Spent a little bit of time this evening adding some blackout poetry to my scrapbook. Clippings courtesy of old Writers Magazine issues, word-twisting by me. Also, here is the front cover of my scrapbook – isn’t it gorgeous?
This is a quick note about how I tried not to let a bad memory ruin my morning. One of my work colleagues became a dad yesterday, which meant that this morning people in the office were talking about birth, labour, c-sections and epidurals. I sat listening while working (it’s a small office, it’s impossible…
This is a guest blog post by Sheryl Chan from A Chronic Voice. Read on to find out why you should write your way through chronic illness, and discover more about Sheryl below! Why Write? Blogging about chronic illnesses can be hard work. For some, the exposure of their privacy or the intimacy of the…
I have three poems in Bindweed Magazine! The poems are on the website right now and they will be in the print version of the magazine in October. You can read them here! Two of these poems are about my brother and the middle one is about me and my parents trying to distract ourselves…
A bit of time travelling this morning – this is the first poem I had published in a literary magazine. It was published in Obsessed With Pipework, a Flarestack publication, in 2006 when I was 18. Before that, I also had poems published in two anthologies (in 2004 and 2005, so at the age of…
I think I feel self-conscious because I’m quiet. It’s not that I’m quiet because I’m anxious – my quietness is making me anxious. I am socially awkward because I am socially awkward. My very nature is doing this to me. What a riveting cycle. I worry that when I’m quiet people will think I am…
I am officially seven years cancer-free tomorrow (as far as I know) and yes, I’m still harping on about it.
I had a dream I was at an indoor market on a Thursday night with my parents, not our usual haunt but it was a special marketplace selling only old Beano and Dandy annuals. Likely my parents and I were looking for different things. I have trouble seeing past the differences most times I was…
If I get to bed late tonight it’s because I’m sat watching the one Linkin Park gig I went to on YouTube in its entirety. It was Projekt Revolution in 2008 at Milton Keynes Bowl, and for some reason we were sat right up on the hill, not in the crowd where I have been…
This week I was honoured to be able to guest blog over at A Chronic Voice! My post talks about the different identities that may be associated with us after a cancer diagnosis, and whether illness forms part of our identity. You can check it out here: Does Illness Form Part of Your Identity? As always,…