More than Writers

Happy New Year for tomorrow!  Or, as people have started saying recently, Happy New Year’s .  Who does this New Year belong to?  Or is it Happy New Years?  How many of them are we celebrating?  Maybe you intend to celebrate with a take- away , or, as I hear more and more, a take- out ?   Me, I love a good curry, sitting in front of the log-fire at home, but this was not what was meant by the awarding body for whom I was doing online training a few weeks ago.    No, no, no, not even in business-speak should a ‘take-away’ be a something you need to make a note of (even though it’s shorter).  The 1662 Prayer Book asks us, from time to time, to ‘read, mark and inwardly digest’ - more poetic. ‘Holidays’ is another word whose meaning has shifted, and for we Christians this stinks.   A couple of years ago I was reading a writing craft post on procrastination by an American writer, in which she told us she had deferred inscribing ‘holiday ca...

  Can you believe the year has nearly ended? I feel this year has slipped through my fingers.  I don’t know about you, but this year left me with hardly any free time, and it’s been a struggle. Not because I don’t like the things I need to do, but somehow, I found myself without the usual slots in which I like to write. Zoom calls are tricky in the evenings, as I’m on puppy duty, so attending the wonderful writers’ meetings I used to go to has become hard, and I miss it! My children used to be in bed by 7.30 and they still are if they’re home at that time, but with new groups and clubs, they hardly ever are. Filling my writing slot with more pickups and drop-offs. They love their groups, and it’s lovely hearing their stories and seeing what they have made, but it leaves me with very little time to live in Elabi for a while. Book 3 of the Elabi Chronicles is nearly there, again, a goal missed as I was hoping to have it done by the end of November. Yesterday, I was looking a...

 Image Credit:  Images created in Book Brush using Pixabay photos It’s inevitable at this time of year we look ahead. A new year can mean new hope and a chance to start again. Though we always have that chance thanks to our Lord Jesus.   This time of year is useful to evaluate writing goals and set new ones. Onwards and upwards, as the saying goes. When I review my writing year, I take comfort from the successes and nice surprises. Rejected stories will be re-examined in the New Year to see if I can improve their prospects. Rejects are opportunities in disguise here.  Disappointment is a dreadful drain on creativity. It helps to know the writing life is full of ups and downs so (a) you’re not alone and (b) the understanding of other writers is wonderful. A great writing goal would be to encourage other writers you know throughout the next twelve months. They will need that support at some point. We all do. I came to flash fiction writing thanks to a happy accident. I...

  How was Christmas Day spent in your home?   Did you get good xmas presents, meals or company? Was it a time to put away all thoughts of writing, editing, reviewing, drafts or publishing? Was it a day to remember the ‘reason for the season’ and put away all thoughts of life issues? Hope it was a day to celebrate our Lord and King; a day to ponder on His love for taking you so far; a day to be most grateful for the salvation package; a day for self-discovery or the miracles in your life; a day spent with friends and family; or a day not to look down at your weaknesses, nor look   at the darkness that life might have thrown over you   or that writing to edit but a day to look up and see the light of God’s Light! Hope it was a day that thoroughly blessed you by the best gift you were given by God –our Lord JESUS! When I was a child back in the 60s and 70s growing up in Nigeria with my younger siblings, there was the usual Christmas tradition that was practised in o...

 Well, here we are, two days on from all the trauma and panic of Marty going into labour when we were on the road and had absolutely nowhere to stay.  I'd felt my inadequacy then, I can tell you.  I Joseph who was famed for my calm ability to think things through and come to a wise conclusion, was now suddenly staring into the abyss of helplessness.  Calmly thinking things through just wouldn't cut it.  Was Mary going to die out in the streets? And what would it be that she gave birth to?  Would it even look human?  Sometimes I even found myself wondering if my whole encounter with the angel and the reassurance he gave that this was of God, was actually a hallucination?  Fear would rise up, the sheer loneliness of our situation would overwhelm me.  Several I'd been trembling on the very brink yet each time something pulled me back.  And as I'd agonised and wrestled, I'd heard that whisper deep deep inside.  'Joseph, don't be afraid,...

