Articles

Posts about my published health articles can be found on my health page – anything other non-fiction can be found right here!

My topical article for October was about World Space Week. It was fun to research something that didn't fall into a health or history category! It was fascinating to learn about not just the work NASA is doing, but the work being undertaken by private companies determined to help humanity explore deep space, colonise other planets and benefit from the resources the universe has to offer. In our lifetimes, we may see a team go into deep space on the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle that Lockheed Martin is building for NASA - opening up the universe and its secrets for us. Meanwhile, Elon Musk's Space X company is already shuttling cargo back and forth to the ISS, set to add crew members to its manifest as early as next year. The reusable rockets it's working on could revolutionise the way we see space travel by making it much, much cheaper and convenient ...
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From time to time, people contact me to say how much they've appreciated one of my health columns. It's nice to get those emails, social media messages or comments via the website; I like to feel the articles are being read and that they're helping people. If one of my columns has been published in a local magazine, I sometimes get some rather lovely pleasant face-to-face feedback, too. However, I was reminded recently that my control over how my humble Word documents are transformed into printed articles in magazines is limited - and that not all fame is good fame... "They're talking about your article!!" chirruped a Facebook message from a friend last month. I frowned at her link, which was to a post on the FB page of a local village. What was that image? Why were they laughing about my article? I squinted. Wasn't that a picture of the ...
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Hah. A January post that's not about resolutions. Never fear - that one is on its way... Bugs Bugs of all kinds have been a theme in the last few weeks. In December a stomach bug tore through the village, leaving everyone feeling distinctly unfestive. Despite one of my beloved preschoolers throwing up quite spectacularly on my shoes, I thought I'd avoided The Bug (having sprayed everything in a 5 metre radius and disinfected my shoes). But no. It hit me the Sunday night and Monday before Christmas, and I still didn't feel great on the day - so snacking and boozing were very limited and happened more at New Year. Since Christmas, my laptop has puffed smoke and made a strange popping noise as a dodgy USB port died, my F key stopped working (fixed by Techie Husband. What would I do without him?), my K key is behaving oddly ...
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Before we say goodbye to Christmas, I thought I'd (somewhat belatedly) share one of my favourite projects this year - researching the Christmas Truce of 1914. The resulting article was my most syndicated yet, and appeared in more than 15 different magazines, which I was very chuffed with! I particularly liked this layout used in Harpenden Now magazine, because I thought the image of soldiers used behind the text was very effective. The layout below is from The CM21 Connection, who seem to have bought the full length version rather than the edited one. The Handy Mag designers used some charming Christmas imagery to illustrate the article, shown here on the left. I like the snowy background effect. When researching the article I used many letter excerpts, including some from letters written by Henry Williamson - yes, the same man who went on to write Tarka the Otter, a book that made me ...
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A new book coming through the post is always a reason to celebrate. But when it's on your mat when you get home from an unexpected and rather stressful stint at work, it's even better. And when it's a book you've won - and it's a good'un! - what could be better? Not a lot (yes, that's the right answer. You can put your hand down at the back). Coming home to a signed copy of Nicola Morgan's The Teenage Guide to Stress on Monday was a great start to a busy week, and as you'll see... ... Nicola sent three lovely signed postcards too, featuring her book covers; one for me and one each for ArtyDaughter and ConstructoBoy. I asked for the book to be signed to them because, well, they're teenagers. I thought it might be very useful for them. ConstructoBoy was alerted to the book's presence by ...
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Confession time. With fiction, I feel I know what I'm doing. Roughly. I have a uni Diploma in creative writing. I've had a small amount of fiction success. So hopefully I understand the principles of telling a good yarn, even if, like all writers, it takes me a few rewrites to sieve out the grit and get to the gold. And non fiction shouldn't be a problem, should it? My OU education tutor, very well-respected and much published, urged me to do a Masters because he felt I wrote well at that level. I happily chunter on in my monthly column about preschool happenings in the village mag, and had a history article accepted by a Huntingdonshire magazine editor (she never ended up publishing it, mind, or commissioning the series she wanted me to do, but that's another story). But here's my CONFESSION: generally, as far as non-fiction goes, I'm a ...
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