Hi all, how are you? Hope you’re well and that you’re enjoying your weekend! I haven’t written a personal blog post for a while, concentrating on posting recipes and reviews. To fellow bloggers, how is your writing going? How long does it take you to write a blog? From start to finish – that’s research, writing, editing, uploading photos, – the whole shebang? It takes me around 2 hours for a 600 word piece. Quite a few people I know say food blogging is glamorous. It can be, to an untrained eye. It takes time. And effort. Attending launch parties is great fun, because you wind up meeting cool, like-minded people who you can really enjoy good conversation with and just be.
For the best part, that also means taking mental notes on the food, service, what’s working, what’s not. And then comes the write-up. It can be very, very time consuming.
So why do I blog? Because I enjoy it too much. Yes it’s hard work, working full-time hours where you’re required to write for the best part of 7 hours, then squeeze blogging and writing whenever you can. Sometimes I don’t get to bed till past midnight (which is when I hit the double shot coffees the following day). But I love writing too much. That’s just the way the cookie crumbles.
There’s also the wonderful adventure that your writing can take you on. I was privileged to speak at the International Women’s Day Festival last month, about writing, creativity and empowerment. It was a great workshop with a really inspirational panel, whom it was a pleasure to meet. Nafeesa Hamid, Siobhan Fennell and Sophie Sparham were entertaining with their performances and listening to fellow creatives was a timely reminder of the merits of self-expression. I spoke about Screaming Snowflakes, my publishing journey, why I write, the power of writing, literary influences and tips on creative writing and publishing. It was very well received and I’m already looking forward to next year’s events!
Speaking of all things literary, I’m a World Book Night Giver. I’ll be giving out copies of Reasons To Stay Alive by the magnificent Matt Haig – more details to follow on that, I’ll write a standalone posts nearer to the time.
Staying on the literary theme, it was The Derby BookCake Club’s one year anniversary last month. Because we forgot (ooops), this month’s bake will have a birthday theme. We’re meeting on Wednesday 20th April at the Half Moon Inn, Littleover, at 6:30pm. If you like baking, books and birthday, do pop along, it’s a really lovely group. This month’s read is Don’t Want To Miss A Thing by Jill Mansell (a great relief after the murder and mystery for the past few months)!
I’ve got some very exciting features lined up for this blog, for both foodies and bibliophiles alike. Again, keep your eyes peeled, because I caught up with one of my favourite authors and that Q&A is going to be a corker.
OK, I must dash. I’m getting hungry and need to get cooking. It’s Chef Vivek Singh’s Butter Chicken recipe that he made for James Martin for his last show last week. I’ll post the recipe soon and let you know how I got on.
See you soon.
RAxx