COMMUNITY CONNECTIONS
My prized possession of January 2022 is to finally be able to hold a copy of WM, smell the pages and realise how much I’ve missed travelling the last two years! I write all the way across from Mumbai, India and can’t stop going through the three copies I ordered through a friend and the journey these (September, November & December 2021) magazines have made via the various restrictions, lockdowns and uncertainties. (The British Library in New Delhi would have had these copies but I’ve not been able to make it there either). I can’t agree more with Helen Gaen’s letter in the December edition. How I’ve longed for the human connections these two years and something so small like having my own physical copy of WM - it’s as though all the people in it have made it across safely. It’s incredible how through the pages I feel the warmth, the connectivity and so much more. Just to be able to hold WM in my hands till I can hop across and pick them up at a till in UK.
I’m grateful to the entire team at WM and to every human that has to do with these copies that sit on my desk as I write this. Hello to every single life that is now connected to mine. You have no idea but you’ve all made my day(s). I feel so alive and charged, all over again.
Thank you!
DEEPTI RAO Mumbai, India
Where would I be without Writing Magazine?
I shall tell you. Sat behind my laptop screen, feeling very lonely and overwhelmed in my chosen career as a freelance writer.
I’d be pondering on the fact whether I am the only one who has this many rejection letters? I’d be questioning should my writing day be a little more structured? Where would I look for inspiration and ideas?
Not to mention the subtle reminder that I receive through the post once a month when Writing Magazine lands on my door mat, that I should get off social media and continue with my unfinished projects. I can almost hear it saying, ‘shouldn’t you be writing?’ when staring at me from the coffee table.
Writing Magazine feels like a person rather than a publication I can turn to for advice and motivation that I crave in my own little writing world.
SHARON CAREY Runcorn, Cheshire