Christmas 2020 was never going to be normal, was it? But I suspect I am not alone in feeling a little sad that we’re approaching the end of the year and all that ‘it’ll be over by summer!’ optimism now feels like a far-away fever dream. Many people are facing a stressful, complicated Christmas – […]
Tag Archives: life
I suspect turning 50 is a weird milestone for many people, even if it doesn’t happen in the middle of a pandemic. But as my half-century is now only a few weeks away, I’ve naturally been thinking about what it means for me – as a freelancer in an industry that’s in freefall, as a […]
What cross-stitch taught me about writing As anyone who follows me on social media knows, after months of mocking other people for getting their cook / craft on in lockdown (SO MUCH SOURDOUGH), with crushing predictability I finally gave into the urge myself. I have developed an interest in cross-stitch that can be kindly described […]
So this week I hit what I had thought was an impossible milestone – 150 coffees bought for me on Ko-fi! I originally started this page (nearly 2 years ago) as a bit of an experiment. As someone who has always struggled a bit with impostor syndrome, and marvelled at the ability of my more […]
This blog previously appeared on my Newcastle blog, Prodigal Geordie “Why do you go away? So that you can come back. So that you can see the place you came from with new eyes and extra colours. And the people there see you differently, too. Coming back to where you started is not the same […]
So, a confession, and one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to admit: for the past couple of years, I have lost all interest in writing. No biggie, right? There are worse things to admit, even to yourself. But when you’ve spent more than half of your life defining yourself as ‘writer’, what happens […]
Another revisited post, yes – but one that feels really necessary right now. Lots of people in the creative industries are struggling with lost income and having to get jobs to supplement their losses – jobs which are often both low paid and time consuming, so leave little time to do anything else. Many will […]
Yes, I am shamelessly recycling some of my older posts at the moment. In part because I have zero focus and concentration, in part because (yes, admit this) am trying to keep myself visible and in the market for work, and in part because I feel like so many of us are going through so […]
I’ve been revisiting a few old posts recently. In part because I seem to have little energy or concentration to write anything new, in part because I am proud of some of these older pieces and hope that by looking at them again they will find a wider audience, and, perhaps most of all, in […]
Guys, writing is hard sometimes. Like, really, really hard. And while a deadline or a paycheque can force you to produce something if your income depends on it, if that’s not the case – and many of us are facing uncertainty around our work at the moment – it can be a struggle to get the energy or enthusiasm […]
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