Thank you for reading!

Dear amazing reader of mywordpie,

I would just like to thank you so much for reading my Pregnancy Diary blog series. From the bottom of my heart. What started out as a collection of iPhone notes scribbled at 2am every morning from my hospital bed turned out to be an all-encompassing project that had me going through the emotions of having baby Gus all over again.

I cried a lot as I wrote this. I realised how much I had forgotten! And how differently I feel as a mother six months on. It was so tricky trying to write from my ‘December me’ perspective. Some of it was really difficult to convey without being too sentimental or just over-sharing! Some of the posts made me feel incredible vulnerable and exposed.

I wanted to tell my story just because I had to get it out of me I guess. What I didn’t expect was for people to enjoy reading it. I mean, it wasn’t like I was the first woman to ever have a baby!! And my birth story is very tame in comparison to some of the trauma that other women have had to go through. I would like you to know that every like, every message, every comment, every share was the most incredible encouragement to me.

In some respects it was a massive task. I would wake up every morning knowing that I had to do the next installment: remember it, relive it and then write it without too many typos (all this while the baby sleeps for his two hour mid-day nap). But once it was done it was wonderfully releasing. In the background I was trying out different styles of story-telling, practising my narrative method, working on my imagery…I thoroughly enjoyed the challenge of telling this story.

Not only have you encouraged me to keep writing, but thanks to this experience I’ve decided to apply for a Masters in Creative Writing at Rhodes University, my alma mater in Grahamstown, South Africa. It’s a part time course, run by my favourite and most brilliant narrative journalism lecturer, Robert Berold. It starts in 2014 and runs for two years. I’ve never felt more ready for something like this in my life! There is so much still to learn, so many things about my writing that need to be refined and honed.

I don’t know how I’m going to juggle work, baby and a Masters just yet but I fully expect to have a dirty house all the time at times. But first, I need to submit a portfolio and get accepted haha so let me stop counting my chickens!

In the meantime, I’ve been working on some new blog posts and blog series such as Conversations with Gus and Salad Stories…stay tuned! I will also be putting Pregnancy Diaries into an ebook and self publishing it – I feel like the posts could all do with a good edit and rewrite, so the ebook is a good opportunity to bring it all together. I also need to think of a better title!

So, finally, thank you for going on this journey with me and for tolerating my typos.

Here is a piece of pie for you as a sign of my gratitude.