It looks like I’ve beaten my writer’s block with the post I wrote about it.

This week I’ve written two new Squidoo lenses (web pages). The first one was in response to a suggestion on Get Cracking With Bonnie and Robin to write about a specific fear so I wrote about my dental phobia. As I explain, it started when I was a child in response to something a dentist said to me and it continued for many years. It was desperation that finally led me to conquering it with the help of a very understanding, patient and sensitive dentist. You can read more about it on Fear of the Dentist.

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I guess many of us have periods when we really can’t start writing. I know I do. In fact, I’m going through that kind of period right now. I want to write on Squidoo, here on my blog and other places but can I think of anything to write about? No, I can’t.

At least recognising writer’s block finally gives me something to write about!

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Books for Research

Research of some kind is usually essential for all writers. I know that is a sweeping statement but, in my experience, it’s true.

No matter how well I know a subject, there are almost always facts that I need to check to ensure I’ve remembered them accurately. If a reader notices just one wrong fact then the rest of what you’ve written loses credibility.

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While this book might not be ‘The Great American Novel’, I think it is a great and enjoyable work of fiction.

Called “…And the Ladies of the Club”, the story revolves around the members of the Waynesboro Women’s Club and their families and friends covering a period from 1868 to 1932.

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Susanna Duffy, Squid Angel

I’ve known Australian Susanna Duffy online for several years and she has always made great web pages. It’s a talent she’s transferred to Squidoo and now makes great lenses too.

She was made a Squid Angel a few months ago and she has carried out her Angel duties assiduously – I wouldn’t expect anything else from her.

How does she find time for all her many activities and enterprises? I have no idea except I suspect she works long hours and doesn’t waste too long sleeping.

Read more about her in this interview.

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Rocket Moms on Squidoo

I must be crazy joining the Squidoo group, Rocket Moms, right now when I’m so busy. It involves writing a new lens every week on some aspect of a certain subject, which is posted on Mondays. This week it was A Favourite Toy so I chose Meccano.

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I’m feeling guilty because I haven’t updated my blog for nine days. I try to do it once or twice a week.  About a week ago I decided to go for membership of Squidoo’s Giant 100 Club, next deadline for which is June 30th. That means I have to have at least 100 good quality lenses. Then I had just 77, leaving me at least 23 left to do and it’s a good idea to have a few more.

Since I made Giant with fifty lenses at the beginning of last October, I needed a break and was fresh out of ideas for new subjects for lenses. The incentive was one of my Squidoo friends, Willow, was one of the Angels who had started one of the teams for aspiring Giants or Giant 100s. It is a competition between teams so I joined hers – Willow’s Wonder Squids. Now I have a responsibility to the team to reach the 100 lens target.

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I’ve always liked poetry, even as a child. That’s why I decided to make a lens called Classic Funny Poems for Kids. I included poems like The Jumblies, Matilda Told Such Dreadful Lies and A Naughty Little Comet.

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Wilkie Collins English Novelist Giclee Print
Buy at AllPosters.com

I am somewhat reassured after writing to Seth Godin and getting a reply from him and seeing his and Megan Casey’s posts in the Squidoo forum saying that they are looking into the worst abuses of the system and are definitely cracking down on plagiarism.

Squidoo is a great resource for writers who don’t want to run their own website or find that it is very difficult to get an audience for a small independent site. I really want it to succeed and to maintain the high standards of the best lenses and their writers.

To prove my commitment, I’ve published my latest lens. It’s not going to be a blockbuster because it’s about 19th century writer Wilkie Collins, most famous for The Moonstone and The Woman in White. Some people credit him with being the inventor of the detective novel but that accolade probably belongs to Edgar Allen Poe who wrote the Mystery of the Rue Morgue almost 30 years earlier.

I wish my interests were more popular or that I could get interested in popular topics. Oh well! I’ll just continue writing about things that interest me and hope a few other people like them too.

The Quilt Museum and Gallery opened on 7th June, 2008, in the medieval St Anthony’s Hall, adding another unique attraction to York’s list of museums and collections.

The Quilt Museum is now the headquarters of The Quilters’ Guild of the British Isles and its world-famous Heritage Collection of 600 quilts which includes the earliest known signed and dated patchwork, from 1718. There is also quilted clothing, tools and equipment on display.

Additionally, special exhibitions of textiles from home and abroad will be shown in the museum.

When it opened, Janice Gunner, former President of The Quilters Guild, said: “We are all thrilled that the move into our new headquarters is about to become a reality, and with it the opportunity to share with the wider world the traditions and aspirations of this wonderful craft. St Anthony’s is a fabulous location, rich in history: a wholly fitting home for our own Collection, and a focus for the exciting and innovative work going on within contemporary quiltmaking today.”

The first exhibition of 2009 at the Museum started on January 20th and continues through to April 18th. It celebrates the use of cloth through the Quilter’s Guild Heritage collection in ‘Warp, Weft and the Printer’s Block’, and through the work of contemporary textile artist Cefyn Burgess in a Ruthin Crafts Centre Touring Exhibition entitled ‘Migration’.

Find out more about the historic city of York.