About Me


Linda Parkinson-HardmanHi, my name is Linda Parkinson-Hardman and I’m the owner (or is it lessee?) of this particular piece of online real estate. I thought it was about time I updated this page and revealed the real me; and, before you ask, that photograph on the left hand side really is me.

Woman on the Edge of Reality has recently gone through a major change in focus because I finally worked out what I wanted to say; you can find out a little more on the page titled Some Facts and Fiction About this Blog. Today and going forward it will be chronicling my writing, my attempts to help other authors get their books into the hands of the reading public and how I storm castles for a living. I’ll be talking about what I believe in, sharing stories, trying to find my inner storyteller and generally going out of my way to help you.

Why will this blog focus on these things?

It’s a long story but I’m a social entrepreneur by nature and I want to encourage everyone to Storm the Castle and change their world.

I think I can almost hear you asking, “so, what’s that got to do with this blog and what’s it got to do with me“?

Well, I’m on a mission to change the world and I’d love it if you joined me.

Simply put I’ll be

  • writing about how you can change THE world by putting your passion into the hands of those who want read about it
  • and about how you can change YOUR world by living a life of meaning and enjoyment, doing what you were born to do which is write.

The key themes of the blog are of embracing the right to write and challenging the accepted idea that to be ‘authentic‘ you either have to be starving or traditionally published. You may or may not agree with me and that’s fine, we each have our own opinion and it’s this mix that makes the world the amazing place it is.

Storming the Castle

There are many castles just waiting to be stormed, mine was the accepted idea that if a woman was offered a hysterectomy she had no choice in the matter and was on a conveyor belt to surgery. That didn’t mean I was against it, in fact it was the best thing I ever did, but we can’t assume that it was right for all. I chose the art of writing as the means by which I would storm this particular castle.

By giving them enough impartial information and a place where they could talk freely about their own experiences women could decide for themselves what they did and didn’t want.

I use the metaphor of ‘storming the castle’ to suggest that maybe there are sacred cows you want to overcome and vanquish, whilst helping others along the way.

I have a personal philosophy that I’ve been living by for many years now and it’s done me no harm at all – I’d like to share it because it’ll tell you far more about me than these words ever can.

  • The only thing that starts a revolution is an individuals idea, belief or passion
  • If you believe passionately in something then you have to bring it to the world
  • There is an encouraging audience waiting to greet everyone who puts their head above the parapet
  • Being nice wins you friends and influences people
  • Sharing what you know encourages others to have a go too.

What will I be doing?

I like a schedule, it helps me keep on track and my schedule is going to be fairly formal.

On Mondays I’ll be sharing a challenge with you – a Weekly Word to get your inner wordsmith tingling;

Thursday is the day another author joins me in the Thursday Throng and where they get the chance to be in the spotlight and present their work to an entirely new audience.

Fridays are the day I’m attempting to draw out my inner storyteller and testing the waters with a variety of flash fiction voices. As a hardened non-fiction author this is the bit I find the hardest :-)

In between these posts I’ll be sharing hints and tips, lessons learned and other sundry things I’m interested in. They will all have the underlying theme of creating change and embracing the right to write.

Why you might be interested

Over the years I’ve written seven books including LinkedIn Made Easy and 101 Handy Hints for a Happy Hysterectomy (yes, that really is the title!) and I was invited to become a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts as a result of my work on sustainable uses of the Internet technologies! I’m also the founder of the Hysterectomy Association – a social enterprise dedicated to providing timely, impartial and appropriate information and support to women.

You can contact me by any of the following means:

Email: linda@womanontheedgeofreality.com
Telephone: +44 (0)843 289 2142
You can also find me on Google +

Or by leaving a comment on the post below.

20 responses on “About Me”

    • Hi Manhardeep. I’m always interested in new authors and I’d be happy to have a look could you send over kindle versions of the books or do you prefer to send out physical copies?

  4. Hi Linda, I found out about your site on Goodreads.

    I have a Christian, historical romance “The Unwilling Bride” and a cozy, mystery novella “Death By Broken Heart.”

    If you are interested in reviewing either or both of these books I will send you more info and the links.

    I also have a Christian, contemporary romance “Unforgiving Ghosts” coming out in August.

    Thank you for your time and consideration.

    God Bless!!

  5. Hi Linda,

    I writing a book with my husband it’s called “I woof Therefore I Am” (working title) – It’s A wooftastic ‘tail’ about a loveable ex-pat pooch living in Tenerife. The book is from a dog’s point of view, about settling down in a new country, coping with the cultural differences, and learning the language (although woof-speak is universal, mas o menos, there are still some differences which need to be understood, otherwise a dog can have muchos problemas with his furry Latin amigos).

    The ex-pat / travel genre has been popularised by some very successful books, but until now man’s-best-friends’ take on it has been little explored. We’re familiar with “Walking over Lemons”, but there hasn’t been a “Bouncing over Bones”. Most of Tenerife’s ex-pat Brits know and love Joe Cawley’s “More Ketchup than Salsa”, but we’ve all been waiting for “More Saliva than Salsa”.

    “I Woof Therefore I Am ” is more than an ex-pat diary though. It is a gripping story, with a plot that is the mutt’s nutts, and some wonderful illustrations. Full of twists and turns, it will make you laugh and it will make you cry. Quite simply it’s the dog’s danglies of a book.

    If you would like to read an extract from the book http://tenerifedogs.blogspot.com.es/search/label/Book

    We haven’t finished it yet and this is the first time I have written a book. So when I came across your site it was great to see lots of useful information in one place,
    Thanks and all the best
    Nikki, Richard and Snr Gizmo

    • That sounds fantastic Nikki and when it is finished I’d love to host you here on the blog in my Thursday Throng, it seems that the travel genre is picking up all sorts of interest too and your perspective is nicely different :-) I’ve popped over to your FB page and liked you so I can keep up there as well. Thank you for the compliment as well – I’m glad you’ve found the information so useful as well, I shall carry on trying to give more :-)

  7. Hi there Linda.

    I just wanted to let you know that I think your blog is fabulous – so much useful information crammed into a terrific blog. This has inspired me to nominate you for an award that I myself have also been nominated for (The REALITY Blog Award). I have provided the link below, I just wanted you to know how much I appreciate the work that you put into your blog and what it means to other writers. You may wish to follow some of the other people that I have nominated, here is the link:-

    http://toofulltowrite.wordpress.com/2012/11/19/the-r-e-a-l-i-t-y-blog-award/

    Well done for making it into my shortlist – you truly deserve it.

    Have a great day.

    David

    • Wow, why thank you very much David – I’m honoured and really pleased that you liked the blog enough to nominate it. I shall go and check out the award on your page and sort myself out later today :-)

      • You’re welcome Linda – thank you for responding, very kind of you and hopefully my post will get more people to follow your excellent blog. Have a great day. David

I'm endlessly interested in what people think so why don't you let me know and let's have a chat :-)

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

Gravatar
WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out / Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. ( Log Out / Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out / Change )

Cancel

Connecting to %s