Oath, Boast, Toast 2026

Welcome to my annual New Year's tradition, the Oath, Boast and Toast. This is where I promise to do something in the year to come, boast about something I have done in the year that passed, and toast someone or something important. Let me know your OB&T below.

Oath, Boast, Toast 2025

 

Raising my drinking horn for the annual Oath, Boast and Toast. Let me know yours: what are you going to do this year? What are you proud of having done last year? Who, or what, would you like to raise a toast to?

Oath, Boast, Toast 2024

For the past couple of years, my annual Oath, Boast and Toast has moved over to YouTube. Let me know if you've made any resolutions in the comments below.

 

Oath, Boast, Toast 2022

 

Hi guys, please don't be too annoyed with me, but as I've neglected my blog in favour of YouTube this year, I decided to do my oath, boast and toast on YouTube as well. I'm not proud of myself. I hope to find a better written/recorded balance in the New Year.

In brief:

Oath

I'm making two:

1. To complete a creative project this year (either the audiobook of Children of Lir or my Sargon manuscript).

2. To go visit friends in Europe - a long overdue ambition.

*drink*

Boast

I learned to ride a moped! So damn proud of that.

*drink*

Toast

To my friends Harris and Rob who are coming to visit in the New Year!

*drink*

Oath, Boast, Toast 2021

 

Well, it's that time of year again. Seems to come around quicker each time. 

That was a long slog, right?

For those new to the blog, each New Year I do a very Pagan oath, boast and toast. That's where I make a promise (or a resolution), boast about something I'm proud of, and toast the health of something or someone. 

This time last year I made the oath that I would enter one writing competition every month. Didn't do great at keeping that one. I made it up to September. I entered 11 competitions total, one poetry, one essay, the rest short stories. I spent a total of £40.25 on entry and made back £50 in prize money, so not at all profitable, but it kept me on my toes. I won that on the Bet Tuppi Near Eastern Historical Fiction Prize and publication through a Bridge House Publishing competition. I was also longlisted for another, but didn't make the shortlist. I enter for the entertainment value, and any unpublished stories can go into a collection at a later date. 

It's been a distraction from my Akkad novel, which I did complete, but which I'm struggling to edit. It's the longest novel I've ever written at over 160,000 words at the moment. I hope, by this time next year, it will be fully polished and perhaps even out there.

Main highlights and horrors of the past twelve months:

• In the past couple of weeks, I lost my friend Emmy. Who was a huge part of my life in Rwanda and I will feel his absence for years to come. He was such a genuinely lovely guy who went out of his way to help his friends and make other people's lives easier. Really going to miss him.
  
  
• I completed two semesters as head of Writing and Communication at the University of Global Health Equity, teaching academic English and creative writing. I designed and delivered both curriculums, adapting the courses for online learning during COVID. It was a privilege to be involved and very interesting. 
  
  
• I turned 40 in February. Had a lovely celebration and spa day with my close friends. My mum had been working with them covertly to arrange everything. I feel pretty good about being 40. Doesn't feel noticeably different to 39.
  
  
• Had a lovely start to last year at Lake Muhazi with my friend Maia. Went for a boat ride and a walk, lit a bonfire and ate cake. 
  
  
• Nyarigongo volcano erupted, causing several gays of strong tremors. 
  
  
• I learned to make soap and found some very creepy caterpillar webs in my mango tree.
  
  
• Took the plunge on YouTube. Being in front of a camera isn't that comfortable for a writer, but I think I've got the bug. Bought an Insta360 One x2 and plan on making some travel videos around Rwanda when I return. Got a laptop that can keep up with DaVinci and even 4k, though maybe not an internet connection that can do the same. 
  
  
• And, finally, made it back to the UK to spend Christmas and New Year with family. Went to the Lake District with dad and ate myself into a coma with mum. Got everyone doing ancestry DNA testing and discovered... well, I'll reveal that in a YouTube video soon. 

So, without further ado:

Oath

This year, I am going to pursue creative projects that I enjoy. I am going to turn down things that don't make my soul sing. 

(Easier said than done sometimes, all creatives know what I mean).

*drink*

Boast

I won the inaugural Bet Tuppi Near Eastern Historical Fiction Prize.

*drink*

Toast

To Emmy. My dear friend. Thank you for everything. May your next life be full of adventure and joy. 

