Fi Phillips

It's that time again, the breath before the final leap into the new year. It's that chance to take a moment to look back before we shut the door on the old year, to check over our intentions for then and our wishes for the future. Back in January , I talked about what I had accomplished in 2013 and how I wanted to approach 2014. I think I managed to maintain that wish to see my life, good and bad, with new, refreshed eyes. Later that month , and again in February , I set myself a reading list. I got around halfway through that list, reading some wonderful novels and poetry. The rest are for next year's reading list. Towards the end of February, I began a new series of blog posts - Something Useful for 2014 - that provided my readers with monthly writing exercises. That's something I'll be continuing in 2015, along with my monthly photo inspiration posts. In the first half of the year, I took customer commissions for three separate murder mystery plays...

2014 is upon us but I didn't want to start this shiny, new year without reflecting on the one that's just passed. 2013 was the year when I proved to myself that 'I can' if I believe in myself. I can: finish that murder mystery play that's had me dumbfounded for over a year - Fresh Blood guest write for a professional work from home blog - Guesting on Work From Home Wisdom attract new customers to Murdering The Text and finish the third draft of my novel.  On a personal note, 'I can' lose weight and keep it off. Between June and December, I lost 2 stones in weight. I have more to lose yet but I'm confident that I can be down to my target weight  by the summer.  My word for 2014 is 'refresh'. I have so many good things in my life already but I feel that I need to look at many of them with new eyes. I have no new year resolutions as such, just an incredible amount of optimism and excitement for the next twelve months. I have two m...

2013 is almost here, bringing with it the chance to start something new. How do you feel about that? Excited? Worried? Brimming over with ideas? Or are you simply carrying on as before? A lot of people will and there's nothing wrong with that. I'll still be making the weekly trips to school with my children, cooking, cleaning, paying bills and writing (of course). Some things never change. And yet, to take this opportunity of a new year as an inspiration to start at least some things afresh seems to me to be a gift that we should prize. Call it new year resolutions or turning a page, but the act of re-creating something, anything can be just what we need in the middle of the winter. The Words on my Blank Page 1. On 1st January, I start a new diary, literally a new blank page to be filled with the multitude of words in my head. 2. Once my husband has returned to work and the children to school, I'll start work on the third draft of my novel. I've spent the fest...