New Year's Resolutions

by Paula Harrison

Budle Bay in Northumbria - I wish I was there and it was summer already!

As soon as I discovered I'd been allotted the first Slushie blog of the year, I thought - I can do New Year's Resolutions for writers! But the fact is I don't make New Year's Resolutions. I never have. There's something about having a bunch of rules that I'm meant to stick to that just makes me want to go out and break them all immediately. I think this is a pretty good reflection of my rebellious attitude to authority that even if the rules are set by me they still annoy me!

Happy Holidays from Notes from the Slushpile!

2016. 'It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. It was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness. It was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity' ... doesn't Charles Dickens describe this outgoing year to perfection? Rather than dwell on the worst, the foolish and the incredulous, we thought we'd celebrate the festive season by looking back on our personal highlights and reflecting on the inevitable lessons learned. May the holidays be a time of friendship, love and creativity for all our lovely readers. 

Drifting Away

By Nick Cross

Photo by Horia Varlan

What does it mean to be a writer? It’s a question that I’ve been grappling with a lot this year. And it’s a question that seems to naturally spawn many others:

• Do I need to be published?
• Do I even enjoy writing anymore?
• What would happen if I stopped writing altogether?
• What would my friends think of me?
• How much of my personal identity is bound up in my status as a writer?