HAPPY NEW YEAR AND GOOD WISHES FOR 2026 by Penny Dolan

January 1st 2026.

New Year has always carried a strange aura. As a child, I sensed a thread of wistful melancholy running through all the glitter and jollity, and for decades the opening notes of ‘Old Land Syne’ brought me to ugly tears. Why and when, I wonder, did that stop? And yet it did.

I do still love that magical, illusory sense of pause as the year ends. I am caught by the odd trick of the empty calendar, the unmarked pages of one's new diary or journal. For a moment - and oh-so-very-lucky me, I know – there’s a sense of peace and opportunity and hope out there in the clear days ahead. I hope the new year will be good to you too.

Meanwhile, back to the post I originally wrote for today . . .

Choices, choices.

This coming Saturday - January 3rd - groups of Young Farmers will drive around our streets, collecting up unwanted Christmas trees. The trees, stripped and bare, are cast out of their homes the night before. They loll, unwanted, against hedges and gate-posts, like New Year revellers that never quite made it home.

Early that morning, the Young Farmer’s truck and trailer will come rumbling down the cul-de sac. A group of sturdy, still-almost-young men will stride alongside, throwing the flailing trees into the back of the giant trailer in the manner of legendary giants. The trees are crushed and stacked together by a couple of bolder Young Farmers, standing heroically upright in the trailer. In they come, the YF, and  off they go, taking all the discarded trees off to be shredded and used for animal bedding or something equally rural and useful.

The YF are doing a good thing. The unwanted Christmas trees raise money: people make a donation for every tree collected, with the funds split between the Young Farmer’s Association own support services and a large local Hospice. All of this is good and noble, and all is well,

But oh, something in me rebels against that morning. January 3rd? Why do the Young Farmer’s chose such an early date? (I know, I know.)

I recently saw a social media boast about ‘took my tree down on Boxing Day’ and it seemed so untimely to me. So very careless of custom and tradition, which I like to believe, is not necessarily the same as the huge marketing pushes that start around October. Perhaps their tree went up on November 6th?

From my ancient lady point of view, we should not be taking our Christmas trees down so swiftly. Trees disappeared late on 5th January, known as Twelfth Night, the eve before 6th January, the Epiphany or 'Three Kings' Day, when the Infant was shown to the world. You could keep those emptying branches glittering away until 2nd February, Candlemas, and the end of the Christmas season. 

So The Young Farmers are coming, for me, much too early! I am stuck here, pondering. The third or not the third?

I do love our Christmas tree and don’t want it to depart. Do I give in to rough convenience, strip the branches of light and glitter, and shove the poor thing out into the cold and dark, like a feeble Hans Christian Andersen story extra?

Or should My Tree stand dressed and lovely, with all its lights shining brightly, with me alongside, resolutely drinking my morning coffee as the tumbrils go by. Tonight, that scene, that version is where my heart is. I can make the charity donation anyway.

However, somewhere, I hear a small, practical voice, whispering firmly about how extremely well pine needles embed themselves into car upholstery . .

Choices, choices!

Penny Dolan

PS. The 'tree' piece above was inspired, at quite an angle, by the following:
‘The photograph of the past changes with time and yet it remains the same, In other words, a tree is a tree until you know how or when it was planted or by whom. Once you know then it is no longer a tree. It is symbolic. It is a series of stories. It has a truth.’ Lemn Sissay.

Quoted in ‘Write It All Down: How to put your life on the page’ by Cathy Rentsenbrink.

HAPPY NEW YEAR! by Penny Dolan

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Today, is the first day of January and the first Awfully Big  Blog Adventure post of 2023.  Our tree still stands in the house and will until Twelfth Night. However, the seasonal holiday, with all the noise, music and busy times, all the hours filled with people in real life or screen-wise, all the blessed moments of rest and contentment, will soon be over.  Today, the start of a new year, is a good day for me to look at the calendars & diaries & clocks and remember a few useful quotes about resuming the habit of writing. 

                                        * * * * * *                                                  

 Doing it all the time, whether or not we are in the mood, gives us ownership of our writing ability. It takes it out of the realm of comjuring, where we stand on the rock of isolation, begging the winds for inspiration, and it makes it something as do-able as picking up a hammer and pounding a nail. Writing may be an art, but it is certainly a craft. It is a simple and workable thing that can be as steady and reliable as a chore.  (Julia Cameron) 

* * * * * *

 Exercise the writing muscle every day, even if it is only a letter, notes, a title list, a charcter sketch, a journal entry. Writers are like dancers, like athletes. Without that exercise, the muscles seize up.   (Jane Yolen) 

* * * * * *

 The most important thing in writing is to have written. I can always fix a bad page. I can't fix a  blank one.    (Nora Roberts) 

* * * * * *

Probably the most important thing I've learned is that if I don't make time for the writing, the writing won't get done. (Judy Reeves)

* * * * * *

 Protect the time and space in which you write. Keep everybody away from it, even the people who are most important to you. (Zadie Smith.) 

