Like many people, I wrote poetry when I was a teenager; pages and pages of torment and angst! Then I grew up and stopped writing poems. I'm not sure why. Maybe I ran out of angst :-) But recently, little poems have been coming to me. I say 'poems'; they're more like mini affirmations really.… Continue reading Poetry and the great unknown
I have been conducting a little experiment. For the past few months, I have been doing a quick doodle every day. Nothing major. I simply pick up my pen and draw whatever wants to come out. Sometimes what comes out is great. Other times, not so much. It doesn’t matter. That’s not the point. The… Continue reading The joy of making stuff up
Something unexpected has just happened. Since 2012 I have written and submitted 5 picture books to a few carefully selected literary agents. All my submissions have been rejected, though one was a “near miss” according to the agent who represents Julia Donaldson (guess how much I treasured those two words!). Rejections don't faze me; they’re… Continue reading Writing a picture book in 3 days
Last year, my friend Julia Barnickle invited me to be part of an online community project in which she asked various writer friends to share their thoughts on the topic of, What if life were meant to be easy? My initial response was an old habitual one; to turn the invitation down (i.e. hide).… Continue reading What if life were meant to be easy?
All my life – up until very, very recently – I have struggled to make decisions. Not being 100% sure of who I was or what I wanted, every decision was based on what I ought to do, or should do, or thought I should do. Any decision would involve hours of weighing up and… Continue reading Making decisions that are as light as a feather
In 2007 I had a strange dream: I was a child again in our old family home in the countryside. I was looking for a wooden box that had been hidden there. I didn’t know what was in it but I knew I had to find it. I needed to discover its secret – what… Continue reading The magic box
Katherine Bassford 