More than Writers

Earlier this year the centenary of my father’s birth passed without comment (outside our family). Dad worked in the printing industry. He was a (printer’s) compositor for most of his working life. He usually had inky fingers and occasionally a burn from hot lead. Compositors worked standing up. In the years approaching retirement he became a reader – a sedentary job. He had been a reader from the age of eight, but in printing ‘reader’ is short for proof-reader. After he retired he offered me two reference books, which I accepted eagerly being an aspiring writer. Recently I consulted one of them to check the rules for punctuation in dialogue. What I found surprised me as it was the reverse of what I remembered from my school days. At primary school we called quotation marks ‘speech marks’. The opening ones resembled the figure 66 and the closing ones 99. Inside speech marks any quotations (not ‘quotes’ in those days) were in single quotation marks. In the 38th edition (1978) of Ha...

I can be very fussy in my likes and dislikes even when it comes to books. That doesn’t mean I only read books I like. In Secondary school we had to read a long list of books in Dutch, German and English. (My only memory of my German Literature reading was an endless letter by Martin Luther sent to some king.). I like books with happy endings. Not the soppy ones, where they can’t stand each other in chapter one, knowing full well that by the last chapter they’ll be married with a baby on the way. That’s almost as annoying as the main male character having blue eyes and dark wavy hair. People having smooth, easy lives without any clouds once they are saved is another one to get my eyes rolling, reading faster than ever. (One will never stop reading a book one has started. Ever. Not even if it’s a sixteenth century letter to a king. In a foreign language.) Very, very occasionally I will read a book more than once. It will have to be pretty amazing for me to do so. On my sh...

How do you feed your writing? I mainly do so by reading inside and outside of my genre, including non-fiction. Feeding your writing includes taking in different genres and lengths of writing and reading, Pixabay Other ways to feed my writing include:- Mixing up what I read in terms of type. I read novels, flash fiction, articles (and have been known to read the back of a cornflake packet in my time! If there is something to read, I’ll usually give it a go!) Don't forget audio books. Having a tale read to you, I think, is wonderful. (You get to hear how dialogue works too!).  Pixabay Mixing up how I take in stories. Reading is the obvious way but don’t forget audio books. There’s an extra dimension when you hear a story, I think. It’s a lovely link to the oral storytelling tradition too. Film is fantastic for getting people into stories they wouldn’t read. I know someone who would never read Tolkein’s The Lord of the Rings but was glued to the films. Visual st...

During the confinement of many of us to our own homes, we probably cannot write all the time! So here I offer a suggestion that might from time to time refresh us - and bring God into the very centre of our place of unexpected ’sabbath rest’. Usually a prayer walk is round a village, around a parish boundary or round a common area in a neighbourhood. During the walk, the prayer group will stop and pray for each street, each public place, any schools, any shops and any other community provisions. It can be very moving. Obviously we can’t engage in such an activity now!  But we could all very easily modify the idea, to celebrate God’s very presence in our own homes. The restrictions upon us could be a very special opportunity to  put God at the centre of our lives in a new way. Let’s think the idea through just a little. But before we do, I want to digress for a moment. When I was working at Ridley Hall, the Theological college in Newnham, as their fundrai...

In the midst of a global health crisis where we are all at war against an invisible rampaging enemy is there any light by which I might navigate this stark terrain?  Yes, for although Fear and Sickness walk hand in hand and the night sky appears totally black, yet as I look more closely I realise it is full of tiny pinpricks of light and the more I gaze upon those pinpricks, the bigger they seem to be and to my amazement the very darkness is transformed before me.  Pinpricks of light, the presence of Jesus in me; In myself today I've been rather fraught and agitated, drifting, unfocused, unwell, yet He is here.  Here in the kindness of strangers offering to take my dog for a walk; here in the actions of a neighbour checking if we need anything in the shops; here in the freshness of the wintry breeze blowing in childlike playfulness around me as I peg up the first wash of the spring;  As the breeze tossed the clothes on the line and performed its merry invisible dance...

