Category: Being a Writer
A Writer’s Journey
It all started during a trip to New Zealand six years ago. My husband and I flew from London to Auckland and then drove from the North Island to the South and back again. The trip lasted six weeks and we lodged in homestays, the Kiwis’ version of B&Bs but much more homely. Not wanting to […]
From I.T. to I.T. Girl
There’s a question writers ask themselves: if no one was to read your work, would you still write? The answer for me is no. I write because I want to communicate something. The emergence of writing in me was slow and it came by accident. I was restless in my job and trying to think of a […]
Creative Therapy
I have thought about blogging for a while now. The idea had floated around my head but always ran for cover when self-doubt checked in. Could I really do it? Would I have anything interesting to say? Would anyone actually want to read it? Then I began to think about why I began writing in […]
Molluscs and Me, a Slow Process
It was a long slow painful process to move from writing textbooks about care to writing stories that would grip a reader. I spent 15 years writing expertly without emotion to engage students in academic debate. But I did collect case studies to show how it feels to be on the receiving end of care. […]
Writing as Compulsion
Writing is a compulsion for me, but where does that force within come from, I wonder. I’ve never tried to explain it before, but perhaps it stems from reading. Librarians and teachers of literacy often express a desire for youngsters to “discover the joys of reading.” I’m guessing that joy of reading is behind my […]
Making Up Words
Although English steals the best adverbs and expressions from every other language on earth, sometimes the only right word is something that doesn’t yet exist. There’s no point using words if you can’t have fun playing with them first. Expressions too, such as ‘caramel yoghurt’, fill me with naughty glee. This expression describes a person who […]
Writing with Aphasia
Writing has always been my passion, from a very young age, but it is also one of the most challenging things I could ask of myself. That’s what keeps it interesting. Like most writers, I’ve wanted to be a writer for most of my life. There’s not much unique in that. At eight years old, […]
Writing Blind, a Creative Force
I have been partially blind since birth but it is only since I started writing blog posts that I have understood the extent to which my blindness influences the way I write. When I was a postgraduate student a careless comment by a professor about my powerful reading glasses made me realise that my partial […]
The Verminous Hazards of Research
I’ve always enjoyed ‘doing research’ especially when my old darling was alive and we travelled together. Revisiting a favourite town or discovering a new one, reading contemporary newspapers, following leads not knowing where they would take us was a happy occupation. I liked the uncertainty of it. The surprises. I’ve been down a coal mine, […]
How Being Deaf Has Affected Me as a Writer
Where to start? First, I should probably say I’ve been suffering from progressive hearing loss since the age of four. I wear one hearing aid. It should be two, but I feel the other ear is just too far gone and not worth the batteries. I read lips and I never learned to sign, because […]
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