I suppose in the same way that if you write you’re a writer, if you make YouTube videos you’re a YouTuber. I know my nieces think I’m a YouTuber, and I have made quite a few videos, but I’ve never felt that the cap fits well. However, yesterday I reached a new milestone: I had a video banned from YouTube!
I’m planning to cover 2023’s reading in my usual “year in review” post, but this is slightly different. Book recommendation site Shepherd asked me for my top three reads of the last 12 months, October to September.
Not to be confused with the line dance called “county line”, county lines is a form of trafficking where drug traffickers get kids to ferry their drugs around for them. Child labour is very much a viable business option if you’re someone who’s not too concerned about breaking the law like, you know, drug traffickers.
It’s more common than you would think, and it doesn’t just involved “troubled” kids (not that they are any less valuable or deserving of protection). Anyway, you can read all about it in my new article for Premier NexGen, Premier’s youthwork arm. You have to register to read the whole thing, but it’s free and you don’t have to sign up for updates if you don’t want to.
I sometimes think I should get business cards made that list my work as “professionally interesting”. Part of being an author means that I always have a random fact or interesting anecdote about anything that comes up, and it also means that I spend time at events, on the radio or in print, talking about the most interesting aspects of my books, my research or even just myself. (I have had an unusually full, interesting and long life for someone who likes to think she’s in her early 30s.)
I’ve just had a wee explainer piece published on Premier Christianity all about Ash Wednesday. As its origins lie in early church history (which is ancient history), it’s very much my field.
My friend Fiona Stewart, who founded Foolproof Creative Arts, asked me to contribute a episode to her ‘Foolproof Bites’ mini-podcast series – something related to working in the arts as a Christian. I must have been in a less-than-upbeat mood, because the topic I chose was rejection – specifically rejection as a writer, by the way, lest you think I’m a Norma No Mates.
It’s an ever-relevant topic for a writer, though, and never more than this year. I will say more about this in my review of the year, but I set myself a target for submissions of work, and the only acceptance I have had all year is from Esperanto in Scotland, which doesn’t pay, is always short of contributions, and where I am friends with the editor. So yes, feeling a little rejected.
Anyway, the mini-podcast is actually not that depressing, and features me reading poetry, if that floats your boat. (I did read it, to be on the safe side, but it’s one of a number of poems I can recite in their entirety. Memorising poems without even trying that hard is one of my fun but mostly useless talents. I can also wiggle my ears.)
You can also listen to other episodes by Christians working in the arts, including those by my friends Matthew Todd (filmmaker) and Sam O’Donnell (painter). See, I told you I have friends!
There are a number of reasons for an author to have a website. So that people can get information about my books is the obvious one. So that I can share my impassioned or facetious opinions without inconveniencing my general acquaintance is another. But a third, which is quite fun, is that sometimes people contact you unexpectedly via the website.
The Covid-19 pandemic has changed many things – our vocabulary (go back in time and try telling your past self that you’re not sure whether to take a PCR or an LFT because you may have caught Omicron from an anti-masker even though you’re double-vaxxed), our workplace habits (hello, Zoom), our travel and our priorities. One of the very minor things it has changed is my mind about songs with actions.
I am hoping to get another post written before Christmas about my favourite Christmas pop songs, but with my current workload I’m making no promises. Fortunately, a couple of articles I wrote last month have just gone live, so you can enjoy those instead.
K C Murdarasi 