I can’t quite believe it’s nearly the 1st of October, can you? I hope you are all well.
Where am I now? Feeling much better in myself and life is … just so busy. I found a new hobby that I love … walking or is it hiking? I have the gear so surely that qualifies as hiking? Yes, I’ll take that … I hike!
In terms of writing, that new project I mentioned in my last post (30th December 2024) is a memoir. I’m nearly 9,000 words in now – not too shabby!
Setting time aside to write is hard though what with working full-time, hiking and spending precious time with family and friends but I’m determined to set myself a new schedule going forward as I really want to get ahead with it.
It’s an important project! One that has two purposes for me: to help others who have been through the same or something similar and as a cathartic release.
In other news, I’ve had two poems published this year so far – yay to me!
The first was a haiku via Substack on 23 February 2025. Special thanks goes to the fab Robbie Westacott. Here’s the link if you’re interested in taking a look: http://open.substack.com/pub/robbiewest…
The second poem I’ve had published is in an Anthology called ‘Words on a NE Street’ by the wonderful Andrew Mears. Its focus is homelessness. My poem is called ‘I Am …’ Andrew collected 100 poems by 100 North-East poets. All proceeds go to three North-East homeless charities – isn’t that fantastic? You can purchase a copy from Amazon via this link: https://amzn.eu/d/4M0TxzFhttps://amzn.eu/d/4M0TxzF
In terms of my reading target, I’m a bit behind this year which is disappointing. I set myself a target of 20 books and I’m only at 14 at the moment. Amongst my favourites are: Maggie O’Farrell’s ‘The Marriage Portrait’ – if you like historical fiction set in Italy it could be the one for you. Christy Leftrie’s ‘Songbirds’ – close to home for me, the setting is Cyprus and, finally, Ali Hazelwood’s ‘The Love Hypothesis’ – romance to it scientific core.
I’m hoping to post again at close of the year but in the meantime … you know it … keep reading, keep writing, keep creating!
it's time to get creative! 