More than Writers

  December sunrise as seen from our home When the clock reaches 9.21am today, pause for a moment. (Sorry to our readers in the future - this only applies to 21 December 2024.) It’s the moment of the Winter Solstice. When we’re tilted furthest away from the sun. (Sorry to our readers south of the equator - for you that moment will next occur at 3.42am our time on 21 June 2025). Today is the darkest day of winter. London will get 7 hours, 49 mins and 42 seconds of daylight. The forecast for much of the UK is cloudy. It’s a dark day. A great time for my first blog on MTW. Hellooo dear readers :-). As always, I reached out for inspiration. “What should I write about, dear?” My wife crafts stories that fill novels. She knows about inspiration. “Relevance,” she said.  She and I talk a lot about why people stop to read one thing, while passing something else by. You’ll hook more readers when you share something relevant. Articles about Christmas are more popular now than they were in...

Who reads blogs on 20th December? That’s the question I was asking myself, as I asked God what to write this month. Will anyone care? Won’t they all be out Christmas shopping? Well, if you’re here with me, then thank you! Thanks for talking some time out of the crazy to join me in a little bit of writerly Christmas-related musings. The word Yuletide popped into my head as I prayed, so I looked it up. What is the relationship of Yuletide to Christmas? I had a vague idea (mostly something to do with logs and singing!) but didn’t know specifics. Well, at least in Europe, Yuletide came first. It’s a pagan festival that is still celebrated today, associated with the winter solstice, and the picture below gives you an inkling of some of the things involved. Freaky. Illustration of an ancient Nordic Yule festival ( Die Gartenlaube , 1880 ) , in the Public Domain Yuletide was common among Norse and Germanic peoples, as well as Anglo Saxons. According to Wikipedia (source of much knowledge): Th...

 🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄 Less than a week to go! What is your favourite activity of Christmas? The dinner? The presents? The children’s reactions? For me, it is the annual Carol service. There is something comforting about singing familiar words and tunes. Yes, I know there is some biblical inaccuracy. I just love the way a carol service brings people together, believers, nominal believers, church-goers and unbelievers. I also like to read devotionals at this time of the Christian calendar. This year I got round to publishing my own, “Advent to Epiphany”, meeting God’s partners. The theme was hatched several years ago. I had at first wanted to catch a traditional publishers’ eye but after several showed an interest and then went cold, the season had passed. I decided to self-publish. Also, I changed my mind about the format. At first, I wanted to combine devotional pages and poetry. My Beta readers disagreed. Some loved the idea. Others hated it, thinking it would be too confusi...

       As Christmas Day is almost upon us, I wonder how you feel about this time of year?  I sometimes feel at certain points in December that the preparations and expectations are like a wave, building up in force and heading towards me, I need to keep my balance to avoid being swept up in its pathway. It is a challenge to keep my heart in the right place, and what is that place? Well for me it is a place of thankfulness, receptivity and celebration of the wonderful coming of Jesus. I pray each year for a fresh revelation from familiar words. This year I have had three very different pieces of writing to complete during December – a preach, a piece of poetic prose and a post for this blog, I must be in sermon mode with all those ‘p’s! I decided to base them all around one piece of writing. Although it has been a challenge to keep the focus for each separate and clear in my mind, it has been an interesting exercise. My subject has been that jewel of a ‘song’...

I was told recently that, if you are struggling to find the words you want to say, just writing ‘anything’ for 10 minutes is enough to kick-start you back into gear. So I tried it and although it certainly helped the creative juices flow, it also forced me to face up to a major obstacle in my writing life – one which on several occasions has made me consider giving up: how to transform my rough copy into a professional-looking article. My skills are not good enough to write directly onto a tablet or similar, so I use a note book and pencil (ideally a propelling one with a rubber). It’s taken me a while to confess this as it doesn’t seem very professional. Then I read that Roald Dahl and Ernest Hemingway both wrote this way and I felt encouraged – not that I’m thinking I’m anything like these wonderful authors, you understand. Let me describe the scenario. Writing completed, I take a deep breath, look the computer straight in the eye and attempt to transform my piece into a neat file: n...

  I am an unashamed sucker for almost all things Christmassy, so by the time you read this I will have been playing carols for a couple of weeks and will have been back from South Africa for a couple of days.   Christmas there is a whole other story of sunshine, beaches and braais; here, I’m looking forward to a ‘proper’ Christmas. For me, that includes unpacking a selection of seasonal devotionals, anthologies and stories.   While I am not a fan of anything in the ‘Saccharine coated-Christmas’ category including anything purporting to be, ‘Cosy Candles and Cupcakes at the Christmas Café’ (I made that up; please tell me that’s not an actual title), I am very much in favour of getting ‘in the mood’.   Of all the paraphernalia that can include, for me it is mandatory to watch It’s A Wonderful Life , probably Home Alone , and to read A Christmas Carol .   Charles Dickens classic has endured like no other and is an old friend with probably the best Christmas story o...

