Writing | Coaching | Editing | Publishing | Competitions
For the last few months, I have shared a Word of the Month with members of the Chesil Bank Writing Shed. On the basis there is always a good possibility I will forget those words already used, I have created a list with a brief explanation. The most recent is always at the top. Hyperbole: The…
I wrote this for the writing prompt I published on Substack in March 2023. That month, the prompts were all recipes and included love potions, changing the world, and life and nature. The theme was inspired by the first Hysteria short story winner, Jane Thickett. That story was called ‘Banana Loaf: A Recipe for Solace‘….
I love a good notebook, and even though I spent over 30 years working in IT, there was always something about the feel of paper and pen. The act of writing words by hand is soothing and has helped me hugely over many years, but it has to be the right notebook and the right…
I still remember the day I discovered blogging. I was on a cruise in the mid-Atlantic, heading towards Morocco. It was the late 1990s, and I’d been running the Hysterectomy Association website for a few years. Every page on the website was hand-coded using Notepad, taking time I didn’t have to write the content, make sure…
Hello, and thank you for reading this post. I am studying for the MA in Cultural Astronomy and Astrology at the University of Wales Trinity St David’s. As a novice astrologer and former IT consultant with over 30 years experience, this dissertation brings together these two sides of my life very neatly. It will attempt…
Tom pulled the bedroom door gently closed behind him, not wishing to wake anyone at such an early hour. He prided himself on his consideration for others, constantly checking and rechecking that he was not causing a problem or offence to anyone who came within his vicinity. This quietness was just another example of his…
I wrote the following in 2008 it resurfaced in my mind, ready for the February 2026 Chesil Bank Writing Shed meeting on Travel Writing. I’ve come to Spain in an effort to remove myself from the toxic fallout of a failed marriage. I needed a sanctuary in which to restore my battered self-confidence and bruised…
Chesil Bank Writing Shed meets twice each month on the 2nd and 3rd Thursdays at Portesham Village Hall. We start promptly at 7pm and finish around 9pm. You can find more information about each meeting as it is added to the calendar on the website.
Post Research Report In March and April 2025, I conducted a mini research project for a module in the MA in Cultural Astronomy and Astrology at UWTSD The topic I chose to study was self-censorship amongst contemporary astrologers. Below is an edited version of the essay submitted to the University for marking. Introduction This research…
Hello, and thank you for reading this post. I am studying for the MA in Cultural Astronomy and Astrology at the University of Wales Trinity St David’s and since starting the MA what I’ve found most fascinating, quite unexpectedly is the history of astrology. As a result, I’m interested in how astrology which has ‘spoken…
If you’ve been around here for a while you will have noticed that my blog is hosted by Substack, rather than here on my website. The reason I do this is because it’s the perfect way to write long-form posts that go automatically to my Substack subscribers.
Chesil Bank Writing Shed meets twice each month on the 2nd and 3rd Thursday’s at Portesham Village Hall. We start promptly at 7 pm and finish around 9 pm. You can find more information about each meeting as they are added to the calendar on the website.
Several years ago I used to produce a monthly update of writing competitions but it became cumbersome and unwieldy and I decided to stop doing it. I’m rethinking that decision as I know that many of the people who follow me are interested in the Hysteria Writing Competition, therefore I assume you’re interested in writing…
Established and new writers are welcome. If you’ve never written anything before but would like to start, this is the place to practice, learn and develop your own writing style and voice.
(Please note: this post appeared on my original blog (Woman on the Edge of Reality, which no longer exists) in about 2010). Share Your Space & Build A Community If I want to feel comfortable, I tend to go where there are other people just like me. That way, I won’t stand out so much…
(Please note: this post appeared on my original blog (Woman on the Edge of Reality, which no longer exists) in about 2014). Before we get down to the nitty-gritty of becoming a Rock Star Blogger, we need to establish one key thing, and that is the motivation behind your desire to achieve blogging superstardom.
(Please note: this post appeared on my original blog (Woman on the Edge of Reality, which no longer exists) in about 2014). I see and read many blog posts in the course of a working week, and it would be fair to say that most are a little on the ‘thin’ side. They promise me…
(Please note: this post appeared on my original blog (Woman on the Edge of Reality, which no longer exists) in about 2014). Even though you are on a mission to become a Rock Star Blogger, your blog is not, and never will be, about you. You may have your photo up there somewhere and possibly…
(Please note: this post appeared on my original blog (Woman on the Edge of Reality, which no longer exists) in about 2010). I’m an author and a writer, and I love the power of the written word; as such, I find it reasonably easy to create content, write new books and add blog posts.
(Please note: this post appeared on my original blog (Woman on the Edge of Reality, which no longer exists) in about 2014). The best tip I can give you about becoming a Rock Star Blogger is to write consistently both in time and subject. Writing on your blog on a daily basis is a must…
(Please note: this post appeared on my Substack (lindaph, which no longer exists) in about 2020; an earlier version existed on my original blog from 2012). 101 Handy Hints to help you market and sell your book without resorting to big tech! It would be fair to say that for most authors the act of…
(Please note: this post appeared on my original blog (Woman on the Edge of Reality, which no longer exists) in about 2010). There are many self-publishing services available to authors and writers, and I’ve listed a few here. Broadly, book print/publish on demand services offer similar royalty options, and some have global distribution systems in…
My first attempt at self publishing was a simple 18 page booklet that lived at the back of my masters dissertation folio. Within weeks of submitting that for assessment I was running a tiny support group for women and was photocopying and sending that booklet out in exchange for a stamped addressed envelope and £1…
Click here to download the video transcript. Want more like this? If you aren’t on my mailing list you can make sure you get more of my video’s and updates by joining. Just fill in your details to get started. Image by Lubos Houska from Pixabay
Click here to download the video transcript. Want more like this? If you aren’t on my mailing list you can make sure you get more of my video’s and updates by joining. Just fill in your details to get started. (Image by Foundry Co from Pixabay)
I send out quite few email newsletters and pretty much most of them are automated by the Autoresponder systems I use. However, despite this I did think long and hard about the sort of information that should be contained within such emails before writing them (automated or not).
Please note: This article appeared on my original website (Woman on the Edge of Reality which no longer exists) back in 2008. There are only two ways you can make money, whether on the Internet or in the real world. The first is to sell something that someone else has produced, whether that is a…
Please note: This article appeared on my original website (Woman on the Edge of Reality which no longer exists) back in 2008. I’ve just been looking at some stuff on copyright law, to try to see what has changed and what has stayed the same, and I found myself thinking about a client I did…
(Please note: this post appeared on my original blog (Woman on the Edge of Reality, which no longer exists) in about 2010). This is the latest post in my on-off book marketing plan series, where I hope to encourage everyone to take a slightly different look at their book. We all need to be realistic…
(Please note: this post appeared on my original blog (Woman on the Edge of Reality, which no longer exists) in about 2010). The relationship between a book blogger and an author is a strange one, and I touched on the subject earlier this year when I mentioned in one of my ‘Lessons Learned’ posts that…