If you were planning to start a family (or prevent a family) you would consider some form of family planning.  You would consider names for your offspring, where you need to live for the best school catchments, how to decorate the nursery, which car seat and pushchair (stroller) to buy.   You would sit up late into the night discussing, planning and strategising, as the excitement intensifies. Everything that we write is our ‘baby’, whether it be a poem, a blog, a magazine article, a screenplay, flash fiction or a novel.  From conception to creation and revelation we all need a strategy in order to improve our chances of success. It’s Boxing Day, and I always see this day as a good day to start planning for next year.  By the time New Year’s Day arrives I want my plan to be in place and already being implemented.  So, how do you plan and where do you start? I like to set SMART goals (specific, measured, achievable, realistic & relevant and timebound)....

  He has many Names And the greatest of all is Love. Love came down at Christmas Love all lovely, love divine. Love, He is Love. Love incarnate Love clothed Him with human flesh. Love planned it before the beginning of time. Love humbled Himself and crept silently, yet powerfully, into a troubled world. Love challenged hatred, fear, shame and oppression. Love took a willing girl and grew within her. Love spoke to a troubled man and calmed him to obedience. Love drew shepherds in wonder and kings in worship. Love opened His arms wide and embraced a world yet to know Him, giving all of Himself. Love that was, and is and ever more will be. Love that saves, redeems, restores and sustains. Love that embraces us still, every day and into eternity. Love came down at Christmas. Wonderful Love, we embrace you, we bow in reverence before You, we worship You, we give ourselves to You. HAPPY CHRISTMAS, AND A BLESSED NEW YEAR TO YOU ALL!

  Uppermost in the mind at Philologus Towers this Christmas is not decking the halls, piping in the flaming pudding, or broaching the barrels in the cellar, but various health issues requiring hospital appointments and procedures, to take place at times as yet unspecified. If these constitute the citadel of our festive experience, the encircling walls of the stronghold are the dire straits in which large numbers of our fellow citizens, public sector workers not least, find themselves, as the result of the callous behaviour of others. Beyond that grim barrier lie the barbed-wire festooned entrenchments of the rich and powerful, who, for some reason, have not yet been sent empty away. In the fields outside, the vicious conflicts of Ukraine, Myanmar, Palestine, and many other lands rage on. Between the battle lines the myriad refugees wander houseless. And enveloping all, the Climate Catastrophe looms. This, in fact, is the real Christmas Story: the time in which God became incarnate ...

  Sharing Stories by Rebecca Seaton I’ve recently been thinking about sharing stories. Last week, my school had a ‘Bedtime Stories’ session: children could stay for an hour after school, with parents if they wanted to come, to put their pyjamas on, get a hot chocolate and listen to their class teacher tell stories. No comprehension questions, no targets or teaching around the text, just teachers reading stories for pleasure. Sharing stories is important. Although some of us may write for our own personal pleasure, most of us want to circulate our stories in some way. Sharing our work can happen in a number of ways: we might publish novels using self-publishing or traditional avenues, I’ve also found the discipline of writing for a magazine a useful challenge and an unexpected joy. Authors often discuss the difficulty of getting paid for writing and some find it frustrating when people lend books but don’t buy them. To me, the two wishes, to be paid and to see our stories out th...

 Let me tell you about a gift I received recently. It arrived, unexpectedly, in my inbox. I didn’t know who it was from. I didn’t recognise the sender’s email address. Attached to the email was a video. The video was of a six-year-old girl. I didn’t recognise her, either. She was reading aloud from a book. A book I did recognise. Also Made. ALT: Book Cover 'Also Made - A Star Called Reeva' The gift was special on many levels: -           -  They’d taken time to make the video -           -   They’d sent it to me -           -   She read it beautifully, with great fluency and expression She read words I’d written. Words I’d only written because God gave them to me. I hesitate to suggest that every single word I type is directly given to me from God. I imagine He’d use fewer ‘reallys’ or ‘thats’, for one thing. But, as Christian writers, we aim to re...

  "And all of these, though they won divine approval by [means of] their faith, did not receive the fulfilment of what was promised, Because God had us in mind and had something better and greater in view for us, so that they [these heroes and heroines of faith] should not come to perfection apart from us [before we could join them]."                                                                                           Hebrews 11:39-40 Within days we celebrate Christmas, in a carol we sing, ‘our hopes and fears were met in Him tonight’.   Hebrews 11.1 gives a list of those who await the fulfilment of their faith.   Apologies last month in confusing the name Bridgerton with Sanditon which was written...