More than Writers

Jean Calvin 1509-1564 I heard these words in passing, as we History Honours students huddled together in a corridor at university, attired in hired gowns over best dresses/suits and clutching the mortar boards which we would be entitled to wear in a few minutes' time, after graduation.  Just one of us had a job offer, the louse from my Reformation in Europe course, who, immediately before finals, had dumped his girlfriend of two years and was now going out with her best friend.  He had a management job with a shoe company.  Of the rest, a large proportion were about to start PGCE courses.  After spending most of my final year studying the Reformation in intense detail and writing a thesis about its impact in the Midlands, I was about to begin a secretarial qualification (a ‘postgraduate’ secretarial qualification, as if this made it any better).  This was how I began my circuitous career path towards teaching computing, because - really and truly - no emplo...

  I love the beach, even though, or maybe because, I didn’t grow up anywhere near a beach. Recently, we bought a static caravan on a park, right by the sea, and I love it. When the tide is in, you can hear the waves booming as they hit the rocks. The sky looks different and the air smells healthy. Every day when staying at the caravan, Goldie and I go onto the beach. It’s not a golden sandy beach, and it looks rather ugly when the tide is out. Dark rocks are spread out, some covered in green seaweed. The rocks aren’t neatly lined up either, but there are sandy patches, jagged rocks, pebble mounts and rock pools. It’s a mess. Goldie loves to run around though and explore the different stones for crab and other things she could try to eat. Standing as patiently as I can, I usually end up looking at the stones at my feet, and you know what? This stretch of coast has the most amazing collection of rocks and pebbles anywhere in the world, I’m sure! The colours are stunning, and th...

Image Credits: Images created in Book Brush using Pixabay photos.   Are there stand out moments in stories for you? Yes, Allison, you cry, loads. Same here.   Favourite moment from The Lord of the Rings was the relationship between ancient enemies, the elf, Legolas, and dwarf, Gimli, when they face almost certain death. Gimli: I never thought I’d die fighting side by side with an elf. Legolas:  How about dying side by side with a friend? Gimli:  Aye, I can manage that. Deeply moving.  Moments in stories can be laugh out loud (Wodehouse and Pratchett are sublime here). What about our tales? Are we creating stand out moments? Not consciously for the first draft is my response. I get that draft down. I rest it. I look to improve it and then I can see whether something stands out to grab the reader’s attention.  Sometimes it is the closing line. I often end my flash pieces on a twist ending or punchline. Sometimes it is the opening line where I have tried t...

  On October 21 st , which was a Saturday, we hosted an author event to celebrate Black History Month in Abbey Wood Library in South East London. Chidi came from the Midlands, Bisi from Kent and Tinuke and I came from South East. We formed a WhatsApp platform to rub our minds together.   Closer to the date, we got together in a zoom to know ourselves better and put the finishing touches   that would lead to the   success of   the event, such as who and how we would take charge of Prayers, Photography, Timing, MC, Quiz, Refreshments, Order of events in the program and arranging the hall. We prayed for good weather, attendees, library staff and event success.   We came in to the Library to set up two hours before the event. We each had tables that we personalised to suit our book themes and our backgrounds.   We arranged the chairs and we took photographs .The event began with Tinuke praying and introducing Black History.   We found out that our a...

As I sit at my computer my eyes are inevitably drawn to the picture just above my monitor of my beloved retired Hearing dog, Goldie.  He now lives with dear friends as I thought I would be having another Hearing dog, but my heart is still very much for my lovely boy.  In the picture he is gazing upwards - at me, except you can't see me!  His focus was always on me because I was the centre of his world and I am struck by how, in offering me his undivided love, his own beauty would be revealed.   There's been some great posts on here recently about issues such as  our identity and how we measure success,  Thank you for all the illuminating thoughts that have been shared, they've been very helpful.  Now this picture of Goldie is drawing me to think of where I am putting my focus in my life.   Probably, like many of us, I find myself feeling very small sometimes.  I read some of the posts on ACW FB group and love the sense of celebratio...

