There have been two big occurrences in the last month, neither of which actually have anything to do with my writing! The first was my birthday. Not in itself particularly important but it means that I have to alter my age on the front page of the site which, in turn, has forced me to review that page. I think it is about time I gave it a bit of an overhaul so I shall start thinking about a bit of a rewrite and update which I hope should happen during August. The other big event that happened in July, and it far overshadows my birthday by a long way, was my parents Golden Wedding Anniversary. It is sad, but true, that not many marriages last even a quarter of that today so reaching 50 years of married life is an achievement that should be celebrated. So here, in this newsletter, I would just like to crave your indulgence and take this opportunity to say congratulations Mum and Dad. I can't wait until we celebrate your 60th anniversary!

As for my writing it has been a bit of a slow month. Again! There have been a few things going on recently which have meant that writing time has been a little limited. However I intend now to crack on with things again this month. I think I have said that before too and I end up not doing it for various reasons. This time though I intend to be a little more disciplined. Probably…

I haven’t been totally idle with my pen though. I have written some more of the internet articles and I am in the typing stage at present. The articles need to be about six hundred words apiece and some of my pieces are well in excess of that figure so I will be having to work on splitting some of the articles down to two (or three!) individual articles. I shall be relying on my sisters help for that but, whatever you do, don’t tell her I said that if you see her… I haven’t had a chance to discuss that particular plan with her yet! The website requires successful contributors to agree to writing a total of ten articles in the first three months of “membership”. I have already written more than that so splitting some of the articles into smaller pieces means I have even more to submit!

I have also started writing poetry! Now that is not something I have done to any great extent in the past but I have felt my poetry muse descend upon me recently and I thought I should give it a try. The poems I have written so far are personal and specifically written for someone so they won’t appear here but I may be tempted to add one or two poems to the site later on if I write some more generic poetry. Though I should warn you I am no Wordsworth, Keats or Shelley (I’m not even close to Edward Lear!). But, as was pointed out to me recently, until they got published for the first time nobody knew about them either!

The rest of my time has been spent on general editing, typing and fiddling with pieces I have already written. The more work-a-day side to writing in other words! Though it is a little more mundane than the actual writing process itself I do still thoroughly enjoy it and it is, of course, an essential part of the whole process.

I think that is about all I have to tell you for the moment. Having said I was going to knuckle down I had better actually do it otherwise I won’t have anything to tell you about next month! In which case I shall leave you now with my traditional thought for the month:-

O summer day beside the joyous sea!
O summer day so wonderful and white,
So full of gladness and so full of pain!
Forever and forever shalt thou be
To some the gravestone of a dead delight,
To some the landmark of a new domain.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Have a wonderful August and, if you are lucky enough to be going away, have a fantastic holiday.
　

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