Going Beyond the Blurb

  This week is Mental Health Awareness Week and thousands of companies across the country will be spreading the word and putting initiatives in place to help educate and support their staff on mental health wellbeing. But what about those that are self-employed? This got me thinking more specifically about writers and how their mental health can be directly affected by their work on a daily basis.  As writers, we spend the majority of our time stuck inside our own heads. Whether we write full time, or we make time to write in the stolen hours in between our day jobs; if we're not actually writing, we're normally thinking about it. For most writers this is just part of our everyday lives, a compulsion, a reflex, as natural as breathing. But that doesn't mean it doesn't take its toll on us every once in awhile. Aside from the odd case of carpal  tunnel from frantic typing and sore eyes from staring at computer screens too long, the physical strain isn't so bad, but th

  Title: What I Was Doing Whilst You Were Breeding Author: Kristin Newman Published: 2014 Genre: Memoir I was given this book by a family member because it sounded like "my kinda book". Just reading the title I laughed. As a twenty-eight year old single person with friends who are settled, engaged with mortgages and steady jobs, I'm that one friend who has been none of these things for the best part of my twenties. There's been a few times over the years where I've questioned and doubted the difference in my path to theirs. If ONLY I had gotten a hold of this book years ago... Blurb : Kristin Newman spent much of her twenties and thirties buying dresses to wear to her friends' weddings and baby showers. Not ready to settle down and in need of an escape from her fast-paced job as a sitcom writer, Kristin instead travelled the world, often alone, for several weeks each year. In addition to falling madly in love with the planet, Kristin fell for many attractive l