Variety

What a wealth of variety has filled my schedule these past weeks. Articles about shoe polish, press releases for the Jersey Film Festival and advice to a Best Man all agog about his forthcoming speech.

And then, of course, there are my delightful Writing for Magazine learners oozing enthusiasm yet borderline aghast at putting pen to paper. They are yet to realise their amazing creativity though I so enjoy my weekly task of coaxing their imaginations.

This morning I took great pleasure in interviewing the ever smiling Colin Dexter who quizzed me about poetry, bluebells and the first 4 minute mile before I'd even activated my laptop. He may be a touch frail physically but his mind, memory and knowledge were tip top.

And how charmingly delightful too was his dear wife. I so enjoyed our chat among the anemones.

Literary Blessings

The summer months have been a heady haze of socialising, providing an unrivalled opportunity to associate with a wonderfully diverse mix of published characters.

For instance, only recently I was a guest at a gathering hosted by the captivatingly gifted Paul Eccentric, a performance poet whose hectic schedule, I'm humbled to admit, doesn't preclude him from following my column (A Write Week) in the Tring and Berkhamsted Gazette.

And in just a few days' time I will have the privilege to interview the legendary Colin Dexter, crime writer extraordinarie and charmingly correct gentleman of the old school variety.

Ah, the literary blessings of inhabiting The Chilterns.

The Wireless

I'm freshly returned from one of our greatest cities having been a guest of the British Broadcasting Corporation. How fascinating to have infiltrated the bowels of such an established institution. Indeed I am grateful for their insight in allowing me to be interviewed on the wireless by Louisa Hannan. As you would expect, she was delightness personified, so much so that my morning listening will henceforth be divided between Radio 4 and Radio Oxford. Well, it will if only I can figure out how to retune my Roberts. Perhaps I should call the Director General and ask him . . .

Autumn

We may be in the throes of an astonishingly warm summer but a writer is always planning ahead and forging onwards. And so, whilst I am daily enjoying the sun's rays prior to luncheon and early evening drinks on the parterre, my mind is in autumnal mode. For in just a few weeks' time my Writing for Magazines course will begin. Six weeks of unfettered guiding, teaching and motivating a select band of students. Oh, the topics we will cover, the stimulation we will share, the talent I will nurture.

I can barely wait!

Full and further details are included on the relevant page of my webby.

Sunshine and Priorities

What fun the Thame Arts and Literature Festival turned out to be: superbly organised, well attended and boasting an abundance of authors. Personally, I was thrilled that a number of fledgling writers saw fit to grace the somewhat humid conditions of the Thame Museum to benefit from my talk about freelance writing. My attendees were eagerness personified, scribbling notes, asking pertinent questions and networking at the end of the session.

But back to this week. My column for The Tring and Berkhamsted Gazette awaits my attention and I must prepare a humour writing workshop for a forthcoming Chiltern Writers' meeting. Yet I also have a piano lesson, school Sports Day and a Committee meeting, not to mention this glorious weather and Wimbledon to distract me. Hmm, I sense my priorities might easily be compromised over the next few days . . .

Sunshine and Columns

I have departed the ample bosom of my beloved family to spend a few days of sundrenched tranquility with a friend who fulfils the fundamental duties of soulmate and white wine companion. My laptop is poised under a pale parasol, the pool just a few enticing steps away with the mountainous region of Southern Spain providing a magnificent milieu. Not that my excursion entirely revolves around female frivolity for, whilst on The Continent, I intend making substantial progress with my book.

Meanwhile I am thrilled to report that readers of The Tring and Berkhamsted Gazette will henceforth benefit from my weekly column (A Write Week!) which the talented editor, clearly a man of unquestionably fine taste, has simply begged me to contribute.

But back to my book. I'm just going to marinate under the sun's rays while planning a few chapter headings . . .

Workshop

What an agreeably talented group of writers attended my workshop on Saturday making the afternoon a heady mix of eager activity and industrious effort. It was a pleasure taking them all under my wing and teasing out morsels of mirth. Such a pity I can recall so little of those 3 hours, though hardly surprising given the medley of medication that was gushing through my tubes at the time. Nevertheless, I am now sufficiently returned to the real world to focus on chasing editors and planning my July workshop (From Pen to Publication), not to mention whipping up a Victoria Sponge and marinating my golden chanterelles . . .