Coffee Date Catch Up

Hey everyone! I know I've been noticeably absent for some time, I promise to do an update on why I've been MIA soon but the long and the short of it is this: I've been writing.

That is what writers do isn't it? We write and if you're passionate about something, if you promise that it's what you want to spend your life doing you simply must make time to not just be good at it but to be phenomenal. This is my belief and this is what I've been doing.

If we were on a coffee date I'd tell you that the thing about being a writer is that you don't always get to see our labour or our pregnancy with the work. Usually it just seems like BOOM book! poem! article! There is so much more that goes into it, research, editing, consultations, funding, sweat, tears, proofing....All of these things happen outside of the public eye.

If we were on a coffee date I'd tell you that after finishing my degree there are a few goals the writer in me has jumped head first into accomplishing and that sometimes means stepping back from the things that were so much a part of my life before. Recently I read somewhere that if you say no to nothing  your yes means nothing. I am inclined to agree as I tighten my belt a little bit in 2017.

If we were on a coffee date together I'd tell you I love being a writer but that is not enough, the only thing that will do is to write and to grow as a writer and I cannot do that if I can never find the time to do it. If you cannot find the time to do the thing you love the most you simply must create the time I think...You simply must carve a few seconds, minutes and hours out from the sides of other things or remove those things all together.

If we were on a coffee date together I'd tell you that you simply must feed the thing that grows you and this is something I believe without question. So this year that is what I am doing. I am feeding my writing and allowing myself to grow in it bigly in a big ways. I have some giant plans on my plate this year as a writer and most of them have already been set in motion.

If we were sitting across from each other on a coffee date I'd share that the beginning of the year saw the release of my Literary Review of the local Play Shattered Expectations published digitally and in print. The second saw my unexpected but honoured hosting of a final exhibition of one of the people I have always looked up to so very very much. Right now sees the launch of my first paper product line, starting with the release of my hand drawn and self authored poem on two bookmark designs. The Sweet heart' and The Subtle Heart' design both now available for purchase via my instagram and facebook page!

If we were on a coffee date together I'd tell you that the success of this line will set the tone of more of my product releases later this year.

If we were on a coffee date together I'd tell you I have also bunkered down and assigned the first three months of this year to book editing. Though my book is compiled I do need to get that final edit done. Things have changed since it was first compiled and I have a duty to my readers to make sure that I present a product that is authentic.

There is a long list of activities set out before me for the rest of the year, producer on a few short films, some more videography...all geared towards me becoming a better writer and me sharing more and more of my work with you. If we were on a coffee date that is what I would tell you, that writing is work, that writing is my work and that I am working and I am working hard.

So, here we go, with faith in one hand and fear in the other on this journey. One a passenger one the director.

Let's do this.