Photo from Pixabay This blog is inspired by the recent blogs of Liz Carter and Veronica Bright . Liz says, “ It seems to me that there is always a massive push to succeed, to always be 'doing' in order to get our books out there. ”  Veronica quotes Sophie Hannah who tells us to, “Believe in our future success, believe that we will achieve success in one way or another. ” In general, the market tends to measure and define success based on  how much money the author makes or how many copies the book sells .  So, how do you measure success?  Have you actually defined what success looks like for you?  If not, how will you know when you have achieved it? Once your work is published, how do you define its success?   The word define  means to “state or describe exactly the nature, scope, or meaning of.” The word measure means to “estimate or assess the extent, quality, value, or effect of (something).” I spent 30 years working in the charity sector a...

As a fiction writer I am well used to insomnia. When I am working on a new book I find all kinds of things can keep my brain awake into the wee hours, even when my exhausted body is crying out for sleep. Plotlines, story twists, new characters and their roles, and most annoyingly, names. I laid awake for hours (at least 2) a few weeks back trying to think of a name for a minor (yes he has a very small part) character. Why was it so difficult? Because he lives in the Welsh Marches in the 13th century, and is not a nobleman, but also not a peasant. He is more likely to be Norman born than native English or Welsh. And he isn’t a particularly bad man, but has a bit of a reputation for being harsh at times. A man who is respected, fearfully, but can also be fair and even handed when he wants to be.   I find names for my characters from many different places. Some of my characters are (loosely) based on people I know, so I might use their names, or a medieval name similar to theirs. I ...

  We have just finished reading a marvellous book called Metaphysical Animals , which is about four British women philosophers who changed the direction of philosophy in the middle of the twentieth century. What has this got to do with Christian writing? I hear you ask. A lot, as you will learn if you read on. The four women were called Mary Midgley, Philippa Foot, Elizabeth Anscombe, and Iris Murdoch. If you are an oldie, you may have heard of the last-named as a prolific novelist; you may even have read some of her novels. But she, like the other three, was also a formidable academic philosopher. Of the four, only Elizabeth Anscombe was a committed Christian (a Catholic in fact), but they were all definitely on the right side. Up until the mid twentieth century, practically no philosopher doubted that (a) the metaphysical realm exists in some shape or form, and (b) moral or ethical principles have an objective reality. To simplify events enormously, in 1936 a young philosopher na...

  Writer identity by Rebecca Seaton   What is your writer identity? How does this affect your work? Does it even matter?   It used to be common to question if readers could tell if a writer was male or female. After all, authors from the Brontes to J K Rowling have felt the need to use a male name to be taken more seriously. Would we know they were women if that information hadn’t come out? Perhaps. It is also suggested that men find it easier to write physical scenes and women are better at the psychological tension, hence the success of writing couples, like Nicci French: the psychological terror builds effectively but we are also left in no doubt as to the physical horrors the characters endure. There may be some truth in gender shaping author identity but I’m more convinced that it’s possible to tell a married writer from a single one. I love fantasy and it is definitely the case that if it’s written by a married author there’s a much higher percentage of char...

Last week was Christian Bookshop Week, and I thought I’d tell you about some of the things I did:   1.      The launch of Consider Him , by Catherine Campbell. I was glad to be in Belfast, and so able to attend. A lovely surprise was meeting Jean Gibson, another Christian writer, there. What better way to start Christian Bookshop Week than by celebrating a new book, and being encouraged by Catherine to: 'Consider Him...so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.' (Hebrews 12:3)   2     The online launch of To the Ocean Floor , by Kate Nicholas It was really good to be there, and celebrate the book. Kate shared some of her story; an encouragement to Consider Him when life is hard.   My final event of Christian Bookshop Week was in a bookshop. The Vine , in Hinckley, is a beautifully welcoming place: do visit if you can. I was there because Jessica (the manager) had invited me to give a talk and sign books, thoug...

Writing is my creative outlet. I love words. I cannot arrange flowers, compose, paint or crochet. That's no problem; others can . What's more, others also write. Many are much better writers than me. That's also no problem. It's not a competition.  Every Harvest Festival we invite our church family to donate food items which are then passed on to local charities. This year we did something a little different: before the summer break our Eco Group invited people to get creative. Pieces could be in any medium and the linking theme was  Creation , remembering God as Creator and the natural world around us in celebration of harvest.  As well as arrangements of flowers and tins of peaches, we celebrated God's gift of creativity by displaying the many items people kindly contributed. We received enough to display images on large boards in the main church and coffee area, with smaller items on tables and in the entrance foyer. The imagination and creativity was awesome. We...