Well after almost a year's break, I'm back to blogosphere! I wish I could say I'm back a size lighter and loads more sensible but current evidence suggests not, so don't worry this blog has still got loads of potential for crazy personal stories!
(By the way I am sorry to anyone who has been checking for new entries during that time. My absence was not due to an ambivalence to blogging but due to a technical error between my Publishers new computer software and my blog software! (At least that is my understanding of the problem.)
Well I'm really glad to be back and will now give you a wee synopsis of my last year... which has included both 'Glamour' & grunts!
The past year has been mostly dominated with the highs and lows of trying to write another book. Early Autumn 2009 I was thrilled to hear that Inter-Varsity Press had accepted my proposal. They changed my brief slightly and suggested I wrote a book of short chapters, for women who are 'in need of encouragement', so initially I thought "that's a good idea, I'm writing for myself then!"
But I just could not get started writing. What do they say, "too much analysis leads to paralysis"? Well that was me. Somehow I kept feeling the pressure to become Philipa Yancey (a female version of the very clever & inspirational Philip Yancey) and inside was freaking out as I realised I wasn't that person!
Somewhat 'worked-up' in November I swapped my days off, (in my part-time job as a teaching assistant in a school for Deaf children) & went on a writers course to see if I could glean some help or inspiration. There Nick Page was talking about writing and just as we were leaving (we were standing on a railway platform waiting for our train!) I plucked up the courage to tell him of my angst. Nick reassured me of the common toil over writing a second book, (as folk, like me, usually have spent many years planning the first) and I returned home relieved and inspired to keep going!
But would you believe it in May 2010 I was still struggling to write? (I bet you're glad you didn't get an even more detailed account of this over the last 12 months!) Kindly I was invited to speak at Sandown Christian Resource Exhibition and again, strangely, just as I was waiting to leave (queuing for a taxi to be precise) I had a chance encounter (God works in mysterious ways) and very helpful and inspiring conversation. This time it was with the one and only Adrian Plass ('The Sacred Diary of Adrian Plass 37 1/2 ' being my all time favourite book), who I met on a previous writers course. Following my loud grunts to his question, "are you writing at the moment?" his advice to me was "keep it simple, be yourself, write authentically."
I came home and thought "ok I need to stop trying to write in the style of a great theologian but just write in my own quirky style and take the consequences." Over the next few weeks I wrote 3 more chapters, sent them off to my editor who liked them & told me I could continue writing, phew! (Watch this space for the ongoing saga.)
Finally the other and arguably much more exciting theme to the past year is that Bluebell Nurses has got official charity status and you could help us achieve our first £10,000 by voting (free and online) for Ruth Jackson @ www.avonhellotomorrowfund.com. The charity which will employ specialist nurses to support women, and their families, affected by Post-Natal Depression in the U.K. has been short-listed to the final four in a competition in Glamour Magazine (in Association with Avon Cosmetics). Ruth Jackson, my friend and the charity's Project Manager, has been short-listed to the final four! Please, please take time to vote for her and tell your friends about this, as the fate of this £10,000 is now in the hands of the public vote!
Anyway, I've said more than enough... now it's over to you. I'd love to hear from you if you read this post, please do leave a comment....
