PASTURES NEW

A NEW AND EXCITING ERA

I’ve just read through my last post ‘THE FINAL CHAPTER’ written in January, to remind myself of how I was feeling back then. It was very hard to relive the last moments of Leaf’s life but I needed to.

In the Comments, a follower, Susan Edwards – Hi Susan – asked if I would continue DOODAH to let readers know how I’m doing post-Leaf. I think PASTURES NEW will answer her question but not quite in the way she might have envisaged.

My beloved soul-mate is rescuing me from a horrid grieving experience! Of course, I have moments of utter desolation but, with time, they’re lessening. I’m very aware that I ‘lost’ him some years ago, so my solo life has changed little. However, my creative output has now gone from painting back to writing.

I have a massive project – Leaf left me a legacy of humorous writings which I have refused to consign to nothingness. All his hard work deserves to be shared as widely as possible.

WAYS WITH WORDS has been taking shape over the last three months. It’s been a slog wading through the endless, muddled drafts. In the early days of his AD, Leaf was trying to get them into shape but, sadly, he succeeded in confusing them utterly, changing chapter titles, page numbers and text. Finally I decided to take each subject one at a time and not worry about putting them in order; the unseen hand of Posterity has taken charge! The pages have been coming to hand in just the right order begging to be brought to life.

I’ve been organising, editing and adding appropriate content of my own. A couple of weeks ago, I summoned the courage to publish online. I’ve opted for a SUBSTACK MAGAZINE, a relatively new and versatile platform that lends itself well to what Leaf was hoping to achieve, even though he saw his material emerging as a book. I know from experience what a disheartening business trying to get published can be so, “No thank you. I’m now at the helm!” when it comes to going public.

I’ll be posting articles every week and have enough material of Leaf’s with an abundance of my own ideas to keep us going for a couple of years during which, who knows, our online publication could develop in unexpected directions. I’m planning to add a Chat facility. Anything is possible.

Here is the link to the WAYS WITH WORDS (WWW) site with five full articles and two teasers. I recommend you read the AUTHORS one first followed by WELCOME…. After them, the order is up to you. The two teasers are included on the top page (new articles are published above older ones). I plan to release the first of the teasers in full in a week’s time and will continue from there regularly adding new articles and teasers. They will be short, mostly, and I hope to be able to say how long on average they will take to read, so you know what you’re in for! On the site itself, there will be the usual ARCHIVE section so you can refer to that whenever you wish.

You will see a Heading NOTES. This is for short messages from us – quotes, links, ideas, pics, cartoons, jokes etc. along with answers to Challenges when appropriate. Do check these regularly for the fullest experience!

Wordplay is certainly not everyone’s cup of tea, but there are hundreds of folk who love to play around with language, puzzles and brain-benders. We hope you might be one of them or, at least, be prepared to dip your toes into ‘wordery’ for the fun of it. As with DOODAH, you’ll receive the weekly email with the latest article that you can read there and then. In the future, the emails will originate from my Substack page. If you would like to be taken off my mailing list, no problem just let me know.

There is room for COMMENTS which all writers really appreciate – as you can imagine, a lot of work goes into creating posts and it’s hugely encouraging to get feedback, even if it’s under a pseudonym and just one or a few words. And, if you’d like to send solutions to challenges then do feel free to email them!

So, here’s hoping you’ll become a devotee, take part when challenged and give life-blood to my dear husband’s final writings.

I haven’t felt a tap on my shoulder yet so I’m assuming he approves!

If you arrive at the WELCOME page when you click on the link, click on No Thanks to get to the HOME PAGE. It simply means you want to go forward but not subscribe at this stage – unless you do want to of course! And please share with any friends you think will enjoy WWW. Thank you.