                                                        

 

After a long and too silent patch, I'm hoping I'll remember these thoughts . . . 

 * * * * * *

Meanwhile, wishing you health, happiness and good words and good reading during the months to come - and with hopes for a better year for us all.

 

Penny Dolan 

@pennydolan1

Year Ends and Hell Yeahs! by Alex English

Photo by Alan Hurt Jr. on Unsplash

I may be strange, but one of the few things I miss about having a proper job is the performance reviews. Back when I was employed, I knew how well or otherwise I was doing (in fact, sometimes I knew too much). But as an author, I’m never quite sure.

As I'm my own boss I've decided to take responsibility and review myself. As I'm a kind and supportive boss, I've decided to stick with the positives and forget the negatives. I like to call this my ‘hell yeah list’, and I write one every new year. I’ve been doing this for (almost) a decade now, and it makes interesting reading going back over them. It's a lazy person's gratitude journal – a few bullet points slung together once a year to help me focus on the good things.

What sort of items should go on the hell yeah list? They can be anything you like – you're the boss after all. I include all sorts of stuff, from hobbies to personal life as well as work. Here are a few of my writing-related highlights over the decade:

Circa 2011 I was celebrating learning how to box and making a wedding cake for my brother-in-law (not at the same time). The only writing-related entry is interviewing Larry Lamb for a Country Life butter commercial (something I’d almost forgotten I’d done - thanks, list!)

In 2012 I’d had my first baby, quit my day job, sold some recipes to a magazine, taken a children’s writing class at CityLit and sent out my first picture book manuscript. I’m glad I put this on – starting to send manuscripts out was a key step for me after playing around with writing children’s books for more than a decade before that. I found that rejections weren't quite as terrible as I had imagined.

By some fluke, in 2013 I had my first picture book contract. I’d also completed my first younger fiction manuscript. This never ended up selling, but it felt like a big achievement at the time to finish a story of 12,000 words. I also started, but ran out of steam and didn’t finish, a middle-grade story.

2014 was the year I published my first picture book, YUCK SAID THE YAK, braved my first school visit and achieved my dream of being on stage at the SCBWI mass book launch! I also made it to the end of a new middle-grade story draft.

In 2015 I got my first agent, ran my first festival event and went to Folly Farm for the first time. I redrafted my middle-grade story, but it still wasn’t good enough to send out. It’s still in a drawer now.

BSU Corsham Court campus

In 2016 I signed a contract for my first picture book with Bloomsbury (still forthcoming… in 2021!) and started my MA at Bath Spa.

In 2017, I had my first award nomination when Mine Mine Mine said the Porcupine was shortlisted for the Dundee Picture Book Award. I also ‘survived World Book Day’ and wrote my first educational title for a Korean publisher.

A move to Paris was a big item for 2018, as was finishing my MA and completing a screenwriting certificate with UCLA.

I haven’t written my list yet for 2019, but it’s bound to include signing with my wonderful new agent, Thérèse Coen, graduating from Bath Spa and getting a book deal for my first middle-grade series SKY PIRATES.

My hell yeah lists help me to finish off the year and look ahead to the new one with excitement. Do you keep a list of your past achievements?

Alex English is a graduate of Bath Spa University's MA Writing for Young People. Her new middle-grade series SKY PIRATES launches in July 2020 with Simon & Schuster. 

Her picture books Yuck said the Yak, Pirates Don't Drive Diggers and Mine Mine Mine said the Porcupine are published by Maverick Arts Publishing. More of her picture books are forthcoming in 2021/2022.
 
www.alexenglish.co.uk

Nutty New Year Resolutions by Steve Way

I’ve realised as I begin this blog that by having the 2^nd of the month as my allotted day for contributing to our wonderful blog experiment that I get the chance to be one of the first to wish you all a Happy New Year! May it be a prosperous, productive and well published year for you all!


