Oh, @Leigh65 and @Jules you just reminded me I crotched my first husband a tie and it turned out looking like a hockey stick shape.
And before you ask that was not why the marriage failed, that is a very long story which I suppose I should write in a book!!
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Oh Erica, that is so funny! Impressive that you made any shape, given my limited excursions into crochet. I would be very pleased with a hockey stick shaped tie but I understand it might not have been your plan xx
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Hi @Leigh65 well done you I’ve been starting my second book forever! And not getting very far! I completed my first book last year and was really pleased with myself. I began it from all of my journal entries when I was sick and it just grew and grew into a story of my life.
I did change the names and add some artistic licence but it became a great way for my children and hopefully one day their children to have something of me.
However disappointingly my daughter’s partner left her last year really suddenly and out of the blue, just two weeks after they had signed for a mortgage.
It threw her life and my book into turmoil and I really need to rewrite it as a lot of it has him in it and my daughter would prefer I remove all traces.
So my once finished book has now been sat for over 12 months waiting for me to be motivated enough to rework it.
Blockquote
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Oh @Jules a difficult year last year for you and your daughter.
Go for it now and look after yourselves
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Hi @Jules, that looks amazing! Am sure it will be appreciated and ‘passed down the generations’. I know that I would treasure anything from my past relations, my grandmother’s stories of being in the London during WW2 etc, she left very little and am so sad that is the case. Stories rock and personal stories, ones that root you a little more in a geography and time (context!) are the best. Earlier in the year I worked with a friend on her father’'s diary. She wanted it tidied up (aka deciphered) so she could send it round her family digitally. It was utterly fascinating, they were going up mountains in plus fours and the photos were stunning. Are you including photos too? It looks great to me, nicely presented. Am not sure what I’ll do with my first book, it seems like a lifetime ago… but am getting on well with the new one, I love my characters and write to know what they are up to. If I dont write, then I dont hear more of their stories 
Is your second book a continuation of the first or something totally different? xx
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Hi @Leigh65
I am about like you my family urge me to publish my first book a friend of a friend was my literal critical friend and she thinks it’s worth a shot at publication! Hope she isn’t being biased. No no photos and all the names have been changed - I guess the family will have to have the name key !
And No my second book is not connected but it is loosely based around other goings on with people around me.
I use an app called Reedsy it makes writing really easy - it’s free 
you are welcome to have a read when I get the chance to make the amends !!
What’s your themes?
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Hello again @Leigh65, apologies for the delay in replying to your wonderful empathy and expertise. I’m not long back from a few days away, resting and recuperating whilst being active outdoors. Maybe my body can manage more than I thought! Been mulling over your fascinating comments 
It really resonated with me, what you said about finding a path when needed. It was my Polycythaemia vera (PV) diagnosis that led me to stumble upon a blood cancer writing group where I rather unconsciously developed a new way of writing (for me) which comes so naturally that it’s like I’m cheating—it really can feel, like you describe so perfectly, like I’m transcribing from within.
While I think relative effort is involved in anything of worth, sometimes tapping into and trusting that sort of creative flow can make the effort feel almost instinctive for me. Good enough, as developmental psychologist Winnicott would say, is my ideal. Thank you sincerely for the encouragement!
Funny you should mention Kahlo as she’s also an inspiration for me (and my Mexican-American other half). The drive to continue creating or expressing oneself throughout illness is definitely resonant for me, more so now than ever. Another inspirational artist for me is Tàpies who survived a heart attack at an early age (like myself) and went on to become somewhat taoist and led by instinct in creating his matter paintings. Visceral indeed…
Thank you for your amazing tips Dr @Leigh65 and fascinating subject! I’m in awe of your process and look forward to hearing more about you.
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More Life (for @Leigh65)
Caught myself thinking
I quite like life
Today
With this light
This precise level of stimulation
Or lack thereof
In this moment
Listening to a random playlist
Music an algorithm reckons I’ll enjoy
I do
I do want to like living
Living on, through, beyond
The worst of it behind me now
A fragment of imagination
Photos on a broken hard drive
Forgotten due to bad memory
But still etched into my bones
Encoded like a lost Replicant
Older than 4 years
Wanting more life
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I love this so much, it has a beautiful cadence, the sense of yearning… wanting more life… really comes across. I think that yes, it is all etched into our bones and more, the good and the bad. Also, recently came across a wonderful quote that talks about memories being stored not in our brains but in time. This resonated for me. I like to think of us being so connected to the flow of the universe that time itself is made up of our individual hopes and dreams and memories. Hope you are having a good week, I have signed up for a research project into those of us Chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL) who are on watch and wait, and need to write a regular diary about my experience of this, think I will do that right now! xx
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Hi Jules, thanks for sharing your writerly thoughts… my first book was about magic cakes 
Friends thought it would be some literary tome but not at all. I like to write light things (uplit) that I enjoy reading myself and create places where I want to spend time. The magic cakes book is set in Oregon as I had enjoyed an amazing trip there, up in the mountains, and got a lot of inspiration. Current book is set on a rather run down housing estate in North London, but there is magic in the air and although so far no cakes have appeared there is a ‘treasure chest’ and a mystery. I write my first drafts by hand then transcribe them onto the computer. Do you have a particular ‘writing time’ or is it as and when? I have a big birthday in a few weeks and after that have promised myself that every afternoon will be a writing afternoon. Time to write is going to be my BIG gift to myself. xx
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Aw thanks so much @Leigh65, lovely to receive feedback from someone who clearly loves to write. Funny how we can come back to these simple pleasures after travelling to other professional lands, I enjoy writing much more now than when it was expected of me at school. I did love writing both my dissertation and thesis though, despite their formalities and word counts—I’m sure you know all about that from your doctorate!
Love the sound of that research you’ve signed up for, especially that it involves writing. I hope you get a lot from it, even if it’s simply time to yourself to write. Funnily enough I recently (re)joined a blood cancer writing group led by fellow survivors. I’d share it here but the time zone differences mean it’ll happen in the middle of the night there as it’s US-based. Last year it was facilitated by a published professor of poetry which was a big confidence boost for me. I’ll be sure to share any writing I’m pleased with 
Thankyou @Duncan. I felt that the formalities for my doctorate were like learning a new language and found that fascinating, a new language that gave me the ability to better define and explain my experience (even if just to myself). Yes, the research looks really interesting, I thought it would help me by processing things and also help others as it may affect practical change in watch and wait practices (even over time), so win-win. A blood cancer writing group sounds fascinating. I have actually been thinking about setting up a wordy group for people with chronic illness, reading/writing/community… I think it could be really helpful. Am pretty much sure I will take early retirement this year (am 60) and want to use my experiences (of all kinds) to help others. I think that writing can be so therapeutic, but also fun and bonding. indeed xx
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Hi @Leigh65 no I don’t have any specific writing time except maybe when I’m on holiday as that is the only time I get. We visit Amsterdam twice a year every year and our favourite hotel in Amsterdam do a wine tasting every day for returning guests I spend far to many nights and hours there writing and drinking every night of our holiday but get some great writing done - think the wine helps immensely!!!
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