Welcome to my blog. I am delighted to have you here. This could be the start of something small....

Just received word from my publishers that the galley proofs of my book, Eternal Sparrow, are in the post. Can't wait! I love the whole process of publishing, and there is something so satisfying about holding a newly published book in my hand.

I still remember the thrill when my first book, A Year Of Spirituality, was published. I recommend the experience to you, so if you haven't already written it, go and put pen to paper or fingers to keyboard. It is a complex, scrambled set of emotions, a mixture of bliss, relief, fear (what if it doesn't sell?), vulnerability, pride (this has to be a best-seller!) and courage. Courage at the exposing of my innermost thoughts and fantasies, pride that my publishers, Strategic Book Publishing, considered my manuscript worth taking a gamble on. In my "day job" as a Soul Therapist , my clients see in me whatever it is necessary for them to think I am. With the publication of Eternal Sparrow, this is nearer to the reality.

Having said that, poetry - the new rock 'n' roll? - is a distillation of who I am, plus an enormous amount of discipline in the crafting of each piece until it satisfies my super-critical ear. I hope that the birth pangs and agony are not in evidence (a swan glides over the water but we don't see the feet paddling madly underneath) and that each poem reads easily and, as Shakespeare said, speaks trippingly off the tongue.

Apart from everything else, bringing out a new book is one wonderful excuse to have a party.

I've been meaning to get to grips with blogging for ages but thought that it was some mystical, powerful entity that only the young and computer-savvy knew how to create. Now, I am thrilled to have created this blog at last. Chuffed up to the tickle mark, in fact.