Each month we try to have an Autumn Voices member contribute to the blog. This could be anything from poetry to pottery and if you’d like to be a guest blogger then apply once you’re logged in as a member.
I read once that there seems to be something in their primal make-up that makes women long to be in a supportive and helpful group: somewhere they feel they belong outside their family group. The writer – whose name I can’t remember – thought that it may come from the need in early tribal groups to have childcare in case of illness or the death of the mother in childbirth.
No one in the UK is going to forget March 8th, 2021 in a hurry. Parents in all four countries will be celebrating children being back at school or shortly to return. It’s also International Women’s Day, and as women have borne the brunt of home-schooling, the phrase ‘women’s liberation’ will ring with particular jubilation for those mothers.
‘Make It New’ is a slogan widely attributed to Ezra Pound and assumed to be one he used to lead the charge for the modernist literary movement of which he was a champion. But the phrase is very old: There is nothing new under the sun.’ Ecclesiastes 1:9 ‘Behold, I make all things new.’ Revelation … Continue reading Make it New: The Art of Unlearning (taiji)
One of the many questions that students ask their taiji teacher is ‘who was your teacher?’. I’ve had many teachers and have learned equally from my taiji sisters and brothers. Taiji is a social art as well as a martial art and I enjoy talking about my teachers.
Qigong is a very all-inclusive modern Chinese term that applies to integrated mind-body-breathing techniques and practices. It encompasses all forms of energy exercises, mind-body healing, or therapies. Qigong is a Moving Meditation and Mind-Body wellness practice which is a combination of Movement, Posture, Breathing, and Awareness. What have you been learning since the pandemic started … Continue reading What does Qigong mean?
L is for Learn, the second letter in the word CLANGER in Phil Hammond’s acrostic: Connect Learn (be) Active Notice Give Back Eat Well Relax and Sleep C for Connect was the theme of January Autumn Voices blog and now Learn is the theme for February. Learning taiji has been a life-long endless passion of … Continue reading Taiji – the art of doing nothing
It seems almost impossible to forget the songs we heard in our youth. My best friend at school was a huge David Bowie fan, and, with this month being the anniversary of both Bowie’s birth (in 1947) and his death (in 2016), listening to Radio 6 Music’s retrospective connected me to every day we spent in her living room after school.
My friend emailed me yesterday to say that she and her husband are moving house next week. They’re moving to a smaller and more manageable one-storey house with a garden.
Audrey was getting me a glass of water after I’d ferried some rescued paving stones through her house to her neglected back garden, untouched since her husband died. I’d already cut back some brambles and discovered some grass underneath and she now needed a solid path to be able to get out there to enjoy … Continue reading If you don’t like cats, look away now…
Loneliness has become a visible public health issue, particularly at this time of year when corporate and media organisations’ Christmas and New Year messages have been about making – or remaking – connections with others. You can see the start of this trend, aimed particularly at older people, in advertising from 2015 onwards: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Lewis_%26_Partners_Christmas_advert However, despite … Continue reading Connections
Gill is 64 (so currently pensionless) and lives in rural Scotland surrounded by books. She is a permaculture and forest gardener, a climate change resister, a stickler for honesty and integrity, a breast cancer survivor, an intersectional socialist feminist, and a single parent of twins. She has trained and worked in organisational development for over … Continue reading Guest blogger for January
I hope you were able to have the best Christmas possible under the circumstances. As you will have heard many times over, it’s not what happens to us it’s how we respond to it. The same applies to when we send our manuscripts out into the world. Providing we’ve done everything we can to make … Continue reading Making Plans for 2021
We asked you to submit questions for Angelena to answer on the subject of publishing, marketing and promoting a book, and also being an older writer. You gave us some excellent questions for Angelena to turn her expert attention to, and you can listen to her answers right here on this special podcast recording:
With thanks to Angelena for sparing her time to do this. Her last December blog for us on this theme appears soon.
Firstly, self-publishing is NOT vanity publishing, nor is it particularly difficult. Amazon and other online publishers take you through the process of formatting and uploading your book cover, text, blurb and the important bits like price and special promotions. Within less than twenty-four hours your book goes live. Of course, there are lots of companies … Continue reading Self Publishing and the Marketing Mountain
The dream for most authors is to be taken on by a literary agency who will secure a big advance with one of the major publishers – The Big Five – negotiate a film contract and manage their careers into the stratosphere for the rest of their natural writing life. Sadly, except for those already … Continue reading Agents, Publishers and Big Mistakes
