Rae of Light

Once, when I was about 12 or 13 I bemoaned the fact I had no friends.  Around me, my contemporaries seemed to have scores of them.  I felt understandably left out. My mother sat me down and told me she could count her most valued friends on one hand. I disbelieved her. I was at that age when you begin doubting the wisdom of your parents. As you know from  Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend , I’m thrilled to have 5 gems on my bracelet. But with Thanksgiving round the corner, I'm once again celebrating fabulously forged friendships because a good friend is the most priceless gift of all.   As well as the Koh-i-noor diamonds   making up my sparkilicious friendship bracelet, there are other friends who also give me succour in more ways than they might realise. The first group owed acknowledgement this Friendsgiving are the members of my Writing Group in Telegraph Hill.  Without this lot I’d spend a great deal of time writing far too ma...

So, it’s all very well having a very structured routine to ensure you’re getting words on the page. But if you want to make those words count then you really need to spend some time doing things other than writing.  For me, specifically, I find that taking time away from writing helps make my writing better because I come back to work which needs editing with a clearer mind.  The thing about writing is that even when you’re doing other things your brain is almost always working on the writing to some degree. So it's vital to take time out and do something which puts your writing brain into REM sleep so it can dream great dreams. Over the next few posts I’ll be sharing some things I do to chillax and temporarily get my brain out of writing mode.  First up: During the week I try to make it to at least one dance class and one social dance. This isn’t always possible, but I make a massive effort to do the dance class if nothing else. Argentine ...

And now, more of how this writer keeps fully charged to produce maximum output.  Reading is the next big ME Time thing I do.   I open the cover of a book and am… transported.   This is how it’s been ever since I was 6 years old.   It’s incredibly difficult for me to put a book down once I start it.   I have to ration myself.    But after my dad died (3 years ago) I suddenly found myself unable to read for pleasure.   I read all the teaching related texts I needed to, but I’d lost the ability to step inside the world of a book, to absorb the sustenance it gave.   I walked into Carnegie Library to teach at Ruskin Readers and didn’t even give the bookshelves a glance.   Unbelievable right!   Happily, this all changed.  On a beach in Sperlonga this September, I re-found the pleasure of reading.  Now I’m back to my usual – “Oooh, I wonder what that one’s about?”  And ...