Hi everyone,

I have neglected this blog for a while as I have been working on a new one.

Here it is

http://www.workthatwardrobe.blogspot.com/

I am feeling a little weary after returning from the Writers in Prison Network Conference which was held in Bristol on Monday.
It was a long way to go for one day, especially with the first train cancelled and the ubiquitous drunk seranading us all the way home on the latenight Merseyrail train home.
But despite it all, the trip was well worth it.

I met up with lots of old friends including Clive Hopwood, a director of  http://www.writersinprisonnetwork.org/ who told us the startling statistic that there are only 100 of us doing this job in the whole world.
We all come from a variety of backgrounds. There are a few journalists, novelist, poets, dramatists, film-makers and storytellers who all share a common goal, to help raise self-esteem by writing.
I was delighted when a colleague handed me the latest issue of the prison magazine, Not Shut Up. The magazine had published a poem by one of my prison writers. What made it all the more special was that this guy didn't even learn to read or write until he came to prison.
And it was all down to the ground-breaking Toe By Toe scheme whereby prisoners who are able to read and write mentor those who can't.
Now he's getting his work published in writing magazines, alongside professional writers. Once the impossible starts to become possible, real changes can begin to take place.

There have been no posts for some time due to: school holidays, camping trips, deadlines, getting tents blown away, deadlines, camping gear stolen, deadlines, children still off school and more deadlines.

After time to stop and take a deep breath I managed to fit in a night out to the launch of Mace and Jones Short Story Competition at the Hard Day's Night Hotel in Liverpool.
The competition was announced by Head of Employment, Martin Edwards whose latest book, Waterloo Sunset, was published last month.

The theme of the short story competition is, appropriately enough, justice.
For details of how to enter visit www.maceandjones.co.uk

Jane and Martin raise their glasses to literary luck!

I spent yesterday at http://www.thebrindley.org.uk/ in Runcorn at an event organised by The Reader to celebrate The National Year of Reading.

The theme for May is Mind, Body Spirit and the event was tailored around this. I had never been to The Brindly before, but it is a real find. Just off the M57 motorway with a free car park the centre is an Aladdin's Cave of all things creative. I will be back.

But back to the event. There were several workshops to choose from and I chose Writing About Memories with Caroline Smailes, (http://www.carolinesmailes.co.uk/) author of In Search of Adam. What a find. After meeting Caroline I can't wait to read her book and the workshop was fascinating. We looked at how real memories can be fictionalised using various prompts.

The second workshop was From Birth to Death with poet Rebecca Goss. We explored the key stages of life through various poets and I was introduced to some wonderful new poets (Jennifer Copley, Jayne Anne Phillips and Kate Clanchy) who I will be finding out about.

It was all so inspiring and we left armed with lists of new writers to discover.

Since working at the prison I have started to become more aware (and appreciative) of my natural surroundings.

On the way to work through the Lancashire countryside I marvelled at the fields of vivid yellow rapeseed crops. It was like someone had taken a yellow paintbrush and covered the fields as far as the eye could see. The once naked gnarled trees are now completely covered in lush green clothes and I could smell the promise of a warm Spring morning.

Normally I stay in the prison between 8am and 5pm but yesterday I came out for an hour to enjoy the day and get some work done in my satellite office (the car!). During the lunchbreak I was interviewed by Emma Jones of www.enterprisenation.com

Emma had sent me a copy of her brilliant book, Spare Room Start Up and I am planning to review it in my Book Club. However, when I explained how I combined my work as a writer with other exciting projects she asked to interview me for her site. It seemed very strange to be the interviewee and not the interviewer. I can't wait to see the results on Monday when the article will be on her website.

What a busy week. Last week I was laid low with a flu bug then the Bank Holiday came and wham I have had to fit two weeks' worth of work into four days. But it has been fun.

On Tuesday I went to a primary school in Liverpool to meet some members of staff and fellow "Creatives". Together we will help the children produce a magazine. We will be working with Year One and Two children which will be a challenge but we all came up with some great ideas and now I can't wait to get started.

Later in the evening I went to Manchester Met University where  I am halfway through a postgraduate course in Teaching Creative Writing. This week we got the feedback on a piece of writing we had submitted. It was scary but exciting when other people listened to our words and liked them. The whole experience was created to help us understand how students will feel when they do the same. Our tutor Sherry Ashworth was inspiring with lots of tips to help soften the blow and provide constructive feedback.

On Wednesday there were lots of emails to reply to before I interviewed Jane Costello (http://www.janecostello.com/) for my Book Club pages on the Trinity Mirror Regionals website http://www.southportvisiter.co.uk/

Jane's first novel, Bridesmaids, has just been published and is an uplifting chick-lit romp.

I used to work with Jane at The Liverpool Echo and it was great to catch up with some news. I couldn't believe her son is now three and she has a new baby due in August. How time flies.

After writing that up I went to Southport to interview the owners of a beautiful 1930s house for my Property column which appears in the Daily Post every Saturday.

