Linda Parkinson-Hardman's Blog, page 11

Exercising your happiness muscle

I believe happiness is always ours. What I mean by that is that it’s always there, lurking in the background, but sometimes for some of us, it’s been so covered up with sadness and the circumstances of life we’ve forgotten it exists for us, always.

As I was wandering around my local village on my morning dog walk with The Beeble and Pip today it occurred to me happiness is a bit like a muscle that needs exercising; you know like the ones around our middle we can’t see but know if they were stron...

In conversation with Jane O’Connor, winner of the Hysteria 2020 short story competition

Jane O’Connor was the winner of the Hysteria 2020 short story competition with her story The Flower Box published in the Hysteria 7 anthology. Jane is a writer of short stories and novels, as well as a researcher and reader in Childhood Studies at Birmingham City University. Her latest novel,’The Trial of Gwen Foley‘ is due out July 2021 and published by @Bloodhoundbook

Listen to the interview and her reading of The Flower Boxhttps://lindaph.me/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Jane-oconnor.mp...

I identify as ‘human’

If I were a rabbit I would wear a rabbit fur. I’d hunker down on all fours. I’d nibble grass and would hide in my burrow at the first sign of danger.

If I were a tiger, I would walk the steppe or pace my cage, I would wear my striped coat and run from the hunters gun and chase the game that feeds me

If I were a fish, I would never come up for air out of the ocean, lake or stream that is my home.

But I am neither rabbit, tiger or fish; I am human.

The skin that clothes my body defines my humanity...

In conversation with Gillian Scholey and Michelle Christophorou

Michelle and Gillian are two of the reader team for this year’s Hysteria Writing Competition. In this episode we discuss the finer merits of entering writing competitions, what they are looking for and their own work as award winning writers themselves.

Listen to the interviewhttps://lindaph.me/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Meet-the-readers.mp3Key takeaways from this episode:Michelle and Gillian are both readers for this year’s Hysteria Writing CompetitionBoth have been placed in, and...

The Poets Meeting by AM Cash Hysteria poetry category winner 2020

Encircled, engrossed, of human mixology

Debated, a lifetime of stripped back sociology

Crossways to pathways, in beating humour

Sadness outpoured, sketches of other lives

 

Brainwaves sparkle, time drifts and instills

Engagement in the evening arrangement

Teas drunk, biscuits crunched, collage poem penned

Madness expressed and exorcism of souls vented

 

Now forced into a video matrix of solo streaming

Chairs empty, stacked away, Stockport Art gallery closed

Yet the energy is greater, with PC sc...

Programming your IPS – inner positioning system

We all have a perfect internal compass, one that consistently and accurately guides us in the right direction as we navigate this journey called ‘Life’. I like to think of mine as my IPS (I work in IT so acronyms are a by-product of the way I think :-)), also known as my Inner Positioning System.

It’s a bit like the GPS (there we go with the acronyms again!) in your car; but instead of a location on the planet’s surface, it tells you where you are in life and how to correct course for calmer wat...

The one perfect notebook to rule them all

I love a good notebook and I’ve been looking for the perfect notebook for many years. Even though I work in IT and have done for several decades, there is something about the feel of paper and pen. The act of writing words out is soothing and has helped me hugely over many years. But it has to be the right notebook and the right pen.

My pen must be good quality, not one of those cheap biro’s, having said that I’ve picked up many good quality pens from conferences and networking over the years. S...

In conversation with Ben Mears

Born in Cornwall, Ben Mears first began writing high fantasy as a hobbyist, later working on a series of early-medieval whodunits before self-publishing the young adult Tyler May series. A Sock Full of Bones is the first of his novels to be traditionally published.

Listen to the interviewhttps://lindaph.me/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Ben-Mears.mp3Key takeaways from this episode:Ben is a graphic designer as well as a writer and author of almost nine books.Ben has successfully transit...

I have a dream

I have a dream.

No this is not the start of Martin Luther King’s famous speech.

Instead, it’s my take on a similar principle. I have a dream, I’ve had it for many years, to give everyone the opportunity to change their life if they want to. The method is simple and effective and it works every time, but first, you have to see me as I really am.

So, I’d like you to sit back, relax and put your imagination into gear as I start a process of transformation before your very eyes.

Imagine I’m wearing ...

The Flower Box by Jane O’Connor, short story category winner 2020

Kay sat on the step of her pottery studio cradling a cup of tea when she felt a nudge on her arm as Pansy, her Nan’s Yorkshire Terrier, rushed past her and began doing joyful circuits of the lawn. Kay had been apprehensive about taking Pansy in, but things had happened so quickly after Nan’s fall that she had felt it was the only option, and her Nan had been so grateful.

It had been left to Kay to break the news to Nan that she was going straight into a nursing home after hospital due to her fai...