The best laid plans

                                                
An idyllic walk, part of a long-researched river pilgrimage ... and within minutes of taking this photo I was upside down in a ditch with a broken left elbow and a damaged right wrist and shoulder! The subsequent pilgrimage around three different hospitals (plus a very unpleasant dose of Covid) had certainly not featured in the planning and accounts for the radio silence over the last few weeks. The really annoying thing was that, having covered nearly seven miles on some quite challenging ground, I managed to fall off a tarmaced surface ...

Getting back on track is going to take a while as driving is currently an issue. But I've always liked to have a couple of writing projects on the go at once and that's my saving grace just now. The schedule for the next book may need some rearranging, but I have no excuse for not getting on with some articles and meeting a poetry deadline!

Away from the desk

 A busy and enjoyable couple of days out and about this week. On Thursday I was lucky enough to be invited along to a joint Creative Cardiff / Cardiff University day on the Creative Writing Industries. It was interesting to meet a number of new writers, just emerging from the MA programme at the university, and to hear from alumni of that programme about their very varied career paths since graduating. A panel discussion on Voices in Welsh Publishing showcased four publishing houses (Seren, Parthien Books, Broken Sleep Books and Lucent Dreaming) and another session addressed the thorny question of Getting Paid and the Practicalities of a Writing Career. But, as always, the great advantage of the day was the opportunity it provided for networking - or "finding your tribe" as several speakers expressed it. Wales is a small country - but it has a very vibrant writing community and some very supportive tribes.

Then yesterday evening I went to the Millenium Centre to see Michael Sheen in Nye. It was by far and away the best theatre production I have ever seen. Every detail was incredible - the script, the acting, the sets, the staging. Aneurin Bevan was played as the flawed, arrogant, argumentative, brilliant character that he was. The action was amusing and moving in equal measure and by the end the whole theatre was on its feet in a standing ovation. Should you have any chance of seeing ithe play during its short Cardiff run, it's not to be missed. And with things as they are in the NHS at present, it's an opportune moment to be reflecting on the immense value of this country's most precious institution.

Out into the world

I sometimes think that the aftermath of launching a book is a bit like the "empty-nester syndrome" parents speak of having launched offspring into the big, wide world! It's as if a constant companion has left for pastures new - especially when that companion has been around for a long time. But it was a great delight to see Once Upon A Time In Wales making its way into other people's hands last weekend, and to have had such positive responses since from those who came to the launch. And it's interesting now to move on with a new "companion", one who is already demanding a lot of time and energy!

This week is Mental Health Awareness week. Creative and reflective writing have been proved time and again to benefit mental health, and organisations such as Write Well (about which I've written on this blog before) can contribute greatly to people's sense of wellbeing. In September I'm starting to work with two community groups on life writing projects. Life writing has been a particular interest of mine for some years. Working with older people in residential care for three years after I retired, following up on their life stories, was so rewarding and so enjoyable all round, and I'm really looking forward to my autumn groups. "Nothing is more interesting than human lives" said the Shakespearean actor Antony Sher - and I couldn't agree more. 

An imminent delivery!

Should any readers be in the Monmouthshire area a week on Saturday - I'd love to see you at the launch of Once Upon A Time In Wales. Yes, after a very long gestation (exceeded, I think, only by elephants!) my latest book will actually reach delivery on May 4th. Monmouth Library will be hosting the launch, and the morning will be introduced by Robin Davies, chair of the Monmouth Welsh Society. I'm delighted to say that review copies have been very well received.  

After a short breather I'm now well into my next venture, which again is taking me on trips around the country. The weather hasn't been particularly kind of late (I spent a week on the coast at Nant Gwrtheyrn at the beginning of the month in howling gales and pouring rain) but it's hopefully looking up a bit now. Which is just as well as most of my journeying is on foot! I'm looking at pilgrimage, in its many senses - religious and secular - and it's proving both fascinating and challenging. It's a topic that has interested me for some time. The 600 odd miles of the Camino de Santiago might be a little beyond me now (though who knows ...) but journeying with intention to places of significance can be achieved in so many ways - and with all sorts of adventures as you go.

Writing and reading

I don't know about March "coming in like a lion and going out like a lamb"; with only four days left of the month, today started bitterly cold, then this afternoon we've had a mixture of thunderstorms and hail. The spring that Sunday promised appears to have gone AWOL .... 

March has actually flown past, with a lot of time spent on editing (which is, I think, the real hard work of writing!) and more research for my next book. I've also been trying to catch up on my reading list. I'm having a year of concentrating on Welsh authors and books about Wales. Although my Welsh is slowly improving, I'm afraid I still have to read most original texts in translation, but I'm enjoying the "greats", such as Saunders Lewis, immensely anyway. Currently I'm reading The Edge of Cymru by Julie Brominicks, another Welsh learner - it's part travelogue (describing her walk around the edges of Wales) and part discussion of the environmental issues particularly affecting our countryside. It's beautifully written and very thought-provoking, a good read.

I've also been reading Addlands by Tom Bullough, who tutored me at Ty Newydd a few years ago. It's a story about a mid twentieth century Radnorshire family, and - as a son of Radnorshire - Tom captures the landscape, the dialect and the life choices that had to be made brilliantly. Some time ago I remember being caught up in a debate about "writing what you know" and "writing what you imagine". To me the authenticity of the author's voice is paramount. The imagined may well have a vital role, woven into the tapestry of a story, but when a setting is a real place with a real history its presentation by an "insider" who knows the bones of it makes the world of difference. 

Learning from the experts

It's something about which I had to be very disciplined when writing Digging Up The Family too - reigning in material to make the project manageable and the book readable! Drawing up sensible parameters, and keeping within them, is so important in non-fiction, but it does mean that all sorts of fascinating avenues have to be bypassed and a lot of material "parked", shelved for future use. I'm hoping to start writing up my current project before Easter and a coherent structure is at last emerging from the plethora of research I've been working on. A day spent with the author Tiffany Murray at CreativeCardiff last week, looking at some of the issues she raised about writing her forthcoming memoir "My Family and Other Rock Stars", was certainly helpful.

Another interesting meeting last week was with the Welsh writer and broadcaster Ifor ap Glynn, who came to speak to the Uwch (higher level) learners at the Palmerston Centre in Barry. Ifor has won the Crown at the National Eisteddfod not once but twice and he's as inspirational to listen to as his work is to read. The closing date for entries for this year's Eisteddfod writing competitions is fast approaching and I think Ifor's presentation may well have prompted several of my learner colleagues to have a go! I certainly look back on my good fortune in succeeding in the Tregaron Eisteddfod two years ago with great satisfaction. And I find that writing creatively in a language that you're learning definitely helps you get to grips with the nuts and bolts of it!

Moving on

Yes, spring is on the way! I was up in mid Wales last week, where it never comes before March, but there were snowdrops out everywhere and even some early lambs in the fields. I was enormously cheered by it all. Although it's not been a bad winter so far, it seems to have gone on for ever, so the prospect of longer, warmer days is very welcome.

It's been a busy month and the final version of Once Upon A Time In Wales is now safely at the publishers. I have the greatest admiration for the writers who can move seamlessly on from one book to writing their next in a matter of days. That's of course what the publishers want of their successful authors, but some of us mere mortals perhaps need a bit of a breathing space to recuperate and regroup after putting so much time and energy into a book. I'm very much looking forward to my next venture and am well under way with the research, but it will be a little while yet before the end product sees the light of day!