*drink*

Oath, Boast, Toast 2021

 

First off, is everyone alive? Everyone doing okay out there?

What the hell was that?

I'm sorry everyone, I think that might have been my fault. I jinxed it by raising a toast to 'a better year than the one before.' I apologise to everyone. Back then, I thought splitting up with my fella was bad (okay, that and the month-long bout of malaria, the kidney infection, and losing my cat).

I had no idea. 

I was planning to jet off round the world and get drunk with friends. 

How was I to know we'd all be stuck at home getting drunk with Netflix?

How were any of us supposed to know? (Shush Bill Gates, any of us except you).

Just, seriously...

Still, I've been a lot better off than many people.

Last year, I included a few downers in my annual oath, boast and toast. I'd never done that and was at a particularly low point. This year I'm going back to the traditional format of only focusing on the positive. 

What were the highlights?

• Secure the Shadow is out in the world. I'd been writing that for a while, and I was never too sure about it, so it was wonderful to finally let go of it and to see it get such a positive reception. Even made somebody's 'Best books of 2020' list. You can catch up on the interviews here. I'm now head-first into a new book that I've wanted to write for a while, all about the Akkadian Empire. It was originally only going to focus on Enheduanna, but, to get to her, I've had to write the Legend of Sargon as well. Looks likely this will be two books. So, I'm entering the New Year with a writing project I absolutely love. 
• One of my other works, The Children of Lir, inspired a lovely piece of art by Irish artist Jonathan McFerran.
  
• Also on the writing front, a strange quirk of fate. I lost my job thanks to the disappearance of DFID. Twenty-five percent of my organisation's income disappeared overnight, and my salary was a casualty of those cutbacks. Thanks Borris! However, I ended up being brought on as head of the Writing & Communication course for a prominent university instead. I've spent the past six months designing and then delivering their foundation curriculum, training 36 first-year medical students in English grammar, technical writing and clear communication. As such, I've now been retained for a second semester, where I get to teach full-on creative writing. Try and inspire students to enjoy writing. It's rather a shift in pace from development work to academia, but I'm very much enjoying it. So far, everything's been taught online, but, restrictions allowing, I'll get to see the campus soon. It's really been quite an amazing ride so far.
  
• Randomly, I've taken up boxing. With the pools closed and an ever-expanding waistline, I decided to try to fight the paunch, quite literally. My friend introduced me to her boxing trainer, Mike, and I've discovered I really like punching things. Turns out, I'm not too bad at it, either. I had no idea I'd actually enjoy this sport and wish I'd done it years ago.  
• In the sheer boredom of lockdown, I turned to Duolingo. I'm useless at languages, but I've now got further with French than I ever have before. Part of this was that I wanted to understand my students better. Many of them have been taught English vocabulary but French word order, grammar and sentence construction, so I wanted to understand specifically why they were phrasing things in certain ways. It's also partly in solidarity. They work so hard in English, that I thought I should remind myself how hard it is to learn another language, just to stay humble. I've bought a copy of Les Medicines Redicules: En coulisse avec Moliére by Laura Bazire, which is a story for eleven-year-olds. Maybe by next year I'll be able to read it. I also took a little look at Korean after falling in love with Korean soaps during lockdown. I love their phonetic system, but - one language at a time.

For me, this year actually hasn't been as tough as last year. Certainly not on a personal level. I'm a very happy recluse and can spend days on my own without seeing anyone. I've been lucky enough to keep an income and my family are all well and safe. I'm very much looking forward to seeing them again one day, but I'm able to wait a while longer. Had to do dad's 70th virtually, and probably the same for my 40th, but we'll save it up for a proper reunion. Bit pissed off about Britain voting for Brexit and possibly requiring a visa to visit friends in Europe once we're free to do so.

So, last year I swore to take a holiday to go visit friends. Yeah... can safely assume that one didn't happen. I boasted about the two novels I'd published. And I toasted to a better year ahead. Again - sorry! Won't ever do that again.

This year...

Oath

I'm going to enter one writing competition a month via Almond Press for the next twelve months. Doesn't matter how big or small - just to keep my hand in and force me to write different things.

*drink*

 

Boast

I have a strong left hook! (according to my boxing trainer)

*drink*

 

Toast

To my friend Jean, who underwent a kidney transplant this year, and his girlfriend, Marie, who gave him that kidney. May they continue to be happy and well.

