My day usually begins with a walk. Not alone, you understand. My boisterous pup Rosso would not settle, without his hour long, sniff and chase around the fields and woods near my home in Lincolnshire.
My part in the proceedings, is to immerse myself in the natural beauty of the countryside and gain some inspiration for my day ahead not a bad deal, eh?
While enjoying a welcome coffee on my return home, I look through my emails and messages and add a social media post or too, to update my followers on any news about my writing.
On the days when I am not seeing clients in my psychotherapy practice, I then sit down to write.
With my neurodivergent brain, this process may take another couple of hours to get started, I will, often disappear down one of a number of, potential rabbit holes.
These can take the form of any, or all, of the below:
Checking if I have any new reviews for my previous three published memoirs:
‘Reflections From A Narrowboat’, The Courage Of A Ukrainian Family’ and ‘The Evening Girls’.
It might be that a poem comes into my head, and I need to get it down on paper, before that ‘perfect line’ disappears for ever, like the contents of a dream.
There may be an external distraction, such a request for an ‘urgent’ piece of copy for the Narrowboat blog I write for Fox Narrowboats.
Then there is lunch! After which, I finally settle, to continue work on my latest book: a novel, which is evolving nicely into a work of contemporary fiction.
But before I can start, I remember there is a friend’s ‘big’ birthday coming up, so I start to think that she may like a bespoke poem, to celebrate the occasion.
So, I jot down a few relevant words in one of my many notebooks that I keep, to capture my thoughts and feelings when creating ‘The Write Words – bespoke poems for extraordinary moments’.
By then, the day is almost gone. Time to give up on the new novel for another day.
I eat a rushed meal, before I set off down another rabbit hole – one I love visiting at The Rabbit Hole, Brigg: to take part in their enjoyable monthly spoken word meeting.
As one of my favourite poets – John Cooper-Clarke said recently on a Radio 4 Woman’s Hour interview: Poetry needs to be read out loud, not just published in a book.
So, listening to others’ work and reading my own - what a perfect way to end my day.
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