A technique I use when I visit schools to facilitate creative writing workshops is to begin a session with a ‘get the pen moving’ exercise. I think all writers, including children, find a blank page intimidating and so the idea is to help them get their creative juices flowing and a few words on the page before embarking on more ambitious work. A bit like warm up exercise at the gym. This time of year, I use a list of daft resolutions that I claim to have made and then the children are asked to make two or three of their own. So, in case you might find them useful in a similar context please find below my ‘Nutty New Year Resolutions’.  You might not be surprised to learn that the children often particularly respond to resolutions three and four – and sometimes need a moment or two to think about some of the later more surreal ideas!



1.  I won't Sellotape my Dad to the chair while he's asleep anymore.

2.  I won't play at being an orang-utan anywhere near Mum's breakable vases anymore.

3. I will stop picking everyone else's nose and will only pick my own from now on.

4.  I won't wash my hair in the toilet anymore as it seems to upset my Mum for some reason. 

5.  I won't paint the stair carpet a lovely orange colour again. 

6.  I won't eat 16 bowls of jelly all at the same time again... ugh...

7. I will stop running up and down the street, dressed as as a shop, shouting, "Mind out for all the purple elephants!"

8.  I won't spread jam all over the dog anymore.

9.  I will stop suddenly turning into an enormous cabbage in P.E. because it frightens all the other children. 

10.  I will never drop an elephant on Grannie again while she's sleeping, even though it is very funny. 

11.  I will stop being me and will be the man three houses down with the green car. 

12.  I will only have eleven New Year’s Resolutions this year. 

13.  I will say "Tortoise" to people every time I meet them instead of "Hello" because it would be such a stupid thing to do.  

Have a great 2020! 

Recent publications;

The Gobulins and the Globulins. ‘William’s nephew’ discovers that he inherits more than a cottage from his uncle. 

Spy by accident. He doesn’t know it but Simon’s mum is a spy. Unwittingly he becomes dangerously embroiled in her world.

CHANGING TIMES, CHANGING WAYS by Penny Dolan

As I write this post, I'm thinking about Christmas celebrations, both the familiar and the almost unexpected changes, and about the New Year ahead.
  
Each year, here in the UK, the media and the markets suggest a Christmas holiday wreathed in customs and habits, where expected foods are eaten, certain drinks are drunk, shows watched, gifts given and half-known songs sung within that oh-so-festive festive hearth and home. Each year, we recognise the incoming festive clues and note the pattern that, "out there", stays the same.

However, "in there, in here", in our private lives, the ways of celebrating change and have to change.  There are many kinds of families, often in many locations, and what once seemed to be "this is how we do it at Christmas" suddenly doesn't fit the pattern of days anymore.

Sometimes, these changes are because of loss or sorrow, sometimes they come from a happier source and sometimes the change is just because a different pattern might work well this time round. 

For example, our own Christmas celebrations were more altered than usual this year. We did put up a tree, listen to Carols at Kings, eat mince pies. go to midnight Mass and so on and so on.  However, withFamily Visitors not arriving until the twenty-eighth of December, our own Boxing Day was suddenly most suitably named . . .



Yes, boxes indeed! Piles of 'em! Stacks of 'em! 

Over Christmas and Boxing Day, we unpacked almost all the cardboard boxes that were stowed or stacked around our house for a too-long while.  As Chief-Librarian, I enjoyed arranging all the many, many books across the five, tall, new bookcases that had just been assembled upstairs by the Chief-Carpenter. Himself enjoyed basking in the glory of his creations, c/o IKEA.
  

Furthermore, by the end of Boxing Day, the task was done, with the empty cardboard disappearing to the tip the day after.  Phew!

It was an unusual and unexpected way of spending the Christmas break, certainly, but we felt full of a certain mince-pie fuelled satisfaction as well as - joy! - re-discovering plenty of interesting and alluring titles and places to put this year's haul of incoming titles.  


Right now, with Boxing Day accomplished, we have the time and space to enjoy our Visitors over this New Year holiday anyway - andnd no need to shuffle those boxes of books about the house again afterwards!

However, hearing all about other people's changes of festive habit and then working on this post about changes here, I'm starting to ponder about the pattern of my own working days.

Are there are any changes I could make to my own familiar habits and practice that would serve to open up my own creative approaches as well as my own writing for the new year to come?  
There's a few hours of thinking and planning left . . .

Penny Dolan
@pennydolan1



Wishing you all a Very Happy New Year - and with thanks to all the brilliant contributors to Awfully Big Blog Adventure and Awfully Big Reviews during 2019 and onwards into 2020.

Here's to a whole new decade of ABBA!

