Fifteen years ago, I was medically overweight, and now I’m not. I lost two-and-a-half stone and I’ve kept the weight off ever since, thanks to that miracle cure of eating a bit less and moving a bit more. (It really is that simple and that difficult.) My current body, older and creakier though it is, feels more like me than the younger but chubbier body ever did. But there was a time – quite a long time in fact – after I lost that weight, when I didn’t quite believe I could get into a size 10 or 12 and shopping was— confusing. My hipbones felt weird. I wasn’t too sure of my perimeters. (Note, I didn’t say boundaries, as I’ve never been very sure about them.) I felt more vulnerable. A bit more naked, somehow. That’s what it’s been like for me becoming (cue trumpets and bunting) A PUBLISHED AUTHOR! Authors, to me, are mythical beasts. P...
I’d never heard of NaNoWriMo until I started spending more time on social media during the very brief periods of time between working from home and sobbing aerobically from home for the last nine months, which have felt like nine bloody years . To be honest, I’m very new to social media and have learned all sorts of things in the last year – from NaNoWriMo to Writers Lifts and Pile Ons! If you too are new to all this, NaNoWriMo stands for the National Novel Writing Month and during November, the aim is to write every day a minimum of around 1,6000 words so by the end of the month you have 50,000 words towards a novel. I think it started in the States. This is literally all the information I had, gleaned from one single Tweet I saw on November 1st, although I then became aware of writers (often young and bushy tailed) announcing their daily word totals. Being me (knackered, grey droopy tailed, ...
When I was a kid, I had a collection of Trolls – funny little plastic figures with wild hair. One sat on top of my pen for years. I’ve always liked them. But nowadays, online trolls are pure evil. So virulent are Twitter trolls, the counter movement #BeKind has evolved. It’s all too easy to gob off online - a few late-night beers, and from the comfort of your own sofa, nastiness can wing its way into the life of some poor sod you’ve never met. It’s no good saying, ‘but they’re famous’ as a defence. That’s like saying people are asking for it. It horrifies me how personal some of the comments are. Women are slammed for being too fat, too thin, too old, having too much Botox, being frumpy or too sexy. We can’t win. Parenting styles are vilified. Often these comments are from other women. Sticks and stones can break your bones, but words can break your spirit. Verbal bullying can be worse than ph...
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