Slow Writing, Slower Conveyancing, Steady Weight Loss and Soaring Nightingales
Bomvu Quarterly - Summer 2025
Photo by Caspar Rae
Writing Quarter
“My first instinct, on learning that a book has been banned, is to seek it out and read it”
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Writing has been going a little slow. I say, “slow” but the pace is probably ideal for meeting my self-imposed deadline of completing the first draft of book 2 by April 2026. It just feels like I could be telling the story faster. Perhaps part of the reason is that I am feeling a little fatigued with the ‘day job;’ hopefully soon I’ll get to take a little rest from research to pick up the pace. Editing of book 1 is going in a similarly tortoise-like manner (rather than hare-like). Even so, I’m somewhat happy with the progress of both books at this stage. I’m still deciding whether to release book 1 in October 2026 or October 2027. This will depend on my ability to get early YA readers to give feedback in the first quarter of 2026.
Life Quarter
“To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken.”
CS Lewis
In addition to slow-ish writing, the process of buying my first flat is equally sluggish. However, unlike with the writing, I have virtually no control over that process. I’m starting to relax about it; this season is spent looking for furniture, preparing to find a lodger for the spare room and developing self-confidence.
Health Quarter
“Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from indomitable will.”
Mahatma Gandhi
Since the very high point of the Covid-19 pandemic, I’ve focused a great deal of my time on getting as healthy as I can. After some chronic illness, I realised that my weight was one of the root causes of my wellbeing issues. At my heaviest, I weighed 93 kilograms (or 205 lbs / 14.6 stone). Given my little-person height, it put me in Obese Class II, bordering on Obese Class III; this was very serious. However, with three years of steady dieting and very long walks, I am, as of this morning, 68.3 kilograms (or 150.6 lbs / 10.8 stone). My goal is to weigh an absolute maximum of 63 kilograms ( or 138.9 lbs / 9.9 stone). Hopefully by the end of 2025, I will have reached my ideal weight in a safe and sustainable way.
Inspiration Quarter
“Hither, hither, dear / By the breath of life / Hither, hither, dear!— / Be the summer’s wife!”
John Keats
It’s been a solid reading quarter. In the last month alone I’ve read The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis, The Merchant of Venice by the Bard, The Strangers in the House by Simenon, and the Innocent Libertine by Colette. I’m currently reading and enjoying the Collected Poems of Keats. They are all strongly recommended. Film-wise, I can also recommend 28 Years Later (notwithstanding the poor ending), F1 (despite the clumsy dialogue), Flow and, most of all, The Ballad of Wallis Island which, along with Sinners and The Brutalist, are the best film I’ve seen all year.