and it’s a book about structuring and plotting your novel. Jessica introduces the ‘Beat Sheet’, which is a great tool for planning your novel, whether you’re just starting, or you’ve started, got half way through and need some direction. Given my penchant for writing stories with teen characters, I also acquired one of Jessica’s other books, Save the Cat Writes a Young Adult Novel. This book outlines the Beat Sheet method but gives specific guidance on using it to write Young Adult (YA) novels. Both books have been a great help to me, both as an editor and an author and they’ll be guiding me throughout the process of novel writing.

So where am I at the moment? Well, I have a setting, my main character and the outline of the plot. The outline needs a lot of work but I’ve used the Beat Sheet method in the book I mentioned above.

I won’t divulge about the plot and the characters for now. What I will say is that I’ve started to form notes on the characters, which I think is very important for getting to know them and for making sure the details I include in the book are consistent. I’ll refer to these notes while writing, adding to them as and when necessary.

I will give you a small insight into the setting. It’s not too far from me and it’s a small seaside town. The seaside is my happy place and to set my novel in this particular location just made sense to me. I have memories of this place from my childhood and now visit regularly with my husband and two boys.

So I had my setting, I had my characters and a main outline of a plot.

Next on the agenda was research and the big question is, how much is required before I start? I put this question to my Facebook community, asking them how much research they do before they start writing. There is no right or wrong answer and everyone will have their own method that works for them. Surprisingly, many authors told me that they do a lot of their research once they’ve started writing. This made a lot of sense to me as things crop up as we are writing that we need to research and also, when we are not writing, or have become a little blocked, research can be a good thing to work on for a change of focus.

My daily walks have been vital to me in thinking about matters related to the novel and I would highly recommend this to others. When you’re feeling blocked, or even if you’re not, a walk outdoors can really give you the opportunity to think about your novel, whether it’s that difficult scene you’re having trouble writing or just to mull over some extra ideas in your head. It definitely helped me yesterday to finish the scene I’d been writing.

Yes! You read that correctly. I’ve tentatively started to write my novel. Of course, this is very early days and much of this will be edited, refined and rewritten but I’ve found it’s really helped me to actually start writing. It’s allowed me to discover things about my main character I hadn’t figured out yet and it’s just generally set me on my way. A few weeks ago, I had a go at writing the opening. Whilst on holiday with my family, I revisited that opening, refined it and carried on writing a little. Not a lot. Approximately 200 words, to be more specific, but it gave me something to work with. What’s that saying? You can’t edit a blank page. I’m under no illusion that this is set in stone. The first draft should be exactly that. The first attempt to get the story down on paper (or screen, as is often the case now.) I love the idea that the first draft is just you telling yourself the story. It really speaks to me and it’s something I’ll have in mind whilst writing this first draft.

Having written some of the first chapter on holiday, what was my next step on my return home? Well I mentioned my walk earlier. I’d started to write some dialogue on holiday but then left it to come back to later. On my walk I was able to think more about where I wanted the conversation to go and when I got home I wrote the end of that conversation, plus some filler bits (keeping them to small chunks of information), getting the total word count to just over 700 words. Only a few thousand to go then!

Another thing I’ll be reminding myself through this project is that old saying, It’s a marathon, not a sprint. I’ve heard that so many times, but it really applies to novel writing. A novel can take months, even years, to complete. It’s a huge project that requires a lot of stamina. Do I have the stamina? Keep reading this blog and you’ll find out!

A country lane bathed in sunlight from a recent walk.

The Crow

by Jen Elvy, posted in narrative poetry

First an announcement. I previously wrote paranormal fiction and poetry under the pen name of Savannah R James, which I have been writing a separate blog for.

I’ve decided that I am going to discontinue this pen name and post and write everything in my name from now on. The books I have written under Savannah R James will remain under that name for the time being and my socials and blog that name will remain open for a while but I won’t be using them to post and all future books will be under my name, Jen Elvy. This is for ease of management as it’s hard to maintain two author handles and also for reach and exposure as growth is steady under my own name and growing another author name when I already have one established seems a lot of work. Why not use the one that’s getting reach and exposure?

There’s the small matter of my novel blog which I’ll soon be reposting on this site.

