Jonathon Larson’s “Tick Tick Boom” has left me wondering — I assumed the throbbing pain and loud clicking in my shoulder was a simple injury from a fall, but the physio suspects some underlying condition and insists I head straight to the emergency department. First though, I head home. I let my husband know, grab a notebook, reassure the kids…

3 creative side-gigs for you to try too — I’ve been a working writer for over 12 years and the 70/20/10 rule is one I’ve always applied to my time. The 10 part is the most fun. Here’s how it works — I spend the majority of my writing time on work that pays, around 20% on testing out…

Let’s chat — I’ve been a working writer for over 15 years, predominantly for print and online magazines. Personal essays are now my main niche. If we haven’t met yet, here’s my full “About Me”. Maybe we have something in common? A love of ten-pin bowling, perhaps!

It’s not just women who need to check their breasts — I’d heard mammograms were painful, so when I found a breast lump a few months ago I got nervous. I’d also heard—actually, I distinctly remember my mother acting out a mammogram horror story — having your breasts squished between the plates was even worse if your breasts are small, which…

But not in the way you might think — Expectations are a touchy subject. When Marry Him: The Case for Settling for Mr. Good Enough came out a few years ago, it caused outrage. Lori Gottlieb, the author, was telling us to lower expectations and settle for the first fool who came along. How dare she! She didn’t dare…

Make sure you have the facts before you go to your doctor — In my family, we say “Happy 38th birthday!” every year, but I’m actually 44. My body seems to think it’s older. I had a doctor’s appointment a few months ago and was surprised by the diagnosis. “You’re postmenopausal,” the doctor stated, after rushing through my symptoms. I blinked, mouth open…

Avoid the content mills and cold emailing — You can spend days of your life scrolling content mills and taking $5 jobs (eek) or… Try your hand at responding to writing jobs and editor’s calls for stories. Pitching editors is an excellent skill to learn, but cold pitching is hard. And finding pitch calls in the Twitter and…

The real reason you’re feeling unmotivated and unconfident — Lori Gottlieb stirred up more than a little controversy when she subtitled her book “The Case for Settling for Mr Good Enough.” Relationships are one thing, but settling in your writing can stir controversy, too. Inner controversy mostly. (If you’ve ever found yourself searching for the elusive ‘Perfection in your…

“Paying someone to test your spit is a waste of money” — I entered perimenopause a couple of years ago and, as a health writer for magazines, I’ve had the chance to interview some amazing experts. I had questions (I knew my readers did too!) and it’s not always easy to get answers. Recently, I spoke to Dr Linda Dear, a GP…