*drink*

Oath, Boast, Toast 2020

Well, I have to admit, I'm really happy to see the back of 2019. There's been some nice experiences, which I'll mention below, but on the whole it's been pretty rough. Marked by a number of health issues and the death of a relationship.

Didn't fulfil my oath last year of going to see Martine and Ruairí in Italy, but they've been moving around a lot since. Maybe this year. I certainly need a holiday.

Highlights:

• My mum and Merrick finally came to visit! We had an amazing time exploring Rwanda together. We went to all five provinces. Highlights included a boat ride on Lake Kivu, safari at Akagera, and exploring the tea fields of Gisenyi.
• The year started out really well, visiting the stunning Gisovu tea estate for my friend Maia's birthday. Watched the mist rise with the sun. Also got to see how tea is made.
• Caught up with my cousin, Conner, who was visiting for work, got to know Maia's partner Ian, who is an excellent guitarist and piano player, went on a road trip with Harris, and saw an old VSO friend, Antonia, who I worked with twelve years ago when I first arrived.
• Went volcano watching and walked across a giant floating bridge.
• Finally got The Children of Lir on the shelf. I'd been working on that for years.

Low Points:

I don't usually include any lows in these annual updates, but it's been a tough one this year.

• Sickness: I had an entire month of malaria in October. It was fairly hellish. It broke at the end of my mum's visit, but the medication didn't fully work, so it spent two weeks festering in my system before it broke a second time. The second round of treatment killed it off, but my immune system doesn't seem to have fully recovered since then and I keep coming down with unpleasant things. It's been a constant conveyor belt of medication. Ended the year with an infection that took a stab at my kidney and left me on antibiotics over New Year, so I couldn't even drink.
• Heartache: Fell in love with a guy I was hoping to spend 2020 exploring the world with, only he flew home on New Year's Eve. It's a complicated story, he had his reasons. Was hoping for the fairytale up to the end, but that's why writers write, right? We get to invent an ending for stories that never get told in real life. 
• Loss: Lost two cats - Gizmo and Akantu. Akantu went out one night and never came home, so I suspect he was hit by a car. Gizmo went to the vet (we had a car crash on the way) and somehow escaped their care. I looked for him for weeks but we never found him and he never came home. He was a real character and I miss him very much. Also helped to nurse a very sick stray cat called Hobnob, who sadly died. So, I've gone from five cats to three this year.

Definitely not the year I'd hoped for during my last OBT, but the year I was dealt. Times like this just make you grateful for the amazing friends you have who pull you through. Heart goes out to anyone else who's had a tough year. Let's reset the clock.

The year 2020 makes me smile because, back in 2007 when I first came to Rwanda, we were all working towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals in line with Rwanda's Vision 2020, so the year 2020 has always been drummed into me as a sort of ending of one strategic plan and a time to set new goals.

I think the year ahead will be a time to focus on my job and perhaps return to the page. There's a novel at the back of my mind and I haven't written for a long time. Should wrap myself up in that. I suspect work is going to be pretty full on for the first couple of months, which is good because it provides focus.

Oath

I will take a holiday this year. I will go somewhere nice, with people I like, and do fun things. 

*drink*

Boast

I published two novels this year - Creeper's Cottage and The Children of Lir, and wrote the first draft of a third, Secure the Shadow, which I'm picking apart at the moment. 

*drink*

Toast

To a better year than the one before.

*drink*

Oath, Boast, Toast 2019

Time for my annual oath, boast and toast. It feels like it's been a fairly hectic year this year. Started slow but built momentum. The main highlights have included:

