New Season, new writing by Sheila Johnson

 As the children return to school at the start of September and everyone returns this year from some kind of holiday, our thoughts turn to thinking about our writing and what we want to achieve with it this year. Wendy's new compilation of writings from various authors on discovering new passions or rediscovering our old, is a really helpful resource to turn our attention to in this respect. 

It has helped me to rethink a possible sequel to my historical romance, Waireka, set in New Zealand or even to go in a different direction and write a history based on my Irish relations. 

But in the present I have decided to pursue a bit of poetry, a form of writing I have neglected for a while, having chosen the prose option for my university certificate course in Creative and Critical Writing. The course, I have chosen is run by Poetry Kit, and is called 'Writing Poetry and Getting Published'. My hope is that the course will improve my poetic skills and enable me to enter some competitions - a nice thing to aim for this year. 

Being a new season, it is also time for a new puppy, a new little life to care for. Bella does make writing a bit more difficult as she is a like a toddler, very demanding, chewing and biting everything but we wouldn't have it any other way, even though sleep is in short supply at present - in a camp bed in the kitchen - while toilet training takes place. But she is very cute. 

Perhaps writing is sometimes like training a puppy. It can be hard work, exhausting, leading to sleepless nights as we struggle to find that particular word or idea. At times we can feel just like writing toddlers too, taking our first shaky steps, although most of us are probably toilet trained by now!!

 Sheila Johnson lives in Cheltenham and is a qualified journalist who has written for a number of publications both local and national. She has also written two books under her pen name Sheila Donald, Alpha Male and Waireka. Her website can be found at www.journojohnson.com