More than Writers

Image Credit:  The photos were taken by me, Allison Symes, at the wonderful Dorset Museum in Dorchester. I recently had the joy of going out and about with editing colleagues to visit Jane Austen - Down To The Sea . This exhibition, held at The Dorset Museum, Dorchester, explored the author’s links with the sea.  My initial reaction was to remember Lyme Regis, The Cobb, and the famous scene from her novel, Persuasion , which is my second favourite Austen book. Nothing can top Pride and Prejudice for me though Persuasion is close. I always think of the book when I visit that lovely part of Dorset. I was pleasantly surprised to discover Jane Austen had many more links to the sea than I thought. The exhibition runs until 14th September 2025 so if you get a chance to go to it, do go. I found it fascinating. The exhibition also showed something of the society Jane lived in, as well as commemorating her work. Some items were on loan from Chawton where she lived for many years. ...

Are you focused? I’m talking about the ability to hone in on one task only and see it through (although it does help if your eyes can see properly, too. If not, get them tested!) I have spent many years trying to perfect the art of absorption while working on an important task, but like most people living in the 21st century, I am easily distracted.  I might have a quick look at my emails or WhatsApp to check that nothing else needs my attention, and then remember I haven’t played my mandatory three games of online chess yet, let alone completed the ‘Wordle’ or watched my sister-in-law’s latest funny video, then that’s it - concentration shattered.  Some of my best work days have been when I was able to double down on the task at hand completely. I remember them fondly, as they were so rare! But it does not come naturally. To try and help myself work better, I have long held to the habit of using the 'Pomodoro Technique' , whereby you focus fully on the task in hand for a set ...

  So… here I am back at my desk after an amazing time at the 76 th Swanwick Writers’ Summer School. My second time there. On my return home last year, flushed with newbie enthusiasm, I ticked the box on the feedback form. Yes, I’d be interested in leading an 8 a.m. Lift up Your Hearts meditation. Then promptly forgot about it. Months passed and then, suddenly, and totally unexpectedly, Maria contacted me, was I still willing and able? Well… willing yes, able… what could I talk about?   And now I want to tell you how I found out what my theme was going to be! And a bit about how it all came together.    I was sitting one morning, thinking of nothing in particular, when my attention was drawn to my storage stool. It hadn’t been opened for a little while. I couldn’t even properly remember what it contained. I call it ‘The Box of Lovely Things’ (ooh is that a title for something??). Special things that I have been gifted, and lovely things that I will gift when I fi...

Image: Phone with social media platforms - courtesy of pexels.com As writers, we don’t just want to put words on a page—we want those words to reach hearts. Social media gives us that chance. It’s not about shouting into the void; it’s about sharing your story where people are already gathered. With billions logging in each month, social media is the biggest mission field for our words since the printing press! So where should you focus your energy? Let’s look at the top four platforms and how authors can use them to market books and share testimonies. 1. Facebook (3.07 billion monthly users) Think of Facebook as the neighbourhood coffee shop—it’s where people connect and gather. Authors can start a Facebook Page to share updates, or better yet, build a Group around their book’s theme. Write devotionals? Start a prayer group. Share memoirs? Invite readers into a storytelling community. And don’t overlook Facebook ads—they can put your book in front of exactly the right readers. ...

 Long long ago (in 1994) I was a great fan of 'Time Team' - a weekly tv programme that popularized archaeology in the UK. Regular cast members were Professor Mick Aston, geophysics specialist John Gater, Anglo-Saxon specialists Sam Newton and Helen Geake, digger extraordinaire Phil Harding, and many others, all led and interpreted to the viewer by Tony Robinson of Baldric fame. And I've discovered that thanks to the wonders of modern technology, I can now watch all the episodes on YouTube. Plus, thanks to Patreon, there are new ones, including a dig at my favourite local National Trust site, Sutton Hoo. I find the whole process of an archaeological dig fascinating - and as I'm now wrestling with my latest project, I'm discovering there are similarities and things I can learn! That first step always takes courage. Time Team's mechanical digger has ripped through gardens and tarmac roads, pristine hilltops and stately lawns. And it looks a mess at first. Writers a...

  David Almond’s novel My Name is Mina is about a 9 year old girl who doesn’t fit in school. She’s too original, too creative. Not willing to conform. Which when you have a class of 30+ is really difficult to manage. But squashing such exuberant creativity out of a child is a tragedy. We are all different, yet God has created each one of us and prepared works for us to do (Ephesians 2:10). We need to allow everyone to be the best version of themselves. Education needs to find ways of celebrating individuality while maintaining standards and educating all. But that’s a discussion for another day. The character Mina loves to write. Just not the way her teacher asks her to write, with clear boundaries and a plan. But she wants to be ‘a good girl’, so she tries. My Name is Mina by David Almond, p14 (Random House, 2010) I don’t know whether you plan thoroughly or whether you start a story with an idea and see where it takes you. But I do know that the teacher in thi...