I returned home to write next week's Family Matters column, my expose on family life chez Gallagher. I have written for local, regional and national publications for the last 20 years but I get more feedback from this column than anything I have ever written.

Today I was in Warrington with my PR hat on. As the PR advisor at the women's enterprise agency, Train 2000 (http://www.train2000.org.uk/), I present a workshop helping women raise their media profile. It is always fascinating to meet new women at a very exciting point in their lives. Attending my workshop today was Deb, a painter and decorator (07791 044478), Julie, the marketing consultant for the UK's first Lamaze Childbirth Weekend (http://www.glofamily.com/), Catherine Higginson of http://www.fingertipsinteriors.co.uk/ who has set up a home furnishing company, Carrie, who runs a community website, www.aboutmyarea.co.uk/CH64 and Sandra, a retired midwife who is trained in Baby Yoga and Massage. It was a real mixed bag as usual but fascinating and it was lovely to see them leave with lots of ideas.

Tomorrow I am back in prison, serving my sentence as Writer In Residence. And with this job anything can happen!

As the editor of a Book Club which runs across four Trinity Mirror regional titles I get the privilege of  interviewing an author every other week.
When I met the acclaimed  children's novelist Joseph Delaney, author of The Wardstone Chronicle series recently, I asked if he had ever thought of  talking about his work to prisoners.

To see the full interview visit http://bookclub.visiterblogs.co.uk/2008/03/joseph_delaney.html

To my great surprise he agreed to be our Visiting Artist for April and today was the big day.

I collected Joe from the nearest station and took him to the prison where he was greeted by the 12 eager writers who just happened to be serving prison sentences.

For nearly three hours Joseph, a former English teacher, had the group spellbound and visiting staff members were reluctant to leave including the officer assigned to the event who signed up for the library there and then ordering all of Joseph's books.

It was a truly inspiring day especially when Joseph revealed that he started writing in his early 20s but didn't achieve publishing success until he was 58!

Why read fiction? That was the central question at the heart of a fascinating day at the newly refurbished Bluecoat last weekend where writers Kate Mosse, Philippa Gregory, Lionel Shriver, Clare Allen and Bel Mooney were joined by Shami Chakrabarti to talk about the Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction.

As well as the opportunity to meet some established writers it was an opportunity to listen about how lives had been touched by literature.
Shami Chakbrabarti, the familiar public face of Liberty revealed a much warmer, friendlier and human side at the event.
As one of the judges of this year's Orange Prize she revealed what a privilege it had been to read new writers. It reminded her of the importance of fiction and confessed that her childhood reading of To Kill A Mockingbird was one of the motivations for becoming a human rights campaigner.
Bel Mooney told of how a regular drive through London took her past a row of houses where Eastern European workers queued on a daily basis to find work. After reading Rose Tremain's new book, The Road Home, about Lev seeking work in Britain she will look at these men in a different light.
At a recent session of my MA writing course at MMU writer Sherry Ainsworth said good writing wasn't about imagination but empathy.
And before I started working as a prison writer in residence I was made aware of a project in the States called Changing Lives Through Literature where petty criminals were given the choice between a three month custodial sentence or an intensive three-month reading course of carefully selected texts test attitudes to violence, racial tensions and other pertinent issues.The results are staggering. The reoffending rates of participants on this programme is 20% compared with 45% of those who seek custodial sentences. So can literature change lives? In a nutshell, yes it can and it does!

Another busy day. After World War 3456 or so it seemed getting my four
kids and husband out of the house by 8.30am I caught the train to
Liverpool where I was staging a PR Workshop for Train 2000.
Train 2000 is a wonderful organisation which provides free business
advice and support for women who want to go it alone. In business that
it.
My role is to raise the profile of the company and pass on PR skills to
fledgeling businesses who need coverage but can't afford a professional
PR service.
I love these seminars. The staff are so warm and friendly and the
office views take in the Three Graces. Before anybody arrived I sat
drinking a coffee watching the clouds float by the Liver Birds. It was
magical.
Today's new businesswomen were three ladies who are setting up a
property rental company, a young graduate who runs a successful milk
bar in the city and is about to open a second, a gardening contractor
and a wine bar owner.
All of these ladies had wonderfully inspiring tales to tell.
By the end of the session i had passed on my tips and got some lovely
feedback. After a quick chat with the director Maggie I caught the
train home and picked up the children.
After supplying food and lifts to  various activities I came back to
the computer and finished a property article for the Liverpool Daily
Post and my weekly Book Club column whch appears in four weekly
newspapers, The Southport Visiter, The Formby Times, The Crosby Herald
and The Ormksirk Advertiser.
Tonight I will finish my Family Matters column which also appears in
those titles before preparing for tomorrow, a day teaching creative
writing in prison.

This morning I did not exist. At least not in cyberspace. Yet just 30 minutes after my postman arrived with a parcel from Mr Site I am reborn.

I now have my very own website. And with it this blog.

I am so excited I have forgotten to pick the children up from school but I will be back soon to have some fun.