I was hoping that in this blog post I would be sharing with you something of my recent visit to the Holy Land. Having never been there before, I was planning to visit earlier this month. However, Covid-19 put paid to that, and the trip was quite rightly cancelled, at very short notice. However, having had a very busy and demanding few months, I knew I still had to get away for a few days. So I took the opportunity to go on retreat for a few days at St Katharine’s Parmoor near Henley-on-Thames. (It’s a lovely place – highly recommended.) I phoned on the Monday morning and not only did they welcome me the same day, they even offered me lunch! So I quickly packed my bag – which hadn’t actually been unpacked from the planned Israel trip – and headed off. I was there until the Friday, and for most of the time I was the only guest. For an introvert such as I am, it was bliss! I prayed, I read the Bible, I went for walks, and I read through five and a half of The Chronicles of Nar...

We keep writing that words make a difference. Well I've proved it. This four word definition of prayer has been transformative for me – especially in these epic times. How often does a negative statement prove positive, I wonder? It's not the way Jesus put it when he was asked for prayer guidance – or is it? He seemed to task us to pray with simplicity. Eugene Peterson nails it for me in The Message. 'And when you come before God, don't turn that into a theatrical production .....  All these people making a regular show out of their prayers, hoping for stardom! Do you think God sits in a box seat?' Jesus was telling us not to pray for effect, which is a long way from seeing prayer as wasting time with God. But in our culture wasting time is frowned on. The pressure is to be structured, scheduled, cerebral – to achieve measurable results. Shutting yourself away to pray to someone you can't see, feel or hear (well, most of the time) might be construed...

Dear Christian Writer Friends, I know that this blog is supposed to keep strictly to the subject of writing, but I’m finding it difficult not to think of more urgent matters right now. We are all at a solemn moment in history, and so it’s not all that easy to strike an upbeat note. To get the tough thoughts out of the way first, let me just say that, unless something preternatural happens, we are going to witness some sad events in the next few weeks.  We all know the situation our doctors and nurses are in. We all saw the pictures of people crowding on to beaches, into parks, and around markets at the weekend. I don’t need to tell you what heartbreak that is likely to lead to. So we who can should pray earnestly. And over and above the present crisis, something else is brewing which I can’t mention here because it’s political: not the short-term strict measures we are seeing in Spain and Italy, but something much longer-term and more comprehensive, which is rather worryi...

God’s Boldness by Rebecca Seaton     Many Christians talk about being bold and we certainly should be. Bold about God’s love, His grace and His hope. Bold about the fact that knowing God can change things. We have to be bold about sharing what we know with the world. ‘ Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age. (Matthew 28:19-20)    But are we acting in God’s boldness or our own boldness? There are two common problems when being bold as a Christian. 1: Trying to summon up boldness. ‘Someone’s told me to be bold so I’m going to make myself do it .’ This is unnatural and often excruciating. 2: Another problem is being bold in our own strength but forgetting the God bit. Then we batter people with what we have to say rather than bringing it Go...

At the end of February, I sent out my newsletter, outlining what I’d done in February, and what was coming up in March. I also, with the help of fellow ACW-ers (thank you!), bought an iZettle, so I could take card payment at said forthcoming events. On March the 5 th , I spoke at a women’s event, and afterwards the leader said that I’d given them 12 sermons in one. We laughed at that: little did either of us know how almost prophetic her words would turn out to be. It was not long before event after event had to cancel. An old hymn, Count Your Many Blessings, contains the line, ‘are you ever burdened with a load of care?’ 'Loads of care' were in every email. No-one wanted to cancel, no-one wanted to miss out on book sales, everyone said, ‘let’s not make the decision yet’. But not one email started with these things. Here are some snippets from emails I received from bookshop managers/event organisers/readers of my books/people who hoped to attend events: 'We...

I have just checked this website and it would seem my scheduled post for today has not been published, nor is it on the list waiting to be published!    So forgive the fact there is no photo with the text.   We should have been on holiday, but that was cancelled at last week, and since of course the countries of the world have gone into closure.    As we were to be away for a month I wrote this one and the one for 21st April at the beginning of March, but that too has disappeared, Peoples' lives are being shaken.  In Australia it was the fires burning out of control which without God's intervention rain, the Met Office said, wouldn’t be expected until March.   In February floods here have brought greater devastation to homes and lives than before.   People call it climate change. With the belief that God reigns over the earth the verses in Matthew about wars and rumours of wars, nation coming against nation, famines and earthqua...