Well quite a lot has happened since I last blogged:

Harry left school for ever and had his leavers’ ball; I had flash fictions published in FlashBack Fiction and Reflex; I went to the Flash Festival in Bristol for a weekend and had the best time meeting my all-time flash heroes and friends; I signed a publishing contract with Retreat West Books who are going to publish my memoir-in-flash The Naming of Bones in 2021, and I became a grandma for the first time!

Here are links to the published flashes and announcements in case you fancy a read:

https://flashbackfiction.com/index.php/2019/07/01/the-arnolfini-funeral/

https://www.reflexfiction.com/unpunctuated-osmium-flash-fiction-by-jan-kaneen/

https://retreatwestbooks.com/2019/06/26/jan-kaneen-signed-for-innovative-flash-memoir/

I feel June 2019 was a bit of a turning point for me. I started this blog page to chart my journey as a fledgling writer as I practised and submitted and moved forward, learning to learn from rejections, other writers and to develop the craft that is creative writing. My journey has had its ups and downs, and its not always been easy, sometimes the words have flowed, sometimes they’ve got stuck, sometimes I’ve written stories about things that wanted to be written rather than things I was aiming to write. Every now and again I nailed what I was trying to do after loads of advice and editing, once or twice I nailed it, just like that.

Two things I’m most grateful for four years into my writing journey, is a) that I’ve leaned so much about myself which has helped to heal old wounds, and b) I’ve met people who I now count as real and true friends.

I don’t know where life and writing will take me next but I’m so, so glad I started to do this at the ripe old age of 49. It has been life-changing, life-affirming and life-enhancing.

I hope my brand new grandson will be proud of me. Having a published author for a Granny.