Linda Parkinson-Hardman's Blog, page 16

Turning to poetry – Hysteria writing prompts for August

I hope, like me, you’ve been finding it easy to write this summer. It’s lovely to have those bright mornings (best writing time for me) and long evenings that just seem to slip away when we’re busy. I know so many people have been turning to poetry to help set down their thoughts about the virus and the weird way we’ve had to adapt our lives and our relationships. We’ve been switching between fear and hope, worrying about things and feeling confident at times.

The Hysteria competition invites yo...

In conversation with Gill Donnell

I have real pleasure in introducing someone I’ve long admired and who has long been committed to empowering women in the workplace, much as I do with their health and well-being. Gill Donnell is the founder of the Successful Women In Business Network (otherwise known as the SWIB Tribe), and I’m fortunate enough to be a member in the Weymouth group.

We covered many topics during our conversation ranging from overcoming imposter syndrome, which seems to affect women more than men; right through to...

The art of listening 3 ways

I listened to a conversation that took place between Liz Scott and Dicken Bettinger last week about the art of listening deeply and it was truly insightful. Dicken spoke about the way most of us who have been trained in the ‘listening arts’ being something that actually ignores the other person most of the time as we listen for ‘cues’ or for what we’re going to say.

And it reminded me of the deep listening I was introduced to when I trained to become a psychospiritual counsellor and it involves ...

In conversation with Martha Gabler

This week, I’m in conversation with Martha Gabler, who originally joined me on the Thursday Throng in October 2013 with her book about autism titled, Chaos to Calm: discovering solutions to the everyday problems of living with autism.

Martha’s son was diagnosed with autism at the age of 3 and as a result she spent many years trying to find a way of managing family life with a severely non-verbal child. She came across the TAG (teaching with acoustical guidance) teach methodology as a positive re...

The coaster of thought

I’m guilty m’lud of taking the world around me for granted. I look at the wonders of creation and barely give them a second thought. Of course that tree is growing, my dog wants me to pat him, a friend says hello. All of these things feel commonplace, ordinary, unexceptional. But, when I stopped ‘looking’ and started ‘seeing’, I realised that they are none of these things.

Let me take a step back a moment and begin at the beginning where all the best stories start and ask you a question too. Do ...

In conversation with Tom Evans

This week, I’m in conversation with someone who has been described as being as close to a real-life wizard as you can get, the author of 16 books, Tom Evans.

Tom first joined me on the Thursday Throng in 2013 with his book, This We Know. This book is very close to my heart as it asks two fundamental questions that have intrigued me for many decades: what do we know, and what don’t we know. In this interivew we talked about the assumptions people make about others and themselves.

This We Know was...

Seeing through the illusion of illness

I realise the title of this post is likely to raise a few eyebrows at the very least, and perhaps it will even cause some to say ‘illness, an illusion? I think not!’ in some indignation so I’d ask you to hold off on a reaction while I put the statement into context.

A few posts ago I wrote about the first of the things I know to be true, that we are all walking miracles. In that post I shared how I’ve found that taking a little time out of my busy thinking allows me to settle into a space where ...

In conversation with Elizabeth Hopkinson

This week, I’m in conversation with prize-winning fantasy author Elizabeth Hopkinson. Elizabeth is a writer of fairy tales and her latest project is an anthology called Asexual Fairy Tales. She previously joined me on the Thursday Throng in 2013 with her first novel, Silver Hands.

Elizabeth is from Bradford, West Yorkshire (UK), home of the Bronte sisters and the Cottingley Fairies.  She loves the 18th century, Japan, mocha, and finding the magical in the ordinary.

Elizabeth’s short fiction has ...

On writing prompts – Hysteria writing prompts for July

Don’t forget the 2020 competition… the deadline is approaching. If you haven’t already written something to submit, there is still time to do so.

For my inspiration this month I’m going to share some ways of playing with words to create writing prompts that make some poetry, stories or just get you started on writing some ideas down – you can always come back to them and see how they develop.

Found poetry is an easy starting off point.

Found poetry is a type of poetry created by taking words, ph...

Resistance is futile

I’ve been waking early over the last few weeks, a combination of being too hot in bed and a mind full of thoughts has kept me wakeful, excited I admit, but wakeful nevertheless. This morning it seemed the right thing to do to just get up instead of fretting and fussing and hoping I’ll go back to sleep.

So at 4.30am here I am at my computer, writing. And it occured to me that the phrase I was looking for to get started is ‘resistance is futile’.  And I write that with a wry smile on my face beca...