I’m going on a joy hunt! It’s been a tough year for our family. Ken’s brother died in May and my elder sister at the end of August. As you may know, grief rolls in unannounced and especially around this time of the year when other special people are remembered. This is why I am trying to look out for times when things are good - or maybe more than good. It’s a common tool in psychology to help combat anxiety or depression by rating activities for pleasure. That’s not quite joy, but certainly a step towards it. I’ve had a great deal of pleasure in my reading. YA novels with alternative futures or parallel lives are fairly closely aligned with the dystopian novel I am writing at present. Recently, I have read T for Tolerance  by Katherine Blessan, Beyond the Horizon from the Flip series by Trevor Stubbs and The Life Shop by Margaret McAllister. All excellent books, which make the reader think. I recommend all three. On a pleasure scale reading those books would be rated 10/10. Over t...

For the past few months, I’ve been offering a set of guides to editing – which quickly morphed into an extended grammar lesson. I hope it was useful to some of you!  Whilst editing is something we can do at any stage of the writing process – perhaps reviewing what we last wrote before embarking on the next part – it’s usually associated with the end. It seems an appropriate theme for this point in the year. It was a momentous day when production of Australian soap Sons and Daughters stopped in March 1987. Knowing the demise was in sight, the scriptwriters made sure that everyone’s plot-line was tidily (and non-sensically) resolved so that the remaining half-dozen viewers could rest easy, knowing their heroes would be living happily ever after, albeit in obscurity.  It’s what I find myself attempting to do this December. My whiteboard, ever reminding me of my impending deadlines, is still sporting way-too-much black writing. (I managed to rub two off last week, only to replace ...

  Recently, a friend, who was writing up an order of service, and concerned to be consistent in the typeset, asked what was the protocol for the capitalisation of God’s pronouns. This innocent question proved to be an emotional rollercoaster for me! Have you ever thought about it?  The UK is going through profound changes in society’s attitude to respect for authority figures in general and God in particular.  Having not lived through the reflection and debate that have led to these changes while living abroad, I often find it difficult and irksome to understand. So, I fired back to my friend: ‘capitalise all God’s pronouns!’. In my heart was an innate determination to turn back the perceived rot of an increasing secularisation of society— no mean task for the capitalisation of a few pronouns!  My friend responded with an interesting article; https://christianediting.co.nz/deity-pronouns/. There is nothing like a bit for alternative-view reading to get all my prejudi...

  As the festive season draws near, the anticipation of Christmas fills the air with warmth and joy. For many, it's a time for family gatherings, gift-giving, and creating memories that last a lifetime. But beyond the glittering decorations and hearty meals lies an opportunity to reflect on what makes this holiday truly special. Last year, I was fortunate enough to contribute to my community by writing a book that focused on the impact anyone can make during Christmas. This experience not only enriched my own understanding of the holiday spirit but also showed me how each one of us can find unique ways to celebrate. With Christmas approaching again, let's explore together how we can make this season meaningful for ourselves and those around us. Christmas is often seen as a time for exchanging gifts, yet its essence runs far deeper than material presents wrapped in shiny paper. The true spirit of Christmas lies in generosity and compassion—qualities that have been beautifully ca...

Photo by Pixabay . You can’t have missed the recent scandal of hidden child abuse that ultimately brought down an archbishop. It all comes down to a series of camps, founded in the 1930s and mostly held in the Dorset village of Iwerne (pronounced “yoo-un”) Minster. They deliberately set out to evangelise the upper classes, as they would one day run the country and hence their faith would trickle down to everyone else – which sounds absurd today but is actually quite in line with Paul’s own preaching philosophy. Justin Welby and a number of other Big Names were alumni of these camps. As am I. Nothing untoward happened to me there, and I cannot fault the sincerity and orthodoxy of Iwerne’s teaching. I owe to Iwerne my absolute, unwavering and non-compromising belief in the Trinity, in the incarnation, and in redemption through and only through (though by means no one can quite articulate) the death and resurrection of Jesus. And if you think I’m making excuses for the place, r...

  Photo by   Sandy Millar   on   Unsplash   Close your eyes, and in a voice, only you can hear, say your name. Say it a few times, recite it to yourself. Say it slowly, enjoying the sound of it in your mouth . This simple exercise transports you into a private world—a room no one else can access. It’s the room of your imagination." I tried this exercise whilst reading Mister Pip - a novel by Lloyd Jones, set in Papua New Guinea. Civil war has broken out, and at the tiny school that Matilda, the novel's narrator attends, there is only one book and that book is Great Expectations by Charles Dickens. Matilda's teacher, Mister Pip, invites the students to close their eyes and say their names, creating a refuge within their imaginations.  I closed my eyes, said my name and found myself in that room. For me, it became a rehearsal space, mirrors on one side, a polished wooden floor beneath my feet. But imagination is as personal as a fingerprint—no two are alike. ...