Another Blog!

So I have a fairly popular blog, An English Homestead, that ‘ve been running now for about 13 years. I’ve had millions of views, tens of thousands of comments, and have posted nearly 2000 times on there. It’s been brilliant and in no way will that be stopping. I’ve even built my business around.

That business has many strings to it’s bow, if I’m totally honest none of them earn me a great deal, but I just about make a living, and it works well around the children and our smallholding.

It has enabled me to do more of what I love. I love working with wood (lucky as a carpenter of 20 plus years), I love talking to people (I give talks to garden clubs) and I love writing.

In fact, writing is one of my main passions. Writing and stories. Any of my friends will tell you I’m terrible for loving a good story.

The picture above is where I spend a fair amount of my time when I’m working, I spend it stood (stooped maybe at times) at a bench making the items I sell. But the whole time I’m there I’m listening to stories, or I’m learning about writing, or studying what people have written (in spoken word) to make my own writing better. I come away buzzing with ideas and things I can write about.

I also use this space to write articles for two of the magazines that I currently write for, Woodcarving magazine and Woodworking Crafts, which I write for each issue. I have written for other magazines as well, including Country Smallholding Magazine, Woodturning, Furniture & Cabinet Maker, Home Farmer, and I also write for a small magazine called The Harrowing Times. I’ve had over 125 articles published so far and really enjoy being able to do this.

So this blog is me pushing my writing further. I want somewhere I can post some creative writing, either fiction or non fiction. Where hopefully I can build up people for a Newsletter who enjoy my writing and I hope it can help me develop as a writer.

I also want somewhere I can keep a record of the books I read, the idea being I’ll give a very short review and a few points to myself about what I learnt from each book as a writer. Last year I set myself a target of reading or listening to 52 books. A modest target of a book a week, and I achieved 60. I aim to do the same again this year.