So without further ado, I give you my latest narrative poem, The Crow:

A man reported seeing a crow
On a walk one day
He knew not where it had come from
But it seemed to be there to stay
It sat there for a while
With a beady, black eyed stare
It seemed to mean no harm
As far as the man was aware
The man walked on, undisturbed
Yet intrigued by what he saw
But he went about his business
And considered the crow no more
Just a few short days later
When the sun was bright and shining
His wife took a walk nearby
And saw a sight spellbinding
The crow was sitting near
A tree so tarnished with death
For it was by this very tree
Their son drew his last breath
Tired out from his run,
He’d sat down for a rest
And leant against the trunk
With sharp pains in his chest
There was nothing anyone could do
For their son was gone
Parents should never bury their child
It all just felt so wrong
But now the crow was perched
Right next to the tree
The tree where she had found her son
And fallen to her knees
She remembered as clear as day
The pallor of his face
But how he’d looked peaceful, as if asleep
And full of warmth and grace
But suddenly she stopped weeping
And saw the crow right there
Nestled up beside her
With its beady stare
It sat there for a time
Looking right into her eyes
Neither moving, nor blinking
But then to her surprise
It let out a ‘caw, caw,’
Never dropping its stare
It was then the woman realised
Her son was sat right there
Letting his mother know
That he was still around
And as if to confirm
The crow took off from the ground
It circled the tree a few times
Flying silently above
Walkers cast glances but little did they know
The crow brought a message of love

Jen Elvy

Upper case ‘I’

by Jen Elvy, posted in poetry

Do you have something – a belief, a rule that you stick to – that for you is just non-negotiable?

For me it’s the upper case ‘I’. I am very aware of the changes in poetry at the moment and the trend to omit upper case letters. I’m ok with that but for me, the ‘I’ should remain in upper case.

I want you to know

by Jen Elvy, posted in grief poetry

I read this one at my father in law’s funeral.

And it is also part of my collection, You Are Not Alone

Stage Door Gig

by Jen Elvy, posted in open mic/performance, poetry

my first poetry gig was a joint-billed event with my talented hubby, Dan of Dan Solo Music, at the stage Door in Dartford for their acoustic evening.

Way back in July, my husband shared with the host of this event that I was a poet and had collaborated with him on some of his songs and he invited us to take part in the event in November. It seemed a long way off then but how exciting to be able to showcase my poetry and perform on the same night as my hubby. A very experienced performer, Dan’s support and experience would be crucial in preparing me for this event.

I had previously been reading regularly at a local poetry evening but had taken a short break. Now was the ideal time to resume as I needed some preparation and practice time to perfect my reading/performance skills. So back I went, along with my hubby and son for support and quickly slipped back into the zone. Things were going well but there was some work to do. The reading seemed to go well but the unscripted chat needed a bit of work. Dan’s feedback was valuable and it was clear that the more practice I got in the next few months the better.

With each event, my confidence seemed to improve, helped further by me planning my ‘off script’ bits more carefully. If I knew what I was going to say, I’d be okay. That’s not to say it wouldn’t all go out the window sometimes but it still seemed to improve, with the nurturing support of Dan and my determination, and by September, things were looking better. I would keep the talking to a minimum but continue to work on it in the coming months.

As the main event got closer, I started putting together some poems. As I understood I’d be reading for about 10 minutes 3 times, so I’d need quite a few poems, especially as mine were quite short. Once I thought I had enough poems (Spoiler alert: I didn’t but I’d fix this later!) I started sorting them into the three different sets, making sure I had plenty of variety for each one. I can offer that variety of topics, I pride myself on that. I did plenty of practice runs and timed each one. I had to add in some more poems as I was slightly short.

on the night….

Arriving at the venue, the enormity hit me and so the next few minutes were for settling my nerves and getting into the atmosphere. We had some familiar faces in the crowd. Some friends from my poetry night at the Mole Hole showed up to support, which was a big boost. They’ve been nothing but supportive and always listen intently to my poems. We also had some lovely family friends come along to watch, who have been amazing, supporting mine and Dan’s ventures in the creative world. They have shown up to gigs and provided words of encouragement when needed. The encouragement from them and from my hubby would prove to be so valuable as the night went on.

Set 1:

Opening with Wooden Winter Hut, an older poem of mine that I know very well, proved to be a good choice. The nerves were definitely there in this set but I worked through them and got off to a good start.

Highlight: Through the Keyhole

set 2:

This set seemed to go quite smoothly. I did lose my place a couple of times in the longer poem, causing a couple of pauses that were longer than they needed to be. I also kept kicking the mic stand! Doh! Stupid nerves and clumsiness! I did like using the mic though. It really helped to project my voice.

Highlight: Happy Place

After my second set, it was Dan’s turn to perform and he gave me a little shout out for my efforts on my first gig. I didn’t expect that at all and it meant the absolute world! And of course, Dan absolutely smashed his set. Like I said, he’s a pro!

set 3:

Time to knock it out of the park! My reading felt the strongest during this set and I was able to project a lot more. I might have stuttered a little bit but things went pretty smoothly. The last minute additions, which I decided on during Dan’s set, seemed to go well.

Highlight: Through the Keyhole: Spooky Mix

On reflection, not a bad first effort and a good picture of where I am and where I need to go. I want to extend special thanks to those who came along to support and share this evening with us. It meant so much!

It was also great to get some kind comments from members of the audience. Really appreciated it.

Onwards and upwards!