HAVE A HAPPY NEW YEAR! from Penny Dolan

Hello again, at the start of another New Year!

Yesterday, home after family travels, I skipped sociability and spent the afternoon simply tidying my desk: a most wonderfully satisfying activity. I removed a set of seasonal shopping receipts, discarded the now-cryptic notes to self, popped different categories of pen into their own pots and stuck together the remnants of post-it pads. I even gathered several scrunched and scribbled notes into a real-world folder marked “Possible Blog Ideas???”

Several fireworks and peals of bells later, I considered today’s date – the first day of the first month of the new year, ta da! – and suddenly my bright golden glow of smugness faded.  I realised I had no idea what to write for my post today.

I could explain that my big desk-clearing was also a way of making space in my head for some work I need to do. Two useful tasks in one!

I could mention a Christmas present from a well-wisher: a good-quality, carry-around-able notebook obtained from a bespoke bookbinder, which has these rather pointed words on the cover:

                              SHE BELIEVED SHE COULD

                              SO SHE DID.

Hmmm. Should this be my mantra for 2019?

I could flick through the pages of two more book gifts: RAVILIOUS & CO: THE PATTERN OF FRIENDSHIP by Andy Friend or THE SECRET LIVES OF COLOUR by Kassia St Clair, which will remind me that art – in all its forms – is calming and inspiring to me, and that I need to follow those paths more readily during the months ahead, and also that non-fiction – in all its forms - can be more helpful middle-of-the-night reading for insomniacs than compelling fiction. Or twitter. Or Mick Herron’s Slough House series . . .

Or I could write about my new diary.

Now, I must admit that I was feeling daunted and depressed by the flurry of book publicity and prizes hanging like bunting across media all through the last months of 2018. Good luck to them all, truly, I thought, although my confidence and voice shrank a little more and my horrible cold continued for another week.

So when I saw the PERPETUAL DISAPPOINTMENTS DIARY, my heart lifted, because the thing has been designed to bolster the naturally pessimistic. The journal might look rather like those Moleskines diaries used by the great achievers and explorers, but it definitely isn’t aimed at success.

For example, the On this Day section lists includes events such as  

Edward Munch inspired to paint the Scream 22 January 1892 

or M25 Orbital Road completed in UK 29 October 1986  

or Mary Celeste sets sail 7 November 1872.

The inspirational Quote for the Week roams from 

Tomorrow is just another day

to It’s no use sobbing uncontrollably over spilt milk

or Burn that bridge when you come to it.

There are pages at the end too, to enter your details of  

Real Enemies,

or Notes Towards a Dull Novel, 

or Notes Towards an Unnecessary Verse Drama,

or Ideas You’ll Never Follow Up and more.

Oh, how I know this place! I thought. Although this rather negative angle might not appeal to you, by heavens, it does cheer up my own inner Eeyore!

I intend to keep my Disappointments Diary as a quiet and secret place for recording those things I should note – word count, progress of projects, daily walks, and so on – on the basis that anything at all hopeful that I write down will feel good against that delightfully dark mood and help me feel better.

I could write about all these odd things, I decided, and now . . . 

I find my first post of the year is writ!

However, if my entry seems sad or dark, tomorrow you’ll be able to enjoy Dianne Hofmeyer’s bright and lovely post for Awfully Big Blog Adventure.

Do call in!

Meanwhile, in the most cheerful and hopeful way, I hope you have a very Happy New Year, with good wishes for you and your year ahead. Despite – you know, just everything - I hope you have a good 2019, with good reading and good words when you need them. 

Penny Dolan

Planning on planning by Jess Butterworth

Today I feel as if I'm in a film, because this afternoon I'm flying into London to surprise not one, but two, of my best friends for their birthdays (conveniently a few days apart).

And I'm so very excited.

I'll be doing other things too, like visiting bookshops and meeting my editor, which I also can't wait to do. 

All this has taken a lot of planning with many people involved. And with Christmas not being quite the successful catch-up time I had envisaged, a lot of deadlines are being met at the last minute (right now I'm counting on my four hour layover to be as productive as four hours in my office). 

This has got me thinking that for this year I want to try and be even more organised. Or, if I am doomed to a never-ending to-do list, then to at least effectively orchestrate the list in a balanced way. And, as I plan out my year, I've decided this means that the list should include things like time to deal with the unexpected, see friends and loved ones, go idea hunting/spend time outside.     

And sometimes all I want is to lock myself away from everything and write. A writing retreat sounds pretty wonderful. Maybe I should plan one of those too.  

