Hello world. I’m back.
How have you been?
I’ve been good, thanks for asking.
In case you’re wondering where I’ve been these past few years, I’ve been right here – just been a bit busy changing my life. You know how it is – so much to do, so little time.
So anyway, you may or not be interested to know that I am a full-time writer now and, as any self-respecting wordsmith knows, a website is essential for getting out there and speaking about what you do. With that in mind, I’m going to be giving this old thing a bit of a revamp over the next few months to try and knock it into a half decent state. In the meantime, here’s a helicopter level sketch of what I’ve been up to since my last post all those years ago.
In 2017, after working for an energy company for over twenty years, I left my job as a regulatory manager to concentrate on writing. After several months of deciding whether or not to go freelance as an energy industry consultant, I decided to let it all go and embrace my creative side completely. To help me on the way, I took a course on fiction writing which proved to be extremely helpful.
I wrote a couple of short stories, on the course, about a character that I really fell in love with. I started to think about what her life story would look like and began to plan out my first novel. That novel, The Netta Project, is now nearing completion – more about it in later posts.
The other thing I realised was that writing is a rather solitary business and sometimes it’s good to get out there in the writing community. So, I joined the fabulous Birmingham Writers’ Group http://www.birminghamwriters.org/ I can’t tell how wonderful it is to be part of such a supportive and friendly bunch of people. I can recommend it.
So, what else have I been doing? Well mainly writing; writing; writing and a fair amount of reading too. Aside from the novel, I’m working on a couple of poetry collections which may, at some point, see the light of day and also several short stories, one of which will appear in the Birmingham Writers’ Group soon to be published anthology City of Hope. The anthology will be launched on 30th October at our spoken word night, at the Bacchus Bar in Birmingham, UK.
Oh, and my other half and I have bought a motorhome and have spent a good deal of this year travelling about the country. Lot’s of pics on my Instagram account if you’re interested. https://www.instagram.com/hazel.ward/