Random thoughts

Causes and consequences by Mark Richardson. It's now Spring 2020. Reading the last paragraph made me chuckle. Still unpublished. To be expected when all I managed to write between 2004 and 2017 was one short story. Sandon High school, Meir, Stoke-on-Trent during late October 1996. Whilst Blur and Oasis battled for our minds and souls in the charts, a very different type of battle was occurring in a History classroom in the above-mentioned school: a battle whose consequences have and continue to ripple through time and space. At the time of writing this autobiographical piece, I have had experience of teaching History, English and Media studies. I have worked in a total of fifteen schools as a supply teacher, three of them as a long term cover teacher and finally as a full-time teacher of English and Media studies at Bluecoat comprehensive school. Let’s return to 1996. I had just celebrated my twenty-sixth birthday and was about to enter a new chapter of ...

By the end of this year I will be in my fifties.  This milestone in my life has inevitably resulted in me evaluating what I have achieved in my life.  I don't really want to go into details of my own personal life here in my blog.  I will however, reflect on my very slow progress as an aspiring writer. Like most people I've had my ups and downs.  I've got a loving family with two young daughters and three grown up step children.  I can just about afford to keep a mortgage and household running although in my permanent job I work four days a week.  Luckily,  I can also work as a freelance exam marker and that can make up some of the shortfall in my income. For years I have harboured a desire to become a writer.  Indeed back in 2004,  I took a Creative writing course at College with view to pursuing a writing career.  However, at that time I was settling down with my wife and Step children and found myself a Head of Department at the s...

Well, that's the second short story for the 5-7 year olds I've written. (They are very short- 800 words long due to target audience). They are prequels to the Young adult fantasy stories I am writing. I've just completed Chapter seven which was 5, 340 words long bringing the total up to 27,831 words so far. I'm aiming to get up to chapter 10 written by the Summer holidays as work commitments from June onwards until the Summer holiday will be somewhat intense.

As a relatively inexperienced writer, I value constructive feedback on any writing I create. I've been able to participate in two Blurb day events in a writing group called 'Writer's soap box' I belong to on Facebook. I've been able to take my first 'written off the top of my head' attempt down to something which is now hopefully more concise. First attempt: Sarah's Great, Great Grandmother Ruth was a famous children's author of a series of fantasy books set i n the magical kingdom of Cantre’r Gwaelod in a world called Faerie.  The books told the adventures of Ruth with a Faerie friend Aberfa and a boy called Arvid who was out to spoil their fun.  Bored and fed up on holiday,  Sarah makes a shocking discovery:  her Great, Great Grandmother Ruth's tale really happened.  Cantre’r Gwaelod, in the world of Faerie, is real. Aberfa is real.  Arvid threatens the security of both Faerie and Earth by trying to locate the secretly impri...