2011

What a great year is ending for me.  Nothing really special happened, maybe, just an everyday wonderful life with some rewarding little events.

First of all, my MA in creative writing at Lancaster University.  It had a smashing start in October 2010 and a fantastic follow up in 2011.  Thanks to the tutors and fellow students, I feel more and more confident in my writing and am developing a style and an awareness of my own.  This led to the publication of my first pamphlet, A Winding Road, and of a flash fiction piece, Christmas Photo, 1940, in the Flax Anthology, Flash Mob (http://www.litfest.org/publications/flash-mob-flax026/ ).

I made my website from scratch (www.carlascaranod.co.uk) and feel it is a great achievement, as I knew nothing about websites before I began.  It was ready before the summer and is meant to summarize all my work as writer, teacher and painter.  I would like to expand it even more, adding old and new photos of me and my family, my travels and performances, as soon as possible. It also encouraged me to develop my handicraft work and take part in fairs and exhibitions.

Besides joining Silverdale and Arnside Art and Craft Trail (http://www.silverdalearttrail.co.uk) every year,  I decided to take part in some Christmas Fairs in North Lancashire as well, and exhibit my work at the Novel Café, New Street, Lancaster.  A new turning in my artistic life, which brought me a lot of work but also great gratification.

To my great happiness I was invited to lots of readings in Lancaster (Spotlight, the Gregson, Novel Café, April Poets, and at the Brewery, Kendal on 28th January 2012) and enjoyed them all.  I am always a bit tense when I am going to read my work, but it is also a perfect way to share and publish it.  Besides, people seem to like it, which is the best bit.

I couldn’t abandon my blog, of course, and hope my recipes and journals are still popular.

As you can read in the blog I had a great summer with my family.  We saw interesting place and had intriguing experiences.  But above all we enjoyed it and had a special time altogether.

My plans for the future?  Finish the MA and redraft my short fiction pieces, hoping they reach a stage good enough for publication.  Go on with my recipes – my son, who is attending university in Manchester, finds them extremely useful when he is fed up with gobbling noodles – and experimenting with English and Italian food.  I tell myself not to lose the handle on my painting and handicraft skills.  It is all such great fun and relaxes my busy, busy brain.

And my job: I still teach Italian at Dallam school, Milnthorpe, in Adult Education and Italian authors with some Italian boarders.  It is a good way to keep me studying literature, which has always been my favourite subject after all.

And my fantastic, expanding, unpredictable family, who give me joy and a lot of work every day.

Next week there will be a gorgeously hyper-calorific Christmas cake, and then I’ll be back in January with more recipes, more news from Italy – in this troubled time – and more ideas and opinions about our exciting ordinary everyday life.

Roll on 2012!