Summer rain
The other reason I haven’t been writing posts recently is that I have been trying to focus on another project. I’ve had an idea for a new novel, and I got quite excited about it, because it’s the first time I’ve had anything like inspiration for fiction writing in – literally – years. It’s still very much just a WIP: I have a main character and the barest of outlines of a story arc. But it is definitely progress of a sort.
Now is the month of Maying
This is a weird time of year for me. I love the spring; blossom is everywhere, the swallows are here, we heard a cuckoo the other day – not to mention nightingales! But at the same time, I always dread the arrival of the end of April. The beginning of May has been a difficultContinue reading “Now is the month of Maying”
We need to talk about death
One often hears it said that death is the last taboo. While this isn’t generally true in all cultures, it probably is in mine (I am British – even now, we don’t much like to talk about our feelings). But it wasn’t always this way. In Victorian Britain, much was made of death, probably becauseContinue reading “We need to talk about death”
A Lasting Companion
“She was no longer wrestling with the grief, but could sit down with It as a lasting companion and make it a sharer in her thoughts.” ~ George Eliot About two years ago, I started writing a fanfiction story about grief. Funnily enough, it was the conclusion of the tale of the first character IContinue reading “A Lasting Companion”
I have been absent in the Spring
I’ve had a bad couple of weeks, mental health-wise. The weather’s been changeable, I’ve had migraines (which may or may not be connected to the meteorological conditions, after 50 years I’ve given up trying to work out the causes), upsetting events in the news, I had my first COVID-19 vaccination which gave me a fewContinue reading “I have been absent in the Spring”
Eat, love, remember
My dear friend Chantal over in Chicago recently posted a picture of one of her mother’s recipes and that reminded me that I have none of Mum’s. I regret that bitterly, because she was a wonderful cook, was Constance Ernestine Sally East-Goodwin, and I would love to try to reproduce some of her dishes, andContinue reading “Eat, love, remember”
The L-word
Or should that be the ‘c’-word…? Or the ‘v’-word…? Many infinitely more qualified writers than me have shared their experiences of the strange and unfamiliar ‘new normal’ we have all had to adjust to in the last twelve months, but I am going to throw in my two-pennyworth anyway. For me, it is a goodContinue reading “The L-word”
Mammogate
You know what? I think I’ll blame Tom Hiddleston. You’ll see what I mean. I had a mammogram last week. It wasn’t my first one since we moved here: France operates wide-ranging cancer-screening campaigns, offered to all citizens according to age and sex. It’s one reason why the death rate from cancer here is oneContinue reading “Mammogate”
Where does it come from?
There’s probably no great mystery about the origins of my anxiety. I lost both my parents within five years, between the ages of nine and fourteen; first Dad, then Mum. I still remember having what I now recognise as a panic attack, about a month after Mum died, because I became horribly aware that I,Continue reading “Where does it come from?”
What is wrong with me?
About two or so years ago, I had something of an epiphany. I realised that I was still telling myself “If I can just get through…” (fill in whatever I was facing). As long as I could remember, I’d been doing that. All my life, whether it was the rest of the school term, theContinue reading “What is wrong with me?”
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