Contemplating the new year. 

I know that planning every second of every day isn't very realistic or fun, but thinking about it helps me to be more mindful. And that's what I'm really aiming for.

Here's to a joyful 2018! 

Love,

Jess

jessbutterworth.com

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A Happy and Healthy 2018 by Penny Dolan

Hello - and a Happy New Year from everyone at Awfully Big Blog Adventure!

A long time ago, O Best Beloveds, when I was young and carefree under the apple boughs - and so on - traditional Christmas greetings often included words about people's health.

Curlicued scripts wished an unduly serious Happy & Healthy New Year, or Health & Wealth in the Coming Months. To me, then, it seemed rather medically-minded when gaudy paper-chains and tinsel hung around the walls. Were the aged relatives in danger of measles or chicken pox or gashing their knee when they were out on their bicycle? Surely they were too old to get bitten by one of the mad dogs we were always being warned about?

Moreover, when people met then in real life – as well as in books and films - drinks would be raised and glasses clinked along with the oddly Dickensian greeting of "To your Very Good Health". Everyone became part of a cast of Fezzipegs or Cheeribles, obsessively offering festive toasts to any Gathered Company and so on, and making a lot of grown-up noise at the same time.

Since then, life and the NHS have sharpened my gratitude so I’m now very happy to join in any incantation wishing people good health and strength. 

Besides, the wish is close to my thoughts. This past fortnight, I’ve been beset by A Vile and Fearsome Bug, as I think have many others. (You have my sympathy!) I can’t help feeling that the cold was probably brought on by the Soup of Fetid Air met in crowded shops, breathy carol concerts, overheated gatherings, wearied restaurants and more. 

For much of the year, my environment isn’t like that: I work alone, surrounded by my own range of friendly bugs and we have gotten used to each other. I also work cramped over my desk, with biscuits not far away, and similar - ahem! -  healthful habits. Not good, really.

So, for this first post of 2018, I’m musing on ways of improving my own "Writer Health".

One: I will start going out and about to a range of places, hoping that this will strengthen the immune system and give me more opportunities to “fill the well”. Maybe starting with a trip down to the Eric Ravilious exhibition at the Millennium Gallery in Sheffield before it closes next weekend? (Weather watched and fingers crossed.)

Two: I will carry on helping with Storytimes at my local Library, which is very enjoyable as an activity in its own right, and no hardship. It’s also useful practice: school visits are harder to come by but when they do, I need to have vocal chords capable of working at a “public” volume for a patch of time, not just occasional mutterings to the cat. Also, mostly through nursery rhymes, I’m scraping the rust off my EYFS singing skills which were always more enthusiastic than musical. Without volume, my songs are as nothing.

Three: that small desk & posture matter? I will try – honestly – to exercise a little more each day, to set the timer and stretch and walk about a bit more - and not just to the biscuit tin. It’s so easy to stay stuck in one place and position when you are actually rushing about, in action, busy in the fictional world in one’s head. It isn’t good for me - or maybe you? Might even try out that easier-than-easy Beginner Pilates DVD my kind daughter gave me a year or so ago, assuming dust hasn’t clogged the surface.

Four: I will – honestly - try to go for more walks. This intention is partly inspired by all those “daily walk” pictures shown on social media. However, as I don’t live near the sea or really close to stunning scenery nor own a charmingly naughty dog, I may have to content myself with pavements and creative thinking. (Also, having heard David Not-the-Novelist Mitchell’s BACK STORY book, I do know that walking helps with a bad back - or at least, his bad back.)

Lastly: Sleep, sleep, sleep! I will try for a regular bedtime, an earlier waking and a less disturbed time in between.  

That’s it, then: my cunningly simple five-point-plan for a healthier time ahead – and I haven’t even mentioned the diet or the drink. Nor will you, I hope, not till the seasonal supplies are used up sometime around late May.  Will I manage my mission? I don’t know, but here’s hoping - especially as the alternative isn’t great.

So at last, Dear Reader, the time has come to polish cravats, oil crinolines, button the rubber buttons on liberty bodices and gather around merrily in a faux-Victorian manner.

Today is the first day of January 2018, so here’s wishing every one of you A MOST HAPPY AND VERY HEALTHY NEW YEAR, with enough energy and strength for a creative year ahead - and plenty of good books to read as well, if ever you need a bit of a quiet lie-down. . .

Penny Dolan

GETTING BACK TO THE WORDS by Penny Dolan.

Hello again and Happy New Year! Welcome back to the Awfully Big Blog Adventure for 2017.