• Giving a TEDx talk at the University of Luxembourg, which I was roped into by my lovely friend Harris. It was my first time in Luxembourg, and then my first time in The Hague, visiting my cousin Tamsin and partner Guido, who visited me in Rwanda last year. Had a fascinating time exploring the Escher Museum. Giving the talk was slightly terrifying, but I'm so glad I did it. You can find the full list of talks here.
• Another, much less stressful, trip was to Idjwi with Maia and Taia. Idjwi is a huge island in the middle of Lake Kivu, between Rwanda and DRC. It's legendary as a place where unwed pregnant Rwandan girls would be thrown overboard in days of old. They'd wash up on Idjwi and Congolese men would come down to the shore to pick up a ready-made family. Getting there was a truly epic journey from Kigali, up to Gisenyi, taking the ferry down to Idjwi, staying at the north of the island before taking a two-hour moto to the south, a small boat across to DRC mainland to visit Lwiro Chimpanzee Sanctuary, a taxi down to Bukavu, then across to Cyangugu and a seven-hour bus ride back up to Kigali. An intrepid adventure. We also did a brief safari to Akagera earlier in the year. 
• Also went back to the UK for the first time in two-and-a-half years. My first time experiencing British summer in about five years, and it was one of the hottest on record. I went back to attend Hollowell Steam Rally, a local village festival. Also celebrated my mum's birthday and had a lovely time wandering along the pier at Cleavedon and exploring country gardens in the Cotswolds.
• Harris's family came to visit and we went up to Gisenyi for a few days. One of the most incredible memories of this year was our friend Sameer showing us around the tea estate he manages. That's where Yorkshire Tea comes from. We drove right out into the middle of nowhere, surrounded by swathes of rolling tea fields and the edges of Gishwati Forest. 
• On the piano front, it's been a busy year. Unfortunately we're still quite a way off completing the first prototype, but we're getting there. Impressively, I strung an entire piano this year. Definitely a first. Désire has done amazing things with wood. I even took a mad trip down to Bukavu, DRC, to check out a grand piano - just for fun. You can follow the piano escapades at Kigali Keys. We've also done a few interviews, including with BBC World Service. For Christmas, I bought a Young Chang to massacre whilst I wait to put my Lirika back together. Hoping my extremely talented friend Bonanni will teach me to play.
• On the writing front, not so good. I've done a lot of reading but not much writing. Though I have taken my first leap into self-publishing. I re-released Lucid when the rights ran out, and put out a short story collection called The Tangled Forest. Was hoping to have Hookland out before Christmas, too, but the post to Rwanda took a lifetime for the proof to arrive, so it'll be out first thing January.

The work I have been doing for other people this year has been fairly fulfilling. I've been making a pretty good living as an editor during the last half of the year, working for a number of development agencies worldwide on topics from global immunisation to preventing gender-based violence and promoting human rights. Even worked for the UN for the first time, training civil society organisations. Also ghostwrote a biography and helped edit the story of an inspirational cancer survivor. I'm lucky I get to earn a living through words, even when my own stories aren't flowing.

In other news, this might be my last year in Rwanda. I went to renew my visa the other day and instead of the usual two years, they handed me a one-year visa. Not sure what that means. I'm assuming it's nothing terrible, otherwise they wouldn't have given me a visa at all, but it's a little unsettling. So, this year is devoted to enjoying my time here whilst it lasts, and considering how to relocate five cats if it doesn't...

Anyway, down to business.

Last year's oath was to finish the piano. That's more work than we expected, but I have strung an entire piano for the first time. Dead proud of that.

I guess, this year...

Oath

I'll go to Italy to see my lovely friends Martine and Rauíri. It's been far too long.

*drink*

Boast

I strung an entire piano! And did a TEDx talk! Double whammy.

*drink*

Toast

To my family and good friends, who are all brilliant in their unique and freakish ways. And to my five cats, who are insane, murderous objects of chaos, but forever entertaining.

*drink*

Oath, Boast, Toast 2018

Well, unlike last year, this year hasn't felt at all quiet. It has turned into a very productive year, despite starting in tragedy, in an incident that damn near broke my heart. You'll be glad to know that Sophie, Howl and Sen (also known as Harold, thanks to our lovely vet Dr. Arum) are all doing extremely well and sitting here watching me type.

So, moving ahead. What have been the highlights of this year?

• More than anything, this has been the year of travel and pianos. I'll get to pianos in a moment, but I've just returned from an incredible trip around India with Dad & Marilyn. We went to Goa, Delhi, Agra, Chand Baori, Ranthambore, Jaipur and Mumbai, with a Kashmiri carpet thrown in for good measure. Seeing the Taj Mahal has been a spectacular end to the year.
• The beginning of the year was also special. Headed out on safari across the Maasai Mara with my friends Tracey and Celia.
• Had a fun away trip with my friends Jo, Maia and their daughters to Lake Bunyonyi in Uganda, staying in traditional huts on an island.
• Also hosted my cousin Tamsin and her partner Guido as they passed through Rwanda on their round-the-world tour. Memorable night in a spooky abandoned fairground.
• Had some fun times closer to home. Threw my first and only house party for my birthday, which was excellent, and attended Rwanda's first ever Rock Night, which has become a staple on the social calender.
• Another big change that occurred this year was that I've finally relented in my solitude and started sharing the house with some friends. One of whom is an excellent cocktail maker. But this does mean I'm now living in an apartment I made out of the back shed.

