Today feels most spring-like. It is sunny, the sky is blue. A fact that has become noticeable in its rarity.

The last few weeks have dragged and felt lifeless. The constant grey skies only exacerbating the drawn-out death throes of a season nearing its end. Winter is beautiful, but I for one am so very over it.

I’ve been trying to do things to lift myself; watching films I love, writing music reviews for Freq, going to lectures, engaging with friends. But it’s been a hard slog.

I’ve not yet finished a novel I’m slowly losing heart with, but I have still managed to be inspired by some of the creative joy I’ve been exposed to over the past week. Firstly, last Wednesday I went along to a free event at the LSE to hear diverse women speakers (artist Molly Crabapple, writer Kate Mosse, encumbent artistic director at the Royal Court Theatre Vicky Featherstone, Professor Mary Evans…) talk about Women Writing History, and debating and delving into the manifestations of gendered roles across society in the realms of art. It was inspiring and insightful, and you can listen to a podcast of it here.

Then I watched, on Friday, the Ted talk given by the musician Amanda Palmer. I backed her million dollar kickstarter project and I’m a big follower of her music, but she is inspiring in other ways, not least for her ability to hone in on the power of connectedness and I for one am intrigued as to where we are all going as creators. The talk is so very worth watching.

I’ve also been avidly watching the development of (Amanda Palmer’s husband), Neil Gaiman’s Calendar of Tales project. The model is so like things I have done myself, asking for prompts and writing stories, but this project takes it to another level, by working with the idea that the technology in our hands allows us to interact directly with the audience, to become a community of makers and sharers, rather than producers and consumers.

This work is exciting to me. I will shortly be making the prompted stories I wrote back in October available as a downloadable pdf where any of you can help yourselves and I will continue to put work up here. There is a long short story I’ve been trying to work out where to put, I think it probably belongs on here.

All love.