A collection of musings and writings and upcoming events.
The Sheffield Hole in the Road was a major landmark which was destroyed in 1994. For myself, my main memories of it are from when I was a child looking at the fish in the tank. I’d be taken to see the fish on shopping trips with my mum. The fish and the Hole in the Road inspired by short story which was Highly Commended in the Sheffield Short Story Competition. I read it alongside other Sheffield winners last night. What a lovely event it was. Here’s my story:
Read MoreThe last of the toothpaste was still sitting there on the bathroom sink. She knew that she should use it. it was only toothpaste after all. it was silly to be sentimental about a plastic tube. But she was and so there it stayed, day after day.
Read MoreI’m not sure when or where it started, but it feels like I’ve always made a collage around New Year. An ex-boyfriend tells me that I introduced him to my New Year collages back in the late 1990s so I must have been doing it for at least twenty years. Way before I became a coach, I was already interested in being the architect of my own life and saw that there was a value in spending time reflecting on what I wanted. And what better time to reflect on that than at New Year? So I began using words and images to create a vision for how I wanted my future to look. For the last 2 years I’veI shared the experience as a workshop and, at the start of 2020, I’m looking forward to presenting the workshop at Kollider from where I’ve been running the Writers Hub in 2019.
Read MoreMusings on making time to write, featuring my long-listed entry to the Sheffield Authors Short Story competition
Read MoreIt’s Mental Health Awareness Week and also Dying Matters Awareness Week. I wrote a piece for the Huffington Post about how the two can be related.
Read MoreI’m just back from a big trip to Sri Lanka with my children. We had a wonderful time in a country which was characterised for me by the way in which people of different faiths lived peacefully together. I’m so saddened by the news today and my heart goes out to the people there.
Read MoreThis week in my workshops, we’ve been writing about change which has provided some rich inspiration. After all, whether it’s internal or external, change is at the heart of all stories. As our last exercise yesterday we started writing about a character’s ordinary day and then gave each other random elements of change that we had to incorporate.
Read MoreWe’ve been having fun in my workshops this week with a box of Untranslateable Words that my friend bought for me my birthday. Here are a couple of pieces that I wrote in response to the words I was given. Enjoy!
Read MoreOur experienced practitioners Fiona Watson (Mindfulness) and Beverley Ward (Writer and Creative Coach) will take you on a journey of mindfulness, writing and walking in the beautiful Longshaw Estate
We invite you to a fabulous day out at the stunning Longshaw estate where we will teach you the joy of mindfulness practice and creative writing submerged in nature!
Read MoreI’m not sure when or where it started, but it feels like I’ve always made a collage around New Year. An ex-boyfriend tells me that I introduced him to my New Year collages back in the late 1990s so I must have been doing it for at least twenty years.
Read MoreMy writing groups have been writing Christmas stories, inspired by song titles. Here’s one of mine. Happy Christmas. x
Santa Claus is coming to town
He’s making a list and checking it twice. And then he checks it three times just to be sure. Three is a lucky number after all.
Read MoreThanks to funding from Off the Shelf, I was able to run a workshop on pitching to agents as part of the festival this year.
Over thirty people turned up and the feedback from the event has been very positive.
Read MoreI don’t typically write short stories but during the workshops that I run, I often begin pieces that could be short stories so I’m trying to challenge myself to type them up and submit them more often.
Read More“Beverley’s writing group is the highlight of my week. It feels wrong if I ever miss the class, like something’s missing. I immensely look forward to the writing activities that Beverley suggests: they’re creative, and guiding both in my writing and in my life.” ~ Delaina Haslam
Read MoreI’ve been making New Year’s collages for as long as I can remember. I do it in place of making resolutions, enjoying the opportunity to reflect on what I want from the coming year in all aspects of my life.
Read MoreI’m excited to be taking over from Liz Cashdan in running the WEA Writing for Children course in Sheffield in September. The course runs on Friday mornings during term time at the Quaker Meeting House. The first session is this Friday (22nd September) at 10.15am
Read MoreIn the autumn I completed a course in Using Writing for Therapeutic Purposes with The Writers’ Academy which has ignited a long-held ambition to run more workshops with a more explicitly therapeutic purpose.
Read MoreThis is my new author photo. I found it amongst the photos taken by my partner, Paul, following his death in March. This year has mostly been about processing my grief at his loss and at the loss of my mum, but I am gradually remerging and will be putting on my brave author face this autumn at the Off the Shelf festival in Sheffield.
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