They came on Saturday afternoon - my almost-last round of edits. This is the time to make final tweaks and find typos. (Typos are so hard to find, but I know they're there, lurking, grinning slyly, hoping to make the final cut.) And for me, the only way to do this is to read it out loud. All ...
"So what did you do for St Patrick's Day?" asked our lovely optician on Monday. "Did you go into the parade?" "No..." said the child. "Did you watch it on TV?" "No, Dad was watching the match, so we didn't see it." I jumped in then, quick to clarify that I'd been at a wedding, so my husband had stayed ...
This time five years ago, when my husband was out one night and there was nothing on TV, I cranked up my ancient laptop and googled "How to start a blog". I'd been thinking about it for a couple of months at that stage, but fuelled by a quiet house and a glass of wine, ...
It's struck me many times over the last 18 months that writing books is a little like having a baby (albeit in a non-human-creating, non-life-altering way). The writing is like the pregnancy (only it feels even longer) and the last round of edits are like the final push of childbirth. The end result is of ...
Most prospective parents are familiar with what’s involved in preparing for a birth – attending antenatal classes, packing a hospital bag, perhaps writing a birth plan, and certainly bidding a wistful farewell to sleep. But something that’s less well known - although growing in popularity - is using a birth doula. So what exactly is ...
Wednesday morning, 5am. Pulled from sleep by a tingling feeling, not unlike childhood Christmas mornings. I slipped out of bed and looked out the window. A glistening white carpet - covering the garden, the slide, the bicycle we forgot to take in. I fell back to sleep, dreaming of magic words - snow day. And at 7, ...