I'm in!

Thanks Sam for creating the blog - it took a bit of doing, but I finally figured out how to post using my own email addy; who sez blondes are dumb, huh huh? Mebbe I'm just a bit slow, but dumb? Ha!

Well, we've tried most web mediums, including a website (which still exists, but is in need of a serious update, ahem), to a newsletter (which was fun, but perhaps impractical as we've just all got too much to do), to various email groups (which still works a charm) and now blogging. I admit that I'm not into blogging, but it's worth giving it a try; even if I do not blog that much (oy, I heard that "thank goodness", Fi!) it will be a pleasure reading blogs from my three partners in crime...er, I mean, partners in write. Ahem.

GB posted a link to Jenny Hobbs , a South African writer who was responsible for the hugely entertaining "Blossom Broadbeam" articles which featured regularly in Darling magazine (does this mag still exist? I think not?). Anyway, what caught my eye was her following words:
"When people tell me they want to write, I ask them: ‘Do you read a lot and write every day? If not, you’re clearly not serious about writing.’

Mm, it's certainly made me think - I always, but always use time as an excuse: I don't have time to write this, but it's okay because reading and writing is "just" a hobby, or I only have time to read during holidays because "real life" is just too frantic. Yes, it is - real life, that is, but what isn't real about reading and writing? Reading opens doors to other worlds while writing helps me open up my own world, whether real or imagined.

More about me, on the writing front: I edit, publish and mostly write two (for now) print newsletters (Zest, the official newsletter for my kids' cheerleading team, and a newsletter for an independent children's home fund raiser). I enjoy fiction and poetry, although the latter has taken a back seat for the last few years. I'm trying to complete (hopefully by June this year) a correspondence writing/journalism course - not because I have aspirations to be a journalist, but because I simply want to learn more about the craft.

Here's to this blog helping us all to read and write more. Cheers!