At the weekend, I hosted the first meeting of a new group called ‘Write Club’.  The group was formed from a small gathering of writers I have met at events / workshops or have chatted to on social media.   The idea of ‘Write Club’ has been floating around my head for some time.  I occasionally hold workshops and have noticed the huge difference just getting out of the house can make to general levels of productivity.  I always bring a notepad myself and notice that my mind clears, allowing me to write very freely.

‘I should organise an informal writers’ club type thing for just this purpose‘ I thought to myself, many months ago.  Well, I eventually decided on a time, date and venue, invited some writers and hoped for the best.  Whenever I organise something, there is always torrential rain.  I will never forget my first book launch, back in 2005.  There was a delay at the printers and my Dad had to drive me there, just hours before the launch, to pick up my precious copies – I was envisaging a book launch without any books!

As if that wasn’t bad enough, the sky was literally black with clouds and sure enough, the rain started to fall in sheets.  Happily, me and my entourage (Hubs + family) made it to the launch on time, my books made it to the launch on time and we had a good crowd.  Perhaps the free bottle of bubbly on every table lured people out of their cosy houses . . . No, it was the poetry, of course it was the poetry!

Anyway, to return to ‘Write Club’.  It was no surprise to me when the afternoon brought some horrendous showers.  I just hoped my fellow writers would battle through the storms in pursuit of words, and they did, for the most part.  A couple of people didn’t turn up, but that’s usual with events.  Everybody present seemed to find the session incredibly positive and we have arranged to meet up again next month.

On a personal note, the session allowed me to fill a gap in my novel – a seemingly neverending chapter that was crying out for resolution. I spotted it as soon as I began looking over my first draft and knew it would have to be addressed as a priority.  I also dared to share a new poem with the group and got some very encouraging feedback.  The poem was inspired by something miraculous, something that’s happening to me right now . . . I’m expecting a baby!  The poem focuses on the movements I’ve been feeling over the past few weeks and is called ‘Quiver’.  So, as you can probably guess, I’m just over halfway through the pregnancy (23 weeks) and Hubs and I are looking forward to welcoming our new addition in December.

Why haven’t I mentioned this before?  I don’t know – I just haven’t felt the need for big announcements.  I haven’t even whispered the news on Facebook or Twitter, but now that the baby has made an appearance in my poetry, it feels like the right time to give him/her a  mention here.   I actually have two new poems that I’m pretty pleased with and plan to enter them in a competition.  The only trouble is the deadline is this Friday and entries are by post only – so wish me luck as I scrabble to get organised.  Some things never change!

Photo credit: CC Chapman / Foter / Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)