The Writing Coach

New Blog and 'Twitter' updates

I am currently in the process of building a new blog which you can find here: Essential Artist

No posts as yet, but you can find the details of my new 'Twitter' account there and follow me on Twitter...

Hiatus

Thank you for reading 'The Writing Coach' blog.  This blog is currently 'sleeping' whilst I complete my fourth novel to a deadline.  Please check back in August for an update.  If you'd like a further dose of 'The Writing Coach' materials, please sign up for my newsletter on my main website where you will receive a free copy of the first five days of 'The Writing Coach' programme that will enable you to overcome procrastination and fears that relate to your writing.  Whether or not you wish to take on the '30 day' challenge, you'll find that the eBook is packed with information about the process of writing a novel, from building characters to my 'organic' methods of plotting.  It also includes many techniques that will be useful to writers of non-fiction and daily writing exercises for all writers.  I do hope that in my absence on the blog, you'll be able to enjoy the book and benefit from the materials.  As a subscriber to the newsletter, you'll be the first to be updated on my plans from September too.  Till then, wishing you much inspiration and a productive summer...

On visiting Derek Jarman's Garden

There are times, I think, in every writer's life, when inspiration feels in short supply, when everyday events take over and fresh input is needed if we're going to thrive creatively. I hit this point a week or so ago and we took a decision to get away. We are now staying in Rye, on the South Coast of England, a town I last visited as a child of eight years old, a place that held strong personal memories. My family is sleeping as I write.

I knew, when we set off, that I wanted to visit Derek Jarman's garden at Dungerness, a pilgrimage I've desired to make for some years (yet have always somehow put off). So it was a thrill, today, to finally visit the landscape that I'd first read about eight years ago when researching my novel 'Bluethroat Morning'.

I've long admired Howard Sooley's photos of Jarman's garden. For those not familiar with the garden, the British filmmaker Jarman called his garden 'Paradise' yet it was planted in a landscape that some might consider more of a hell than a heaven - in the 'flat, bleak, often desolate expanse of shingle that faces the Nuclear Power Station in Dungeness, Kent'. Spurred on by a true personal vision, his painterly eye and strong ecological conviction, Jarman tended the garden from 1986 until his death.

It is difficult to begin to express the intensity of my experience today, on visiting the garden. Suffice for the moment to say that it has strengthened my conviction in the necessity and power of art, of beauty and the individual vision of each human being. I am, I admit, in pensive mode right now. How could I not be? I've begun each day of the school Easter holidays by remaining in bed with Louis Fischer's 'Life of Mahatma Gandhi'. It is difficult not to question one's own motives, the values of one's own actions, when considering a life as meaningful as Gandhi's. The effect of Jarman's garden on me, however, has been to remind me that one does not have to change the world in huge ways to make an important impact. Jarman's faith in nature, in beauty, in the power of the human spirit, in love, in poetry - all these have a huge impact on anyone who visits this garden or simply reads Jarman's words and views Sooley's photographs in the book 'Derek Jarman's Garden'.

Lorna

I have been absent of late and I will shortly return, I vow!  But in the meantime, I want to tell you that my novelist friend, Lorna, author of 'The Chase' is blogging.  We first met at a dinner celebrating the Ian St James writing awards and our novels were both published by Bloomsbury around the same time.  Now we are both writing new works after a long break and have new agents.  You can find her here.  Good to find you in the blogosphere Lorna.

David Lewis cartoons is live...

I am SO excited to announce that David Lewis Cartoons is now live!  In case you don't know, David Lewis, a very talented caricaturist, is my husband and we've worked together on the launch of this website together with our wonderful designer Sarah of Saronyx Design.  I wrote the copy for David's site, so it's kind of my baby too... We're both thrilled that David has now entered the twenty-first century (only seven years late!).

If you think you recognise the cartoon image in the screenshot here, it's Posh and Becks from 2DTV on which David worked as a designer.   There's also a great link on the site which I'll repeat here to 'Shoot the Dog' the George Michael video, for which David drew the majority of backgrounds.  If you watch carefully, you'll see a row of terraced houses in the video (next to the messy house in which George plays the Simpson family) - one of those houses is the house we used to live in... 

David has also started up a newsletter and he's offering a free caricature to one new subscriber each month, so if you fancy a mug-shot of yourself or a family member, do sign up...

David and I work together at home, two artist-entrepreneurs occupying the same space and brainstorming constantly.  He works primarily in the corporate sector, focussing on business cartoons, corporate entertainment and caricature gifts although he is now branching out into newspaper and magazine illustration and has already illustrated several books.   Oh - and he recently worked as a caricaturist for her Majesty the Queen for her eightieth birthday party at the Ritz.

We both like to combine our own artistic pursuits with our businesses and sometimes the edges of the two blur...as a result, I've become increasingly fascinated with how artists and creative writers can mine their creativity and also make money and this conviction - that the two can go hand in hand - will be at the heart of my new business 'The Essential Artist' which will be launching in the next month or so... I've been absent on this blog for a while, for which, apologies.  But all that is about to change.  In the next few days I'll update you on what's been going on (there's news on the book front too...) and what to look out for.  This blog is most definitely back...