It feels as much a new start as the turn of the calendar year does, as days begin to cool and daylight hours shrink. August is sliding into September and a new school year is starting. Having long since left school I slip easily back into this pattern for my PhD. The structure of my time is almost entirely (if not completely) in my control, necessary also in managing an unreliable body, but the dipping sun and ripening berries are powerful cues to be refocusing and returning to writing and projects.
I had not meant to take such a long break from here, my last post on rest is a useful reminder that I was writing what I needed also to read. After a series of events for Moving Mountains, it has also been a useful intermission to review how to use this space. Welcome to new subscribers who have joined, and everyone who has stayed with me, even though I have posted nothing new over the summer. I know how easy it is to slip away and lose touch, I’m grateful for these online spaces and communities.
I started this substack when Moving Mountains was published last October, with great plans for developing the themes of the anthology, with thoughts about podcasts and workshops. I am sorry I haven’t been able to deliver this (yet), nothing is ever shelved but I am slower than I think I am, things take longer than I’d like. Possibilities and energies were running high and the demands of a book being launched and day to day needs of living with chronic illness were quick to outrun me.
I am glad to have the chance to start again, each September, as each January, each Monday, each morning; however you choose to track time or need to pace yourself and start again. I am learning to moderate my own expectations, so won’t make any grand promises here other than to keep going, in one way or another. I hope you have also had chance for a break over the summer and are able to keep going in whatever way you can/would like to.
While I haven’t been writing here, I have been reading, and can share my own virtual holiday snaps enjoyed through books. As is my want, I took a trip to the sea.
I loved My Life in Sea Creatures, a collection of essays by Sabrina Imbler, connecting their own experiences of a queer, non-binary, mixed race identity, to marine creatures; selecting the story of one (from octopus to jellyfish) for each chapter. I listened to Hagstone (
) at the start of the summer and then listened to it again from the start as there are so few stories of women artists who live a solitary life. I am currently listening to Lost to the Sea (Lisa Woollett) on audiobook and am really enjoying the rich texture of history and sense of place as it has changed, as tides have shifted and horizons have altered. Wyl Menmuir’s The Draw of the Sea has also been an enjoyable trip around a contemporary Cornwall and Isles of Scilly, off the south west coast of England, and Adrift (Tracey Williams) is next on the list, but included here as it has such a beautiful cover.With September nudging the end of the week I also have some new things to share that are on their way. Next Saturday I’ll be joining the lovely folk of Edgeways for a new talk about my work ‘From Tiny Oceans to Moving Mountains: writing about place through the experience of post-viral illness’, with an introduction also to the work of my PhD (exploring the coastline of the Romney Marshes). You can sign up for a zoom link for their Saturday evening talks on this link, and I’ll be joining them on Saturday 7th September at 8pm (BST). I am also now developing a new writing course with Khairani Barokka for Arvon, Writing the Body: Embodied Place Writing, with more details and how you can book if you’d like to join us on this link. I really enjoyed running a previous version of this course in 2022 with Marcus Sedgwick, and am thrilled Arvon now also offer an option to spread an intensive one week retreat over five Monday evenings. I will share more of my reading in preparation for this another time.
I also took part in the Wild Women Writing Salons, set up by Victoria Bennett (All My Wild Mothers) last month. Belonging and the Art of Naming, with Polly Atkin (Some Of Us Just Fall), and Alyssa Greybeal (Floppy) was a real joy to be a part of (and with a whole panel of zebras!). If you missed it, you can catch up (along with many other brilliant salons and more) by subscribing here:
Since last writing, Polly’s book has also been longlisted for the Wainwright Prize! whoop! congratulations Polly!!
Have a great weekend! I promise not to leave it so long next time x
Signed up for Edgeways, thanks for the info :)