A Recipe for Courage

A Recipe for Courage

I woke this morning to an astonishing reminder of a very important anniversary for me. Facebook told me that ten years ago this evening, on April 4 2008, my poetry play, Dreams of May, opened it’s four week run at London’s Pentameters Theatre. Ten...

Hello Vietnam!

The story of this trip starts in Singapore, actually, in the training session I led for Writing Through prospective volunteers in 2016. At that time, a wonderful trainee named Stephanie took me aside and said I had to bring the program to Vietnam, her home country. My...
What I Read This Year

What I Read This Year

What a busy year! Lots of big changes and growth for my educational charity, Writing Through. After too long, my new novel which finishes off my Cambodian Trilogy, is completed and sitting patiently among friends in my publisher’s queue. I’ve traveled back...
The Tyranny of Titles

The Tyranny of Titles

Every workshop I teach leads to a discussion of The Title. 1. What is the purpose of a title? 2. Where should it come from? 3. How do you know if it’s any good? When I teach others, I can generally come up with some answers to these questions, like the...

CSR and Me

(Read to the end for the big reveal!) CSR: Corporate Social Responsibility:  when a corporation takes decisive and apparent action to uphold and promote positive social values. In other words, the way in which a company contributes via active fundraising, financial...
International Literacy Day

International Literacy Day

International Literacy Day really snuck up on me this year. I must admit, the calendar is full of random celebratory days and I tend to ignore most of them (although my favorite might be International Talk Like a Pirate Day on September 19 — ooh, ooh,...