Black Dogs, Black Thoughts

I’ve been working for a while now on a project, selecting stories for an anthology to raise money and awareness for the Mental Health Foundation of New Zealand. I’ve been supported by a fantastic, international team of writers and editors to pull this together, and the end is finally in sight. But it feels strange […]

The Nudge

This might be a little different to my usual posts, as I want to talk about the Nudge. If you’ve ever experienced the Nudge you’ll know exactly what I mean, but if you’ve not, please allow me to explain. A university friend of mine almost got himself into a lot of trouble. The kind of […]

Saying Goodbye and Looking Ahead

As the festive season really begins and 2019 draws to a close, I wanted to make my last post of the year about goals and challenges. I’m not always very good at seeing the “bigger picture”, I usually tend to focus on what’s immediately ahead of me and what I need to do to tick […]

This Year’s Best Of Me

I think it can be terribly easy to fall into the trap of feeling embarrassed or unsure about celebrating your achievements. For a long time I would laugh and say any wins on my scoreboard were a fluke, or a mistake. I would deflect the compliments and play down my hard work. I can’t even […]

Finding My Way Back

My regular readers and followers will know that I frequently write for mental health. I’m also aware that this often turns people off too. “Oh great, she’s going on about depression again.” “Why does she always focus on the serious stuff?” “She must be pretty unstable if she has to keep focusing on all that.” […]

Slowing Down and Changing Gears.

I’m tired. I don’t want to admit it, but I am. I promised myself last year to pay more attention to my ‘give-a-fuck’-budget, and by that I meant that I needed to consider whether something was really worth my time, my energy or my money. I also said that if an event I was invited […]

The best writing tip I ever received: Don’t stop

Writing is hard. Oh, certainly, the act of writing is easy enough; you start with a word, and you add another, and then another, and another after that. Eventually, you form sentences and paragraphs. If you keep going, you might end up with pages and chapters, and beyond that, entire stories. Just like Dr Frankenstein, […]