More than Writers

The Book Blest Christian Book Festival takes place on Friday 6 th  and Saturday 7 th  September with a stellar lineup of authors. You might recognise some of their names: Martin Leckebush, Susan Sutherland, Letitia Mason, Fiona Linday, Mike Peacock, Andy March, Philip S Davies, Eve Bonham, Karen Martin, Neil Obbard, Paul Wreyford, Maressa Mortimer and Brendan Conboy (yes, that’s me). To find out more about each of these authors  visit the website here. This year, the ACW presence will be strong as Jane Walters kicks off each day with a short devotional and will be available throughout the festival to answer any ACW-related questions. Adrian Plass (ACW President) and his wife, Bridget will join us on Friday for an evening of both hilarious and serious tales. This is a pay-as-you-feel event; you can book your tickets here or just turn up. Each of the authors has a story to tell, to encourage others to write or indeed to read. With stories such as life as a sniper, living with deme

  I was looking for inspiration for my personal blog  this month and I found myself ruminating on the title of the blog in general. It is great! Of course we are more than writers. We are here because we write, but that is not all we do. Some of us are parents, or spouses, or grandparents, or carers. Some of us volunteer, have other strings to our bows, serve in church, are involved in community life. Some of us even have to work – work that actually pays a decent wage! Sometimes it is hard to juggle all that we do, and writing often comes last in our list of priorities. Unless you are one of the very blessed people who does actually earn a decent income from their writing! But that isn’t just what More Than Writers means is it? Well not my interpretation of the title anyway. What connects us here is more than the fact that we love to write. What makes this space special is that we are connected by something much greater than even writing. We all profess a living faith in God. We c

  Points of View by Rebecca Seaton   There is much debate about the best way to narrate a story. The Point of View, or POV, is critical to this. Deciding on a point, or points, of view will determine the type of experience your reader has. Up close and personal. Some authors opt for first person as the point of view, putting the protagonist in the driving seat. For added effect, some writers also use present tense. For something like a thriller, this can heighten the tension dramatically as the reader is carried by the extreme emotions of the main character. However, disadvantages are that this can limit the overall view of what is happening. Again, a writer may happily swap that in for the immediacy and ability for the reader to empathise with their hero or heroine but there is a trade-off. Omniscient overview Let’s admit it, we writers like to play god! The third-person omniscient viewpoint enables the writer to show the reader their world. I use this writing fantasy as t

It’s a common observation about parenthood that from day one you are learning to let go of your child. Losing the physical closeness of breast or bottle feeding and embracing the messy years of teaching children to use cutlery; dropping your child off for that terrifying first day at nursery or school.    Then the middle years, full of children developing their own independence: when they stop holding your hand, cycle faster than you can run, choose their own clothes, take a bus by themselves or go out for a meal with friends.  And then the scariest of all, the late teens when they learn to drive and maybe even leave home for good (or at least until rents force them home again!). All parents go through it. We know it’s a natural, necessary process and our job is to make it as easy as possible, and not allow our children to see our regrets.  Writing is similar, albeit over a shorter time period (I write slowly, but not 18 years slowly!). The idea of what to write, the birth of that

For those who don’t speak Greek, the title of this blog is ‘Go and see Abba’, or so Google Translate assures me. I didn’t want anyone to think the blog was offering free concert tickets and then be disappointed….   A month ago today (by date), I attended the ACW Zoom event about Marketing and Promotion. Joanne had chatted with me previously and ensured that captions would be available at the meeting (thank you, Joanne). So, as a slight aside, if – like me – you are deaf, or for any reason prefer things to be captioned/subtitled, ACW online events are accessible for you. At one point, while Joanne was speaking, she broke off and turned to someone off-screen: “Go and see daddy.” One of her children wanted something. The words flashed up on my screen, just as quickly disappearing to make way for more words. They didn’t disappear from my mind, though. Go and see daddy. Wouldn’t that be a great mantra for us as Christian Writers? Struggling with a manuscript? Go and se

I took my daughter to London this week for a post-GCSE day out, squeezing in a few one-on-one memories for her before her brother finishes the end of term and wants to come along too. One thing I’ve realised about taking teenagers to places you think you know is that there is usually a lot more to it. I used to live in London but at the time I didn’t get to All The Places. Does anyone? One place I didn’t get to as a young adult, inexplicably, was Camden Market. The internet tells me that teenagers love Camden Market, so off we tubed. The internet was right. It was delightful. Having sampled the delights there for as long as we both felt comfortable, we then trotted back along the towpath towards King’s Cross and discovered lots of nature and architecture we would otherwise have missed. Now it’s one thing to pop out for a few hours to invest time in family and allow the brain to whirr away in the background in the Work in Progress. However, every once in a while, you may get a subtl