Fi Phillips

My family have recently been ill with a bug. My youngest (a boy) tends to keep on going until he drops but from time to time bursts into tears for no apparent reason. My daughter, who is a couple of years older, takes up residence on the couch and hugs the remote control to her like a teddy bear. My husband just generally humphs around the house, sniffing and coughing, and occasionally disappearing to bed. In the meantime, I carry on. I make their meals. I do my own share of household tasks plus my husband's. I enquire after their health - would they like a drink, are they warm enough? I do the shopping. I attempt to get on with my writing. I let them control the TV viewing. I fetch blankets, give cuddles and check their temperatures. I'm no martyr or saint. It's necessary for me to get on with things so they can get well and life can return to normal. Get through this day to get to the next. Keep on your feet and the distractions can't catch you. It's the sa...

1. Make pumpkin soup  Well, not necessarily pumpkin soup. You might prefer butternut squash soup (a favourite of mine) or plum jam. Eating seasonal fruit and vegetables prepares your body for the season ahead and is cheaper than using produce that wouldn't naturally occur at this time of year. It also reduces your carbon footprint by allowing you to eat locally grown produce. You can find an excellent article on autumn seasonal eating on the Mostly Eating blog . 2. Layer it up Just because the weather is blustery and temperatures are dropping doesn't mean that you have to immediately pack away your summer clothes and bring out the jumpers and boots. Swap your lightweight scarf  for a heavier fabric. Wear a long sleeved top under your favourite dress. Replace bare legs with woollen or opaque tights. You can find a helpful article about layering for autumn from the Independent here . 3. Get Out Whether it's with family, friends or your other half, walks can be the...

I was recently introduced to the writing concept of 'small stones'. It's creator Fiona Robyn, explains it in this way. "A small stone is a very short piece of writing that precisely captures a fully-engaged moment." In essence, it is a vehicle to live more in the moment, look at the world around us with writerly eyes and adopt a daily writing practice. You can find a fuller description on the Writing Our Way Home website which is run by Fiona and Kaspa. This is a great site for writers, featuring an inspirational blog, courses and a community too. Here's the small pebble I'm tossing onto the beach today. My World "I don't get it" he said. "Why do you have to live in this imaginary world of science fiction and vampires and superstition? Isn't the real world enough for you?" He didn't understand. He didn't get the point that sometimes this real world is too much.

 

Today is doubly important to me. Firstly, it is the autumn equinox, when the daylight hours and night-time hours are of equal length, a day to think about the balance in our lives. Secondly, today marks the start of the second SHINE blogging challenge. Julie Isaac, author and blogger set up the SHINE blogging challenge last year. It aims to inspire bloggers to post at least twice a week then share their writing through the Writing Spirit blog, Twitter or however they wish. I love writing prompts so I find SHINE an inspiration for my blogging output. You can find out more about the challenge here . May the autumn equinox   bring you bounty and balance.

A couple of days ago, whilst waiting in the car for my husband, with the window wound down in the futile hope that my rampant children might escape, I overheard a passing conversation. "She literally refers to herself as the next J K Rowling. I mean, that's ego. That's real ego." I don't know how this conversation began. Did 'she' refer to herself as the next J K because she was going to make lots of money, be famous, become a successful, prolific writer, or all three? I have no idea. 'She' could have been an annoying work colleague or a respected sibling. I don't know whether the speaker was criticising or admiring 'She'. It's so easy to make a judgement, especially when you have a writerly imagination. The aspect of the overheard comment that made me prick up my ears however was this. As a writer, should we/do we aspire to be a version of another writer? Did the aforementioned 'she' see herself as J K Rowling .2? I...

It's always rewarding to receive an award from another blogger and yesterday Nancy MacMillan of ' Blog of a Vet's Wife ' was kind enough to award me the Liebster Blog award which is given to bloggers with less than 200 followers to express recognition of the quality of their blog. The rules that accompany this award go as follows: Thank the giver of the award and link back to them. Give the Liebster Award to 5 bloggers and let them know with a comment on their blog. Copy and paste the award onto your blog. Enjoy the love of some of the most supportive people on the Internet. Have fun blogging.  Well, I've done all of those except to nominate my own five award winners. Here goes: Meg Waite Clayton of 1st Books: Stories of How Writers Get Started Annie Boreson of Atoll Annie and the Non-Specific Rim Stacey Graham of betwixt and between The Desert Rocks The Scribblers Cove Please do pop over to see my nominees. 

When I switched on my computer today and pulled up an internet page, good old Google had a gem of a reminder for me, a short film based on the song 'Don't Stop Me Now' by Queen to celebrate Freddie Mercury's birthday. If you're reading this post today, then you can view the film by going to www.google.com . If Freddie had still been alive, then today he would have been sixty five years old and probably as fabulous and flamboyant as he always was. I still can't believe that twenty years have gone by since his death. My life back then (a twenty five year old newly moved to Surbiton, Surrey to be with my then boyfriend) was a world away from what it is now. I can remember a pub I used to pass on the way to work honouring Freddie by changing it's sign to feature his image. The pub was called the Queen's Head. Here's an excellent article on Freddie and Google's tribute from the Telegraph.

We haven't moved into a new season yet but today it feels like autumn, crisp sunshine wrapped around the cherries and apples in my garden. I'm in the middle of a commissioned script and with my children still at home (they return to school next week), I'm snatching moments around them to do my work. My mind is on the month ahead and my to-do list looks like this: Complete my script and send it off to the client. Write and send out the quarterly newsletter for my business. Re-brand my business and make some alterations to the website. Complete another script for my business. Return to my work in progress, my darling novel.. That's quite a lot when I apportion time needed to complete these tasks. I really should be applying my nasal extremity to the grindstone and yet... For this first week in September, I always feel a stillness and a sense of anticipation. It's like the way my Auntie Ethel used to prepare herself before she drove up a hill. Ethel was...