More than Writers

So often in life our plans don’t work out as we’d hope. We set goals and timings for ourselves, but then life happens and God sometimes interrupts us, doing something completely unexpected. Today I thought it would be good to explore ways in which we can write within those sudden unexpected moments in life, and even embrace them.   I had my Plan all worked out when I went into shielding in March. Suddenly, at least 12 weeks stretched out before me, acres of time where I would be away from all the usual calls on me, and even away from my family. It seemed to me as if God was nudging me to finally write the book I’d been procrastinating for a year, and so I got down to it. At first things went swimmingly, ideas were coming together and I got a proposal written, it all seemed to fit into place. As the weeks went on, though, despondency and loneliness began to sap the energy from me in a way I’d never envisaged, and it started to feel like the words were dragging, devoid of life. And t...

Photo by Laura Fuhrman on Unsplash What's your favourite word  –  a word that dances on your tongue or makes you beam each time you use it? How about a word like  mollycoddle ? 'A word which contains many of the best sounds that your mouth can make' Or  luscious , a wonderful tongue curling word or  lollipop  or  the word 'plum'  which is also the title of a wonderful poem about the joyful sounds of words. I don't believe that epsilon would be one of those words? Though please forgive me if it would. That's one of the word choices for the current vss365 host. He adores mathematics so each of his words will be on that theme. I'm struggling, a lot.  I had the privilege of been the host for one day, last month. It was on the 16th July, and I could choose any word, but on one condition - it had to be a Greek word used in English. Thankfully, nectar was one of them, though I was also considering hypnosis or tantalise, and people loved it!  ...

It seems that a series of unexpected and unfortunate events have been preventing some regular contributors not being able to post recently. When this happens, the contributors are so apologetic and feel like they have let the blog down. This is not the case. As I said previously when this happened, people are what matters and we should be supporting each other.  Today, not only have I had an emergency hospital appointment but I’ve also been to a funeral. It’s during times like this you realise that writing sometimes takes a back seat. Nothing will suffer. During times like this all you can do is keep on keeping on. Write when you can, take time to heal.  The hospital appointment was for my eye. I’m in pain and struggling to see. So writing isn’t at the forefront of my mind. So, I’m hoping you will forgive my post today.  My plea to you is to be kind to each other. Be there for each other when times are hard. Celebrate when we have success. Life is short and precious. Enj...

I've decided that the only guarantee in life is that you can't guarantee anything. Life may be trotting along quite nicely and then something comes along to disrupt those well laid plans. The regular contributor to the 16th of each month is currently unwell, so I stepped in to help out. It was an honour to do so and I wish her a speedy recovery. Yet, writing another blog post today was unexpected for me. Yes, I already write for another blog on the 16th of each month and rung out my creative juices on that. Or so I thought. As writers, we often have more creative ideas than we can ever imagine. If that sentence actually makes any sense. Anyway, we have a huge and awesome brain and we often forget to use all of it. A change of circumstances or something unexpected, if we let it, our brain will step in and give you the answer. As well as being an author and the webmaster for the Association of Christian Writers, I am also the President of the Scottish Association of Writer...

It is so interesting to see how our writing journeys can so often go in a direction we were not expecting. For example, I have written quite a few books for publishers that I edit regularly for. They already knew me and I was writing for series that were already established, so I suppose it was a ‘safe bet’ for them. Getting my own book,  Taking Off the Mask , published was another matter. I may have known and worked with the majority of Christian publishers over the years but suddenly I was not such a safe bet.  Regular feedback consisted of: ‘You are a great writer, we love the idea but it’s not quite right for our list’ and/or ‘You aren’t established enough/you don’t have a big enough following/you don’t speak at big festivals’. Fast forward four years – my book baby has been in existence for a year and a half, and I’m really enjoying the speaking that I now do regularly. I have a publisher who is behind me, wants to publish more books with me and g...

Today, due to circumstances beyond anyone's control, I found my self unexpectedly writing a blog post. Having not thought about this in advance I spent some time wondering what to write about. I had a busy day planned and writing a blog wasn't part of that plan. However, it has turned out to be a blessing in disguise. It has given me an opportunity to think abut how I react when the unexpected happens and throws my best laid plans into chaos. The picture of the duck is intentional, mainly because it's a bonnie wee duck. Who can fail to be happy when faced with a yellow ball of fluff. However, it also serves as a metaphor for the various ways in which we act when the unexpected happens. Usually the first reaction when something strays into the path of our ordered day is to panic. This can have its place but doesn't really help solve the immediate problem. Chaos ensues and nothing gets done. Except eating chocolate of course. That always gets done. Then there...