Hello students, and for February I thought I’d offer you a quick video update on some of your fellow students’ progress. Thanks to you, if you took part in this, and if you’re thinking ‘I’d like other students to know what I’m up to’ then please just comment here on send me a message via Udemy messaging.

Here are a couple of interesting links I’ve gathered this month. One is from Literary Hub, a site I love and it’s a deep dive, as they say, into a fine opening paragraph. https://lithub.com/a-close-reading-of-true-grits-perfect-first-paragraph/

And as a contrast post, and if your mood is more wide trawl, here’s The 100 best websites for writers 2020 https://thewritelife.com/best-websites-for-writers-2020/

It’s been an unexpectedly busy start to the year here. As many of you know, I champion an eclectic approach to a writing career: be flexible, be bold, experiment like mad and who knows where it may take you.

In the past year or two, I’ve rediscovered a love of poetry, helped by some wonderful workshopping poet friends at a local museum. Three of us have now created a poetry podcast – about to launch – and here’s a taster:

Forget steep learning curves…learning to podcast here has been a perpendicular. But it’s most enjoyable too and is not over yet. The podcasting community is amazingly helpful, because rather like poetry, a lot of folk are joining in for love of their subjects.

If you fancy dabbling in this medium, and it has huge potential for writers, then please do let me know. You could learn from my mistakes…

May green shoots of Spring inspire you to verdant writing ideas!