This is a post for writers. It is about our attempts to build an author platform and the challenge to stay small. Or at least, that's what I thought it was going to be about when I first started...

Attempt #7:
​I've written this post six times already, and each time I've sighed, deleted and stared again at the blank page. It would be easy to blame it on writer's block. But I don't think that's it. It's more like a stubborn inability to get into words what has been buzzing around in my brain.
If you've been following my journey this year, you'll know it has involved a lot of slowing down. Just before the middle of the year, I took a break from social media and the impact of that decision continues to reverberate through my writing life. It's as if I've been having a staring competition with my author platform and my platform isn't winning...

Do you recognise the plant in my hand? It's the iconic New Zealand silver fern. The top side of the leaves are green, but the underside are this white/silver colour that reflect the light when they fall to the ground!
I was in New Zealand recently to attend the Australasian Children's Literature Association of Research (ACLAR) conference. The conference was held at Waikato University and included presenters from all around the globe, including Norway, Poland, the USA, Samoa and more. It was very exciting (and somewhat daunting) to be rubbing shoulders with a conference full of experienced children's literature scholars! Especially as I had been invited to present a paper from my PhD research! 

So... here's an honest post. 
Last month I decided to take a 'break' from social media. (You can read more about why I did that here.) That word 'break' is kind of ambiguous though, isn't it? I remember way back in high school when the boy I loved suggested we take a 'break' from our teenage romance. I quickly realised 'break' meant 'break up'. So, what about me and Meta? Are we over? Or are we just readjusting the boundaries of our relationship? 
Silliness aside, it's been a little confronting to go cold turkey on my relationship with the socials. It's unearthed all sorts of questions. And it's only been one month! 

​I'm a writer. I like to read books about writing. It helps my practice, inspires me to reflect and, when I'm finding the writing hard going, reminds me why I love putting words on the page. 
It might seem odd that writers may need such reminders, but apparently they do, because books about writing and for writers are plentiful! 
The House That Joy Built, Write For life and The Fearless Writer are three books about writing (and creativity) that I've read recently. I enjoyed them all, but I was left weighing them up at the end.

​If you read my last blog post, you might be thinking that my author life has been very busy and productive lately, and I guess this is partly true. But behind the scenes of these exciting opportunities another version of the story is in progress. A much slower one. One that has me grappling with the gift and struggle of how to ‘be still’ (Psalm 46:10). ​