On the writing front, it's been a year of ups and downs. Rosy Hours has been stocked in Books & Convenience in town, and CasaKeza, were I teach the occasional writing course through which I've made some lovely friends this year. I have done some writing, but I need to get my mojo back. I wrote a novella. My publisher asked me to write some more stories to create a collection, then, once I'd completed them, they decided they didn't want them after all, and on top of that offered me back a manuscript they'd been sitting on for two years (Children of Lir) because they'd run out of money and were offering all their authors back their manuscripts. Whereas I appreciate their difficult circumstances, and I did enjoy writing the short stories and will probably self-publish them later this year, it's hard to recover your drive after something like that. However, this year is definitely going to be focused on writing and pianos. Only that.

Editing has proven much more successful for me this year and I've done quite well working for ImagineWe and Perdua Publishing, as well as taking on a couple of manuscripts for private clients. I've also had more work proofreading the national textbooks for Rwanda Education Board, which has been good experience and kept the bank account afloat.

So, how did keeping last year's oath go?

I've really enjoyed learning about the inside of pianos. Instead of getting someone to come and tune it, I've decided to turn Lirika into my own project. This year, my oath is to fix my piano until she plays properly, and to learn about piano refurbishment.  

Um, well... that got a little out of hand.

Not only did I learn to fix and tune my piano, I now tune upright and grand pianos across Kigali, and I took my own piano apart to start the Kigali Keys project, attempting to become the only existing piano manufacturer in Africa.

So, um, yes. 

I think I can cross that one off the list.

Onwards with 2018...

Oath 

My oath this year is to finish what I started, and complete the first prototype piano in Rwanda. 

*drink* 

Boast

Saw the Taj Mahal!

*drink*

Toast

To a little more luck on the writing front.

*drink*

Happy Holidays

Heading off to India tonight to meet up with my dad and Marilyn. We're doing the full tourist trail - down to Goa for a few days on the beach, then up to Delhi for the Golden Triangle. Other than Skype, I haven't seen my family in almost two years, which is how long it's been since I last left East Africa. Really looking forward to it, especially the food. Hoping to pick up some new clothes in Mumbai on the way home as I'm looking a little threadbare. 

It's dad's birthday on 15th, and we'll be spending Christmas in Mumbai, then home to Rwanda in time for New Year and my annual Oath, Boast & Toast.

Wishing everyone a cool Yule and plenty of nommy muncies.

New Year Autobiography Exercise

I'm predominantly a fiction writer, but people often come to me asking advice about writing their life story.

Really, the two things are not so very different. The same things that make fiction gripping, make for an interesting life story:

• Truth
• Honesty
• Mystery
• Adventure
• Momentum
• Insight

The tale is in the telling - how you present your story.

New Year makes for a good time to practise writing biographies and autobiographies.

• Autobiography - when you write about your own life
• Biography - when you write about somebody else's life

Rather than attempting to recount the whole of your life in one go,  let's take a single year to begin with. A good autobiography isn't about how many small details you can recall, but about what makes your life truly interesting. People read biographies to live experiences they never will. You're the tour guide to your own world.

A subject I touched on briefly in Lucid is the aboriginal concept of time. In native Australian culture, time isn't generally linear. The things that you remember most clearly, that have the biggest impact on your decisions in life and your sense of self, are the closest in time. You don't remember what you had for breakfast this time five years ago? That doesn't mean it didn't happen, but it's not important. Yet the way someone looked at you in high school, the tone of voice your mother uses when she's angry - those things happened a moment ago.

This is really what you're looking for in a good autobiography. What are the things that make you, you. What makes your life unique?

What's your aboriginal timeline - what is close in your memory, and what is very far away?

Break open the post-it notes and colouring pens.

What were the big events that happened to you in 2016?

When you close your eyes and let your mind wander, what rises to the surface first?

