It came as a bit of a shock to me on Friday when I realised just how much I resented having to work when I’d rather be writing. I’m reasonably lucky (in one sense) in that I work for myself anyway and have the luxury of deciding what I’m going to be doing and when I’m going to do it; but after yet another day spent flitting between my writing, the social networks and client work, with a whole load of procrastinating and sighing on the side I decided that enough was enough and something needed to change. Continue reading
Category Archives: Thought for the day
I am an author: insight, awareness and admitting the reality
I can now understand the truth of the statement ‘when the pupil is ready, the teacher will come‘, as this is the experience I have having over the last few weeks and the pace is quickening! It has also been the case that those ‘teachers’ have not necessarily been what I would either have expected or wanted had I asked for them; but from each one I have learnt an important lesson. Continue reading
Lessons Learned in April – on place, writing and change
April 2012 has marked a sea change in the way I view myself and my place in the world. At the beginning of this year I vowed to make a change, I even did it publicly on my blog but failed to actually do anything about it until mid March when I wrote a post titled The Art of Reinvention or how to start again! This is where the story of lessons learned in April really starts. Continue reading
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“Eloquent” is The Weekly Word – let’s see what interesting uses we can make of our wonderful language
I’m introducing a brand new section to the blog and I’m going to call it the Weekly Word. Most of the time it will come on a Monday morning but this week it’s going to be Friday – other things got in the way this week unfortunately!
So, the plan is that I share a word of the week and people can submit the unusual, imaginative or completely accurate usage of the word in a single sentence or a paragraph.
This weeks word is ELOQUENT it is an adjective pronounced ’e-lo-kwent’ Continue reading
The pen is indeed mightier than the sword – let’s all celebrate national stationery day
Hot on the heels of yesterday’s International Day of the Book and World Book Night comes National Stationery Day. April 24th is a day of celebration of the written word and of all things stationery. It has been launched to get more people putting pen to paper, and writing more often by hand. There’s more to life than email and texting! Let’s face it, we all love to receive ‘proper post’, something with our name and address hand written on it sent to us personally and containing all sorts of things from a card to a letter from an old friend or a loved member of the family. Continue reading
Happy World Book Night, Happy International Day of the Book and Happy St George’s Day
Legend has it that St George Patron St of England and Catalonia slew a dragon and a beautiful rose bush sprang from the dragon’s blood. Whereupon St George promptly plucked the most beautiful rose and gave it to the princess he was defending. A Rose Festival has been celebrated in Barcelona on April 23rd ever since and in 1923 it merged with the International Day of the Book which celebrated the deaths of William Shakespeare and Miguel de Cervantes.
World Book Night #worldbooknight is a celebration of books in the US, Ireland, Germany and the US that occurs on the same day as the Unesco International Day of the Book and is committed to improving literacy amongst the hardest to reach populations in the UK. Events take place all over the UK and I shall be off to one at The WatchHouse Cafe in West Bay this afternoon. You can also find out more about World Book Night in the UK here: http://www.worldbooknight.org and in the US here: http://www.us.worldbooknight.org/ Continue reading
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I definitely need more time! And this weeks video should help me to use what I have more effectively
We each have an individual perspective when it comes to time; apparently we can be either future oriented or we can be present oriented when it comes to time and, not surprisingly, each of these will give us a different experience of both our lives and our sense of well-being.
When a self help book is not enough
I love self-help books, I love the fact that within their pages I am going to find a snippet of information which helps me to sort out some problem I’m having; whether it’s a problem with happiness, love, losing weight (sigh!) or even a good old ‘how to’ book then I’m happy and contented. But there comes a time in every girl’s life when a self help book is not enough, when you actually have to set aside the desire for someone else to do it for you and do some work to make it happen. Continue reading
How many books could a new author actually sell?
Way back in 2007 I ran a workshop on behalf of a local organisation called Creative Dorset for authors and those who were hoping to publish a book. During the course of the mornings proceedings I shared a slide in the presentation that I had put together from the data Nielsen had released about the numbers of books that sold in 2004. I have tried to find any updated information from Nielsen but it seems they have yet to repeat the process but I suspect, after more delving around, that the figures may look even worse than they do below. Continue reading
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The best blackberry jam recipe
I lurve blackberry jam, for me it’s a definite preferred alternative to strawberry which often tastes too bland. And like Rosie (the heroine in my novel, Woman on the Edge of Reality) I love to pick my own blackberries. I also pick sloes and elderberries too and have recipes for sloe gin and elderberry cordial as well if you like. Continue reading
