Time management wizard, Amanda Butland, teaches moms to live by their priorities. I interviewed Amanda Butland, founder of Momtasking Masters, last December, peak holiday crunch season. She calmly assured me that she had ample time to talk and a “flexible” schedule — This, while juggling a job, family, multiple businesses, a real estate portfolio and […]
TAG! You’re it
Why Writers Need Terrifyingly Attainable Goals Writers dream big but how often do we set clear goals and plan for them? In early January, I put this question to participants gathered for my webinar on “Planning Your Writing Year.” Most replied that they operated on intuition, rather than a ten-point plan. Or any plan. There […]
A Book For My Mix & Match Girl
The tradition was set a few years back, when I made my daughter a birthday card with an “Isla word” for every letter of the alphabet. “Are you going to make me a card every year?” she asked, expectantly. Which was like asking an eager chef for second helpings of her latest scratch: How could […]
Envisioning a Writing Life: Notes from a Writers’ Workshop
When early stage writers join me for a workshop, I want them to leave with the renewed clarity and self belief they need to Keep. On. Writing. Especially when the writers are mums who performed heroic feats of scheduling Tetris and resolved multiple early morning domestic emergencies, ninja style, just to show up . . […]
Why Sign Up for a Writing Workshop . . . Especially if You’re Not a Writer?!
On September 18, I will offer a workshop on Can I Be a Writer Mother at the idyllic Starcroft Farm Cabin in Battle, East Sussex. No experience necessary — this one is for any mum, at any age and stage, who is ready to bring writing into her life this fall. Why sign up for […]
What Do Writing Coaches Do?
Fair question. On a good day, I reply: Pure magic. Of course, that isn’t exactly true. My students are the magicians. For my part, I serve as catalyst, cheerleader, and occasional way marker to help them lift off, accelerate and stay the course. Writers and writers-to-be find me when they are blocked, confused or discouraged […]
Bombed Out!
Again and again, I tell kids their writing can make a difference in the world. My daughter’s schoolmate, 11 year old Tymofii Ladnyi, needs to believe it. A refugee from Ukraine, he is adapting resiliantly to life in England, but longs for a hug with his mother and little brother, back in Kyiv, and his […]
Ollie Alpaca Goes to School: An Animal Story Workshop
“Hmmm,” sang the students in unison, as Nicki reached the final page of her debut picure book, “Take a Look in the Nook.” The alpacas in her story were humming the farm to sleep but the students were wide awake. Nicki Fisher and I were leading a workshop with Year 1s and 2s at Vinehall […]
Sharing the Joy of the Animals
How a Picture Book Enriches the World of Fisherwood Farm This year, I was honoured to serve as Nicki Fisher’s writing coach (a.k.a. book midwife), on her first picture book, “Take a Look in the Nook”. What particularly struck me about the process was the impact that the book has had on her farm – […]
Smart Writers Use Dummies . . . And Other Lessons my Mentee Taught Me
You never really know something until you teach it to someone else. I always thought this adage meant that you prove your mastery by teaching. Now I know that you groove your mastery by teaching – learning in real time, as you go. I owe the discovery to Nicki Fisher, a local alpaca farmer with […]
A Valentine’s Day Fairy Tale
If your partner was a fairy tale character, who would he or she be? For me, the answer became clear over a Sunday breakfast, as my husband extemporised about yet another a quantum physics chestnut he’d been turning over in his brain. “I feel like I’m starring in a Sleeping Beauty mash up,” I said. “Instead […]
Words at Play: Writing Poems for My Family
Poetry is contagious. I caught the bug from my children. When they were little, they inhabited a technicolour sonic-world of rhythm and rhyme. Verse was their native tongue. “Yummy, Scrummy, in my tummy!” my son exclaimed one day, before tucking into a plate of beans. The words buzzed around inside me, and a few hours […]
Colour-As-You-Go Bookshelf: A Christmas Gift for a Book Lover
My eleven year old is at that precious stage of life when she gallops through books. She reads more swiftly by the year, and her disposable time is as yet uncurbed by the demands of secondary school or the responsibilities of adulthood. It may be decades before she is again able to spend so much […]
She Writes, Therefore She Can: Reflections on My Daughter’s First Writing Competition
“So what does winning mean to you?” I ask my ten-year-old daughter, after the initial excitement subsides. We had noticed Ginger & Pickles’ flyer advertising a Halloween poetry competition on a visit to their snug children’s bookshop in Edinburgh, during a family getaway. Their prompt was to write about a potion. I thrilled to see […]
Milestones & Magic: A Workshop
Can writing about your children strengthen your bond – even (especially?) when they aren’t there — and long after they are no longer children? Theresa Puckett, founder of Relational Parents, invited me to explore this question in a virtual workshop on Milestones and Magic Moments, delivered by Zoom, on Tuesday, September 21, 2021. From the […]
A journey to be savoured and shared: Illustrator, Judi Abbot talks about how to get more out of reading picture books with your kids
For artist, Judi Abbot, each book she illustrates is a journey, often lasting three months or longer. First, she reads the manuscript, “starts to understand the characters” and scavenges the text for clues about setting. “A reference to a scarf can suggest an entire world,” she notes. Then she experiments with exploratory sketches and researches […]
Three Pounds Fifty in Change: A Storytelling Workshop about Empathy
In my children’s story, Three Pounds Fifty in Change, Julian, an artist down on his luck, sketches a five pound note on a napkin — the note he wishes he owned. Nancy, the cafe owner, generously decides to accept his drawing as the genuine article, in payment for his cup of coffee. The magic happens […]
Let’s Hear it for the Boy(s) (and Girl(s))!
Parenting involves a modicum (read: perpetual avalanche) of correcting, warning and reprimanding. But to connect with our kids – and gain influence – we must encourage their strengths and potential. We can only encourage what we truly believe in. Therefore, as parents, we must periodically allow ourselves the essential luxury of basking in our sprogs’ […]
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