I was first introduced to the idea of a blog while attending an Essex Book Festival event a few years ago, where the panel included a writer, an agent and literary gurus including Danuta Kean. The next day, I visited her blog, a wealth of opinion, confidence and self belief and I told myself, “I can’t write like that.”

Years passed, my writing improved and friends around me began their own blogs but I continued to ignore this new writing medium, but why?

My childhood years were happy ones but the adage ‘children should be seen but not heard’ was very much to the fore. My opinions, ideas and beliefs were met with ‘shushes’ and the phrase that still haunts me now, ‘Don’t be stupid.’

So, I withdrew into my own world, believing my ideas to be stupid, my opinions irrelevent and my beliefs, worth nothing. I wrote poems and stories in secret, living my life in a world of fantasy.

In my adult years, an empty relationship followed a violent one. My only respite was writing stories.

Finally, I found myself through dance, the love of a wonderful man and the support of my children.

I still find it a challenge to put my ideas and thoughts on a blog for others to read and maybe criticise. It still seems a little self indulgent but I like the thought that something I might say could strike a chord with you and, in that moment, we can empathise and share, even though we may be half  a world apart.

So, all you wobbly bloggers, join me in making the world a much smaller place, bringing people together and sharing our love of words.