Each year I do an Oath, Boast & Toast roundup, featuring some of the highlights from the last twelve months. I tend to put them in order of the things that made the biggest impression, rather than chronologically from January to December.

Do this for yourself. Brainstorm the things that happened to you. If you keep a dairy, it might be useful to refer to it, but try not to get bogged down in the day-to-day minutia. Go for the really big things that feel significant.

Aim for five or six experiences. If you have more than that, start cutting back. Rank the post-its in order of importance and drop some off the bottom. Remember, an autobiography isn't an account of everything you've ever done, but the things you've done that will really interest other people. The stuff that gives a real insight into human nature, and what it's like to be somewhere, meet someone, or do something that others probably haven't.

I'll post another time about chronology in storytelling, but the two key things to remember are:

1. The order of time is often less interesting than the order of reason

What this means is that whether something happened on a Monday or a Wednesday, really doesn't mean much to your reader. They won't remember it five pages on. But why something happened - the cause and effect - is important. Why a character got blindingly drunk in a bar and started a fight is far more interesting than what time of night he started it. In an autobiography, you are your own character. Help the reader to understand why you did the things you did, and how previous experiences converged to create that moment in time.

2. Start in medias res

This is a literary term simply meaning 'in the middle of things'. It's the opposite of David Copperfield (I am born...) or the Bible (In the beginning...). 

Instead of: I was born... I went to school... I graduated (or didn't)... I was in a terrible car crash... I got married...

Start with the car crash.

Begin by describing whatever is at the top of your memory list for the past year, the anecdote you're most likely to tell at parties, then take it from there.

Have a think about how the experiences on your list connect with each other.  Try to shuffle your vivid moments into some sort of order. You can peg them to a washing line, space them in a circle with a central event in the middle, stick them to a sheet of flipchart paper and draw joining lines. Whatever works for you visually.

When we tell stories about ourselves, we very rarely keep to a straight timeline. We bounce about, changing the direction of our narrative as we remember things we had forgotten and things that came before, or after, but are related to what we're talking about now. Next time you're having coffee with a friend, or asking a grandparent about their early life, pay attention to how they tell their story.

It's perfectly fine to do this when writing an autobiography, so long as things don't get confusing. If your sideline runs for more than a paragraph or two, perhaps devote a new chapter to it. 

When sectioning up your autobiography, do it by theme, not time. Instead of:

• School
• College
• Work
• Travel
• Retirement

Try:

• Discovering my parents were human
• First love
• Realising life is worth more than money
• Stuck up a tree in Timbuktu
• How to cope with ageing

You've found the defining moments of last year, now find them for a lifetime. Use each chapter to talk about a theme, and use your life experiences to illustrate that theme. 

See where you get to.

Oath, Boast, Toast 2017

Time for my annual oath, boast & toast.

This year has felt like a fairly quiet one, until I sat down to think about it. 

As with years past, it's been full-on, but it's also brought a huge sense of contentment. 

Some of the main highlights have included:

• Trekking mountain gorillas in Volcanoes National Park, with two beautiful ladies, Jo & Maia, and a jazz band.
• Continuing the animal theme by hand rearing four abandoned kittens (two of whom, Sophie & Howl, became family - cute pics).
• Had a couple of earthquakes and saw a solar eclipse. 
• Bought a piano and starting to learn how to fix it up. Also built up the courage to sing songs around a campfire. I always sing to myself at home, but it takes quite a bit of courage to do it out loud in front of strangers.
• On the down side, I suffered a really bad accident and fell on a bonfire, severely injuring my left hand. However, seven months on from that things are pretty much back to normal, if one set of fingerprints fewer - and I can play the piano I bought. Also learnt about the incredible healing power of pawpaw.
• Despite all that, had a lovely time hosting my friend Paul, singing to the royal cows and floating out upon Lake Kivu.
• I have made some fab friends this year, namely Maia and Lulu, plus reconnected with Tracey from Kenya, who came for New Year with friends, who have all just left for the gorillas. One of my best friend memories is of staying out all night with Maia and Cindy, at Cindy's nightclub, Envy. Getting back to Maia's just as the sun was rising, and falling asleep on a mattress in her garden. Such a good night.
• Fed my interest in African artifacts by learning a lot about Congolese masks.

Also got the good news that my visa has been renewed, so I get to call Rwanda home for another two years.