Time to begin again. Near my desk are a fresh new diary and a calendar empty - apart from twelve months of cat selfies – of any commitments. 

The just-emptied pin-boards on the wall wait for a new arrangement of prompts and plans, even if some cards will have been there before. 

My workroom is almost tidy again and, aside from the empty decoration boxes, is becoming my own space once again. I do not grudge having guests staying on the sofa at all, but it is rather nice to be back, feeling lucky to have my room around me once more.

I love this quiet period after Christmas. These peaceful days are very welcome right now, especially as our family celebrations were almost overwhelmed by non-cheery coughs, colds and fever, even though a good time was had, rather snuffily, by all.

Meanwhile, the spate of sad news - not just all those cultural icons but people l really know – has seemed endless. As for all that happened during 2016 itself? Oh dear. Reading the stream of social media, it’s easy to feel your heart shrink with despair and anger, and for the shadows to set in.

All of which is why this ABBA post is about some small-scale, quiet things I’ll be doing for myself, and which you might find interesting or helpful too.

THE BRIGHT JAR

The first idea is to get a large empty jar, some neat squares of brightly coloured paper and a pen, and put them all somewhere where you can easily see them.   

Each day, quickly write down one good, remarkable or wonderful thing that happened, fold the paper and put it into the jar. No need for scribbling screeds or creating story openings or poems or working it into an idea: just snatch that quick “memory moment” while you can. 

You can read through all the notes at the end of the year, create scrapbooks, work with them, or do whatever you like. For now, gathering them is enough. Might try the same for those quick flashes of picture book story ideas: scribble down & start stuffing into my "ideas box” again.

This memory jar idea came from Facebook, and I'm sure it's all over pinterest as a family activity too, so my bright jar may not be new to you. I liked the jar because, all too often, the petty anxieties, the naggling worries, the WIP doubts and all sit heavily in the top of my mind, blocking those better instances.  But this New Year, I’ll start using a bright memory jar to capture the much-needed good and happy moments that so easily slip past in a busy life.

THE FIRE BASKET

 

This is, I suppose, at the darker, opposite edge of note-making activity. Once, on a retreat, I heard a writer speak about a ritual they had used to move on from an unhappy time. As the year came to a close, they secretly wrote out all the personal worries, doubts, sadnesses, sorrows, confusions and mistakes that weighed them down, although whether as a single long list or on scraps of paper I can’t recall. 

Then, just before midnight, they threw the paper into the flames of a fire and let all the worries and regrets burn to ashes. The moment may have have been shared with trusted friends, too. However, they were now facing the New Year, feeling free of all those burdens, which seems a helpful thought to me.  

I felt that the ritual had echoes of a wider spiritual practice, so you may already know of this idea. I know, too, that today is New Year’s Day, but I don’t believe anyone has missed their one, personal, annual chance. Twelfth Night is still to come, and I’m sure that any date significant to you, yourself, when you can be quiet and thoughtful and in a comfortable place, with friends or alone, could be just as meaningful.

AND A SMATTERING OF GOLDEN STARS TO END WITH!

This idea is a very small and very childish kick-start ploy. Working from home, I am often overwhelmed by all those Ordinary Things to Do, particularly as the workroom mentioned above is next to the kitchen, utility room, back door, conversational people, callers and so on. Despite the enjoyment factor, all the Christmas preparations have heightened this working/not working situation. When, I think, having no fixed deadline, did I last do any real writing?

Besides, once January has started, all the Other Things To Do will start resurrecting: all the stuff that creeps in from various Groups & Organisations, let alone plans for school visits and similar administration activities. And that tax return.

So, to get my practice back on track, I am going to adopt an almost silly practical trick, shown to me recently by a Christmas guest. Running a busy and complex job, and having just started a course of study, she showed me a simple, daily chart she’s devised for the week. The chart is half play, half visible incentive, and sticky gold stars as markers and rewards. There were various named sections, but what stood out to me was that one section was labelled WORK and another was labelled TASKS.

Of course, I thought, that’s exactly my problem!  I have stopped differentiating between my own WORK and all those to-be-done TASKS!  

So, as January begins, I’ll be drawing up my own simple WORK v TASKS chart to clarify my mindset and my time allocations - and will be using sticky gold stars to shine me on my way too. Enough, enough already! That's it!

Have your own good start to the year, and if you have any fine ideas for helping you move from lazy holiday into a good, nicely-tough work mode, do let me know. And if you are already horribly efficient, you have my intense admiration!

Penny Dolan