For the last nine years I've worked from home as an editor and proofreader with my own business. I've also been writing, publishing my first novel in 2022 and working on my second. What some of you may not know is that before this, I was a professional fundraiser and worked in the NFP sector…
The Importance of Connection
Connection isn't just a buzz word. I've realised lately that I need more of it, and not the online kind. So I've been thinking about how I can connect with people in a meaningful and enriching way - starting with my existing friendships. For me, this means actually being in the presence of a friend,…
Taking the Romance out of Love
Valentine's Day would lead us to believe that romantic love is the only love that's worth celebrating. And every day of the year, societal 'norms' dictate that we're only living a half-life until we've paired up - preferably in the heteronormative sense. I'm single, and queer. I have my own home, my own business, and…
Happy Pride
It’s the first day of Pride Month here in New Zealand. It’s a month when we celebrate our LGBTQ+ community; a month dedicated to the uplifting of LGBTQ+ voices, celebration of LGBTQ+ culture and the support of LGBTQ+ rights. In the past I have stood on the side lines of the festival: cheering at the…
Mama
My mother died on Christmas Eve last year. I'm heading down to Nelson soon to be with my dad on the first anniversary of her death. I may not write about it. I'm not sure how I'll feel. But here's a piece I wrote while she was dying, in late November or early December 2021.…
Fully Alive
“Do not ask for what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and do it. For what the world needs is people who are fully alive.”-Howard Thurman 'But you're not thinking like an entrepreneur!' This was a (well-intentioned) observation made to a friend of mine recently. He had shared with a group of…
Much Ado About … what, exactly?
The issue of arts funding and who gets what is not a new debate in Aotearoa New Zealand. Creative New Zealand (CNZ) has regularly come under fire from writers and artists, with literary doyenne Paula Morris even winning a bias complaint against it earlier this year, after it turned down her application on behalf of…
Funeral
I wrote this meditation on grief after attending my ex-partner's mother's funeral on Friday. I’m standing in the carpark of a supermarket in Royal Oak, Auckland, yelling at an old man in a car. “Stop it. Just STOP IT! ASSHOLE! Leave him alone. Calm down! What the FUCK is wrong with you, JESUS CHRIST!” I’m…
Beauty and bullets: My Ireland
The road leading to one of my father's churches. Ireland 1972 Next to the fresh grave of my beloved grandmotherThe grave of my firstlove murdered by my brotherPaul Durcan Today the world celebrates St Patrick's Day. Covid restrictions permitted, people around the world with precisely no Irish heritage, or a sliver of it, or a…
Women are not a special interest group
I'm thinking about International Women's Day (yesterday for us here in NZ). It's a day I both celebrate and lament. Because women are not a special interest group. We are more than half of the world's population. And the fact that we still have to have a "day", once a year, saddens me. The joy…
Patricia Bell, Author 