It wasn’t until the last few years of my twenties that I realised that rough sex is more common than I originally thought. Yes, hair-pulling is a frequent bedroom occurrence. Yes, Pornhub is awash with all manner of synonyms for ‘BDSM’. But when you know where to look, you find a crowd you had previously…
Oceans
Your voice envelopes me across oceans. Letters on the page transcribe a deeper intimacy and the confidence with which you speak rouses me down the telephone line. And I feel like I’ve known you for years. Photo by Sithamshu Manoj on Unsplash
Adapting
Eight weeks into a global lockdown there seems to be a shift in people’s mentalities: The first six weeks were characterised by silent roads during Monday morning’s ‘rush hour’, empty town centres on Saturday afternoons and quizzes on Friday nights. Now, the traffic on our roads is almost returning to normal, town centres are a…
Ghostwriting Journey (1)
Ghostwriting someone’s memoir is one of the most rewarding, yet stressful, experiences for a writer. The aim is to get inside the subject’s head and write in their voice. Ideally, you’ll already be – or become – good friends so you can adopt their turns of phrase without too much effort. The trick is to…
Feeling Normal in Non-Normal Times
Last month, I wrote about dating during the time of a global pandemic. Since then, not much has changed; we’re still all stuck indoors and trying to get our kicks online. But with a lot of time to think, I’ve been considering ways we’re connecting romantically with others. Can we form romantic connections online with…
A Hopeful Letter – My Response
Dear A, What a beautiful, candid letter. A mix of emotions rose up; eyes watering and a smile pinching at my cheeks; thank you for your honesty. I didn’t expect us to get to where we are now so soon. It’s been a rough few months, hasn’t it? Breaking up (unknowingly) just before a global…
Moving Forward; A’s Letter – Guest Blog
With time and after a few tearful phone calls, A and I have reached a stage of calmness, acceptance and positivity. Here’s his recent letter to me (you can read his first one, here). As with the previous letter; A has said I can post it on the blog. Dear H, First of all,…
A’s love letter – Guest Blog
Last year, when A and I were blissfully happy, I shared with him this blog. It has always been hidden from boyfriends because of the content but I trusted him to read my writing and he promised not to censor anything I wanted to write about. True to his word, he’s said he doesn’t mind…
Pop
You don’t like it when I mention the breakup; My words pop the bubble you’ve formed around yourself – like a comfort blanket. No-one’s broken up during a global pandemic before; there are no hard-and-fast rules (not that we were subscribing to rules, but some guidance might be nice). We’ve been apart for…
Entwined.
So entwined in each others’ lives we are, that as I was about to head downstairs to talk to you, you came up and asked if we could talk. Our personal D-Day was fast approaching and you felt it was time to take stock and assess our progress. Whilst you felt things were looking better,…
