Following on from my post last week, I am exercising my right to work when I want to work, and therefore to take breaks when that feels right for me.
And so, in the spirit of self-care, this will be my last post until 1 September, at the earliest.
I am looking forward to refresh my batteries, and to plan for the (academic) year ahead. Although, traditionally, most people will consider January as the beginning of a year, or April (in the UK) as the beginning of the tax year, I like to think of my writing year as matching the academic year, with the breaks defined by the school term times within the city of Bristol (UK), where I live.
I hope that I will come back with some fresh ideas, and a renewed sense of sharing writing on a regular basis. I will also be starting back with a local writing group that I was a member of for many years, but which I have not been involved with for the past year. So, I am looking forward to that, and I hope that my activities there will help me with my writing here, and vice versa.
I am also continuing with the second year of my course, which I hope will result in an MA in Writing and Wellbeing from Teesside University. I have completed a third of the work required in the first year, which means that I have twice as much work ahead of me in the second year, but I will no longer be employed by then, and will instead, be retired, so I am hoping that I will get through all that I need to, albeit with a busy year ahead, but if I don’t, I know that I will enjoy the process of attempting to do so.
As I am, therefore, at the end of this academic year, I wanted to take the time to say thank-you to Soul Magazine and Katherine Myrestad (and her editing team), for publishing some of my most recent writing, , and an enormous thank-you to everyone who has clapped, highlighted, followed and responded in many generous ways to my writing, as each and every one of those actions has been very gratefully received by me; and I am particularly very grateful to those who have done that on a regular basis. It means the world to me.
I look forward to all our interactions in the next (academic) year, and I hope you all have a good break, if you are taking one, and wish you all well with whatever you do.
Fraser
July 2024