I felt a bit bad after last year's OB&T. I wimped out. I said I wanted to 'focus more on writing,' when what I actually wanted to say was: 'write three novels,' but I was unsure whether I could do it, and felt more likely to fail if I put public pressure on myself. As it was, I managed this. I wrote a bottom-drawer urban fantasy, just to see what it felt like. I wanted it to be a trilogy, but it's not that good. Then there was a Hookland novel (possibly the first?), called Creeper's Cottage, and a retelling of Red Riding Hood, Wolfish. I've got the latter two printed out, ready to edit once I find time. Between them that's roughly a total of 240,000 words.

In truth, I did keep my oath. I threw everything behind writing and it's really changed things.  

• I started teaching fiction at my friend's café cum night school
• I became a proofreader for the new national curriculum textbooks
• Sold an article to The Author
• A friend I edited made it into print
• I've been hired to write business profiles and web content for two big local companies and one start-up

I still do a bit of consultancy on the side, but I've stopped pursuing it. I've cut right back to make more time for literary-related work, and ironically the educational proofing job has paid better than any contract I've had in a long time. It was actually one of my writing students who put me onto that job.

So there's no reason I shouldn't continue developing this. It makes as good financial sense as NGO consultancy, and it adds far more to my sense of contentment. Although, it does still carry the issue of needing to make time to do my own writing, in between writing for other people.

So, what's lined up for 2017?

Oath

I've really enjoyed learning about the inside of pianos. Instead of getting someone to come and tune it, I've decided to turn Lirika into my own project. This year, my oath is to fix my piano until she plays properly, and to learn about piano refurbishment.  

*drink*

Boast

Dude, I hung with mountain gorillas!

*drink*

Toast

To another two years in Kigali. 

*drink*

Into the Unknown

I began 2016 upset with myself. 

Regular readers might recall my Oath, Boast & Toast this year? Well, I was upset because I'd watered it down.

I changed it at the very last minute. I had just completed a contract with an extremely impressive human rights group. It'd been a truly amazing, eye-opening experience, but my time there had come to a natural end. 

I'd decided that 2016 was going to be the year I threw myself into writing. I was going to tailor everything else in my life around it and see what happened. Whilst I've been in the UK I've been to see a couple of nonprofit projects, the type of funding work I can do in the evenings, from home. Meanwhile, I've been networking online, lining up a couple of meetings in the arts community in Rwanda once I return. 

I had planned to branch into writing retreats on Lake Kivu. I was going to do this in partnership with my friend Christiane, who had just built an ecolodge in a perfect location, high in the hills, overlooking the water. Unfortunately, she passed away in September, so I put that idea to bed. 

Lots of ideas have been going through my mind since. Rwanda has always been hugely productive for me creatively, and I want to give myself time to see whether I can develop a proper writing routine. See whether I can shift myself away from development consultancy towards something more artistic. 

It's a huge gamble. Nothing is guaranteed. Which is why, when the lovely organisation I was working for offered me a second year at better pay, I stumbled. It happened just before I posted my Oath, Boast and Toast. Whereas before it had read: 'This is it, death or glory!' it then became 'Perhaps I'll try and focus more on writing in the New Year.'

The moment I posted it, I knew I wasn't being honest. I was allowing fear of insecurity (especially financial insecurity) to overshadow the heart:

I get a sort of tingle down my spine when I earn money from writing. It’s the same tingle I got when I was offered my first publishing contract. A little spark of joy which lies dormant in between, when things aren’t going so well. 

As writers, I think we live for that spark. - The Dabbler Interview

My first advance is modest, but it means a lot. It's the first time a publisher has said: Yes, we believe in you. We believe that we can sell what you write... In an industry where money is often tight and nothing is ever certain, that's a massive token of trust... Every book I've written has been slightly better and gone slightly further. - blog post

I am in the ridiculously lucky position of being able to buy a little time for myself. I have a secluded spot in which to write, friends who rejuvenate me and prevent me disappearing up my own arse entirely, and a little work which, although intermittent, can be folded around my writing routine. All I need is rent money and food. I'm a fairly simple being, all told. 

It's at times like this there is only one thing to do: scour the internet for life-affirming quotes which back up your idea of who you want to be. In my case, I mostly have @adriantannock to thank:

You can fail at what you don't want, so you might as well take a chance at doing what you love. - Jim Carrey 

Whatever you're meant to do, do it now. The conditions are always impossible. - Doris Lessing

And, of course, Christiane, who insisted that if I had the opportunity to write, write I must. 

