‘It’s a good song,’ he said to her, ‘It’s just the first verse that needs a little more work.’ We were sitting in a semi-circle, me and a handful of other Christian songwriters. One woman had taken the courageous step of sharing her song with us. We were in the delicate process of giving her […]
Songwriting
Skills and issues in writing contemporary Christian music
Birthing Babies
I sent off another copy of Surviving Childlessness this week and, as always, I felt like I was saying goodbye to my baby. Birthing a book baby is a strange feeling. I am overjoyed at the result, a book I can hold in my hands that looks and feels exactly as I always imagined it would. But […]
My Baby Book
Tomorrow is the launch of my new book, Surviving Childlessness. And it feels like I’m birthing a baby. (It’s possible to give birth, even when you are childless.) This is not the only time I have felt like I have birthed something other than a biological child. When my first book was published, I felt the same way. […]
Leaving Legacies
One of the largest pieces of my childlessness grief is the loss of legacy. I wanted to leave legacies like passing on family heirlooms to the next generation. Things like jewellery, ornaments and prized possessions. I wanted to impart a love of books and music, such as Winnie-the-Pooh and classic rock bands of the 60s. […]
Love Is A Diamond
Love has many facets. It can be fun, passionate, enduring, broken, healed, playful, reverent, bold, intimate, verbose and silent. It has highs and lows and plateaus. It can have different chapters, like a book, and it can deepen and mellow with age, like a fine wine. It can be like a multi-faceted diamond. This presents […]
The Worship Suite
Ever since I can remember, I have loved singing to God. When I was a child, I would put on kids’ praise and worship cassette tapes (yes, I am betraying my age here) and sing my lungs out. I know that I sang my lungs out because my parents would tell me. In no uncertain […]
Creative Compost
I wrote a blog earlier today. And it stank. It stank like a bucket of prawns in the sun. It stank like a drain. It stank so much it took my mind off the stinky cat litter in the next room. It stank like a compost heap. Why am I writing about a stinky blog? […]
Go With The Flow
When I wake up on my writing day, my brain is often awash with creative ideas and projects. I sometimes have several competing blog ideas swirling around in my head. It can be hard to know which one to blog. And it is not just blogging that fires up my creativity. There is the allure […]
Our Days Are Numbered
Why did the calendar get depressed? Because it felt like its days were numbered. Creatives are plagued with a sense of time constraint. They worry about getting things done, or not, as is often the case. This can be particularly problematic if you have a deadline to meet with money or other important things at […]
Moments of Kindness
My friend and I were sitting in a café, enjoying our hot beverages and chatting eagerly. I was saying how remarkable it was that even though my life was filled with pain and illness, I was still able to write books and do music stuff. “It is so strange,” I commented. “Even in the middle […]