Are you a lunatic?

I've enjoyed all the recent coverage of the anniversary of the moon landing, particularly the programme 8 days: To The Moon and Back.

I'm also prepared to concede that some people are affected by the waxing and waning of the moon, not in a full-on werewolf way, but certainly in terms of disrupted sleep patterns, albeit caused more by its light shining through the bedroom curtains than anything mystical.

I have friends, though, who set much more store by the moon's magic than I do. Tonight there will, apparently, be a Black Moon, which is the name given to the second of two new moons occurring in the same calendar month. We are promised energy and miracles and all manner of wonders, and the end of a chaotic July before normality returns in August.

Well, I hope it does indeed bring a boost of something wonderful. The last few days of the month have been a bit dreary, and I don't know why. On my Julia Thorley Author Facebook page, I've posed the question: 'Why do all my best ideas come to me when I'm too busy to take action?' For your eyes only, dear reader, is the subsidiary question: 'Why now, when  I have the time to crack on with the creative stuff, do I just want to sit on the sofa and watch Mad Men?' I don't believe in writer's block: it's just procrastination; but I've definitely got a case of writer's apathy.

It's a new month tomorrow. Let's hope the moon works her magic and I can achieve something fabulous. 

Could you write a weekly column?

If you bought the current issue of The Lady (pictured, dated 17 February), you might have noticed a new column called 'The Tech Doctor' by Miles Waghorn. I'm delighted to see this, because Miles is the son of one of my friends and he's worked hard for his success. I didn't know he was a writer, but he certainly knows his technology, so I'm sure he'll have lots of useful information to pass on.

I just hope he realises what he's let himself in for, because a weekly column is a huge commitment. I used to do a fortnightly 'my life and welcome to it' piece for our local paper, and that was a big enough challenge, because sometimes I just wasn't in the mood. Now I write a monthly feature for Smallholder and it's amazing how quickly the time flies; and in the past I've had other regular writing commitments, including compiling crosswords. Still, there's nothing like a deadline hurtling towards you to alleviate writer's block!

What do you think: could you write to order every week - or even every day?

Writer's block

A quick one for the writers among you.



Fay



Fay Brotherhood, lead singer with the excellent Cernewoda, has put this up on her Facebook page:

“One reason that people have artist’s block is that they do not respect the law of dormancy in nature. Trees don’t produce fruit all year long, constantly. They have a point where they go dormant. And when you are in a dormant period creatively, if you can arrange your life to do the technical tasks that don’t take creativity, you are essentially preparing for the spring when it will all blossom again.” Marshall Vandruff,

 Nothing wrong with a bit of dormancy.