So, I've taken the very brave, or very foolish, decision to turn down the extremely kind offer of guaranteed work, and return to my original plan of free falling into 2016 in the hopes that things will work themselves out.

I'd regret it if I didn't at least try. 

This blog could get quite interesting once I get back to Rwanda. 

Or very quiet, depending how the writing's going...

Oath, Boast, Toast 2016

How fast the time flies! My annual oath, boast and toast has come around already.

Once again it's been insanely busy. Top highlights have included:

• My writing: This time last year I had just signed Those Rosy Hours at Mazandaran with Ghostwoods Books. Best decision ever! Had an absolute blast working with them, and Rosy Hours launched on Valentine's Day 2015, debuting at #6 in Historical Fantasy on Amazon. It was also turned into an audiobook, narrated by Hugo-nominated Sci-fi and Fantasy author Emma Newman (check out her podcast and books). I've since given talks about it in Northampton, Kendal and Malawi (via Skype!). I've done a ton of online interviews including Chuck Wendig's terribleminds and Riffle Books. Rosy Hours was even turned into a healthy snack, a charm bracelet and a cute cartoon. Best of all, I managed to fulfil my oath last year of completing my next novel (The Children of Lir) and garnered my first ever book advance! 2015 has been a fantastic year for writing. I'm hoping this will continue in 2016.

• Another utterly incredible part of 2015 was my first ever trip to DRC (Democratic Republic of Congo). As a VSO many years back we were forbidden from going there for safety reasons. It still isn't that safe, but it's somewhere I've long been fascinated by, and it was a trip to remember. We went to a remote school, a refugee camp, and hung out in Goma.

• My friend Jo and I decided to have a go at walking part of the Congo Nile River Trail, which is a long road leading from Gisenyi in the North of Rwanda, right down to Cyangugu in the South, along the watershed of the two mighty rivers: Congo and Nile. It was hard going in parts, but an amazing experience. The furthest source of the Nile is said to be in Nyungwe Forest, Rwanda.

• Thanks to many wonderful friends and family, I managed to raise the money to help rebuild my housekeeper's home after it was washed away in an unexpected deluge. I attended a 'thank you' dinner with Damascene's family in Muhanga, on behalf of everyone who donated.

• I took up the country program directorship of a human rights organisation. That was fairly incredible. It provided an opportunity to travel to parts of the country I would never normally see, and discuss issues with people I would never normally meet. We went to two more refugee camps (Kiziba and Gihembe), a Batwa village, Nyange Memorial School, Nyamata and Kigali genocide memorials, MindLeaps, Ineza Cooperative, Rwanda Development Board, the Ministry of Health and the US Embassy. Rwanda also did something special on the human rights front. Got to see old colleagues from the Deaf Association and Paralympic Committee, as well as friends from the LGBT community who came to talk. Made some fabulous new friends and received the compliment "thanks for being a great boss." 

• Hosted French John for a few weeks. A photographer on a round-the-world mission. 

• Returned to the UK to catch up with family and cream teas. Spent a month up in Scotland with my friend Paul, exploring standing stones and founding a charity. Had a fabulous Christmas with all the trimmings.

• Oh, and survived my first bout of malaria. 

So, on that lengthy recap, drum roll please...

Oath

This has been so hard. I've thought about it right up to the final hour. Usually what I want to do is so clearly in front of me, but this year I'm a little hazy. I honestly have no idea what 2016 will bring. Originally I was going to say 'quit development and throw everything I have into forging a career from writing' - but at this precise moment in time, I'm not sure I have the courage to turn down guaranteed work. So, I guess, in some form of weaker words: 'Focus more energy on writing - try to build a career around what I love doing.' I'm not too sure if that's possible, but I'm sure I'll learn a lot trying.

*drink*

Boast

2015 was so full-on, it's hard to pick just one thing to be proud of. Getting offered my book advance was the first thing that sprung to mind, but it's very closely followed by the program directorship and all the hard work and amazing experiences that entailed. It's been a year to be proud of all round.

*drink*

Toast

To my amazing friend Christiane, who sadly passed away in September, far too soon. I will miss her very much, and the conversations we used to have sitting on my porch with a bottle of Gatanu. 

*drink*