Monday 26 April 2021

Then and Now

I've loved playing with words for as long as I can remember, writing poems and stories for enjoyment. And I've been enjoying entering writing competitions for much of my life. One of my early successes which resulted in subsequent publication was when our local newspaper, The Belfast Telegraph held a Fathers' Day poetry competition. I penned a few lines about my dear Dad, edited the poem and then sent it in. I can remember my delight a few weeks later when the newspaper was delivered, leafing through it to read the results and reading my poem had won a prize. I was also tickled with the illustration the paper's cartoonist had included with my poem which was a very apt likeness. The following days Dad was asked by his work colleagues who had read the poem what had happened to the shelf? He reckoned it was poetic licence. That was then.


Last year I read about an opportunity in 'Writing,' magazine - Aurelien Thomas was collating an anthology about fathers. I'd lost my dear Dad a few months previously and I submitted the poem I'd written a few decades ago to remember the wonderful man who had inspired my love of poetry. The project has been in development for a few months and the book, 'To Dads - with love' will now be launching in the next week. You can watch the promotional video here




I'm looking forward to getting my hands on a copy of the book and reading all the contributions and remembering fondly how proud my Dad was the first time this poem was published.



Sunday 11 April 2021

Playing with Words

I spent a lovely morning yesterday with Coney writing friends on our monthly Zoom catch up. We chatted about how we're all coping through lockdown, juggling work and family responsibilities and shared our good news on the writing front. It was great to see such success for Coney Writers at the recent Waterways Storymaking Festival with two of us shortlisted (and subsequently winning prizes) across two of the three categories.

I've continued to bake my chocanana writing fuel muffins for our writing meetings throughout lockdown even though I obviously can't share them with the group. Early morning baking is such an important part of Coney catch ups for me - a ritual I want to keep going when we emerge through the other side of this awful time. My family are benefitting as there are more muffins for them! So over coffee and cake yesterday we did some writing exercises, played with words and stretched our creative muscles.

We're all looking forward to when we can actually meet up for real at Coney - hopefully we're getting closer to that day every day. In the meantime we have to make the most of things and are grateful for the encouragement we give each other and support we have in our small group in between our virtual meet ups, whether through sharing writing opportunity news or helping each other on a piece we're working on. It's the sign of a strong team that we've continued to stick closely together when the going is tough and I feel very blessed to be part of such a friendly supportive writing group.