  When Wishes Come True. The very first vinyl LP I bought was Dreams Are Nuthing More than Wishes by David Cassidy released in October 1973. (Yes, that is the correct spelling of ‘nothing’ and not a dyslexic slip).   I saved the princely sum of £4.50 over the summer months doing odd-jobs. Aged 11yrs and 11 months I felt very grown up converting the green-shield stamps I had accumulated in my post office book into cash.   Money in pocket, my eldest brother took me to Reading HMV store one Saturday morning, He pointed to the beginning of the LP rack arranged in alphabetical order and darted to the safety of the far end where other seventeen-year-olds gathered, shifting through the Ws & Ys (The Who and YES). He looked relieved to see my purchase hidden from view in the store bag I proudly clutched when I joined him later. I still have that LP (and the CD version.) – It’s a bit crackly now. The LP’s title comes from The Puppy Song , written by Harry Nelson. Nelson wro...

 Two are better than one,     because they have a good return for their labour: If either of them falls down,     one can help the other up. Ecclesiastes 4:9,10   I watched the little girl, alone on the roundabout. Round and round she went, pushed by her dad, circle after circle. “Stop! I want to get off!” The roundabout slowed, and the little girl climbed off. I wondered where she would head next.  The slide?  The swings? Instead, standing near the roundabout, she began to cry. “Someone else with me!” No one else seemed very keen, and I watched as the little girl crossed to the swings. Not to ride on them, but to ask if anyone would go on the roundabout with her? No , said the swing riders. No , said the slide whizzers. No , said the climbing frame mounters. The little girl returned to the roundabout. Seeing her dad still there, she burst into tears. “No one will come on with me.” He crouched do...

Some of last Saturday, as per usual, was spent perusing the papers, and I came across one of those “What I’ve learned” columns. (It may have been called that, I wasn’t paying that much attention, but you get the idea.) Anyway, in these columns, random celebrities pretend that they are desperate to give you various details about their lives just to be sociable, and then, at the end, they always have a name of whoever has sponsored their writing, which is in no way connected to the interview they have just given the newspaper. (I am certainly not criticising - there are certainly worse ways to make a living.) Anyway, the interviewee was talking about her weight loss diary and how she had eschewed the use of weight loss drugs (forever known in this house as Kilimanjaro since seeing someone on the telly call them that). This lady had instead preferred to do it the old-fashioned way, gradually, bit by bit and with consistency. This is great, I thought. Then I read that it had taken her five...

Life is bonkers busy at the moment. And when it's bonkers busy, the things that usually get pushed out are my writing and my really long sofa chats with God. The two things I enjoy the most but that don't contribute in many ways to the family coffers. Yet, those two things are also what I consider my coffee filter. Writing, because it's the way I process the world around me, and long sofa chats, because they're the way I process my writing. Let me explain. Writing (for me at least) is a bit like using a coffee machine. Coffee machine stage 1: shove raw ingredients in – coffee beans, or ground coffee, and water (perhaps milk too if you have a posh, frothing machine.) Coffee machine stage 2: push button and, after a few minutes, coffee comes out the other side. Photo by Chevanon Photography from Pexels When we're writing, we shovel things into the machine too: our own ideas, experiences and passions, genre tropes, research and education, purposes for doing what we...

We recently visited Mont St Michel , a UNESCO World Heritage site in northwest France. Famous for its medieval abbey, this small, rocky island rises majestically from the sands, about 1km off the coast of Normandy. Mont St Michel T oday, Mont St Michel is one of the busiest tourist sites in France, welcoming over 3 million visitors in 2024. Only 290 metres in diameter, it is surrounded by vast mudflats and the location of some of Europe’s highest tides. At low tide the water withdraws up to 10 miles from the mainland, before rapidly sweeping back in when the tide turns. The speed of the incoming tide, combined with the presence of quicksands, make crossing the bay treacherous.   Construction of the first church on the island began in 708AD . The story goes that Aubert, Bishop of Avranches , was visited in a dream by the archangel, Michael, and instructed to establish a place of worship on the rocky outcrop. Building on such unforgiving ground must have appeared like the ultimate ac...

As a child I was tall, taller than most of my friends, so I developed the habit of stooping a little. If I’d been born in a different generation, I might have been made to walk around balancing a book on my head to improve my posture, thankfully I wasn't. These days I don’t feel so tall – I have 2 sons, both over 6ft so that puts a different perspective on things. I’ve been thinking about leaning in another sense. In our culture independence is encouraged, often fought for. We like to go it alone, we often hear people speak of their achievements as if it was all down to them. I, like many, don’t find it easy to ask for help.   I understand as I see the elderly clinging on to their independence when it is no longer safe to go it alone.   As writers it is all too easy to be in our own little ‘writers world’. We dream of writing that breakthrough piece, and we don’t always touch the world of other writers. This can so easily diminish our achievements. Since joining ACW, I have...