The Afterword

Tag: writing

  • The Day I Stop Being Curious

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    Peter
    in

    Are you a lifelong learner? Some people collect jewellery. Art lovers collect paintings. Others collect coins. I seem to collect degrees. One qualification has often led to another, and then sometimes another after that. I now have seven degrees. That makes it sound more deliberate than it was. I never set out to accumulate qualifications.…

  • Writing That Fills Me

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    Peter
    in

    What’s one habit that has improved your life the most? When I first started writing as a hobby many years ago, I set aside one morning each week. It was a discipline, and for a while it worked. Eventually, though, it was crowded out. I stopped writing for myself during the years when I was…

  • Being Needed and Being Whole

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    Peter
    in

    What’s a chapter of your life you’d title “The Hard Years”— and what got you through it? People often say that a person’s forties can be the hardest years of their life. That was true for me. I would call that chapter The Hard Years. Not because everything collapsed, but because I came face to…

  • Ira’s Version

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    Peter
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    What is a book you think deserves a sequel? Some books do not need a sequel. They need another perspective. I wrote recently about how much I enjoyed Anne Tyler’s Breathing Lessons https://theafterword.blog/2026/05/16/a-single-day/. It is a novel about one ordinary day in the life of a middle-aged married couple, Maggie and Ira Moran, as they…

  • When the Villain Tells the Truth

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    Peter
    in

    What villain actually had a good point? I love the movie, Driving Miss Daisy. The characters are wonderful. Their relationships are beautiful. And it is funny as well. There is no straightforward villain in that film. Hoke is not the villain. Boolie is not the villain. Miss Daisy is flawed, proud, defensive, and shaped by…

  • Where Would I Live?

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    Peter
    in

    If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be? I’m tempted to name a place I’ve never been. Costa Rica. It keeps popping up in my feed, which probably says as much about the algorithm as it does about me. But I am intrigued. The prompt asks, “If you could live anywhere…

  • Before The Problem Starts Shouting

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    Peter
    in

    What’s a lesson you’ve learned recently that shifted your perspective? Problems often speak before they shout. That is something I have been learning recently. Looking back, there have been situations where the signs were there early in the piece. They were not dramatic. They were not disasters. No alarms were ringing. But there were small…

  • More or Less

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    Peter
    in

    What do you love now, that you hated when you were younger? When I was younger, more seemed better. I loved to read, and building a library was something I valued. Book by book, shelf by shelf, I watched the collection grow. There was satisfaction in it. A growing library felt like a sign of…

  • Watership Down

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    Peter
    in

    What is a piece of media (book, movie, song)that changed how you see the world? I loved Watership Down when it came out in 1978. I saw the film first, and was so affected by it that I went on to read the book. That is very rare for me. Usually, if I have seen…

  • Meeting People Part Way

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    Peter
    in

    Which languages do you speak and how did that impact your life? I admire people who can speak multiple languages. Working in a university college, I spend my days talking with students from all over the world. The are here to study degrees that are taught in English but many of them speak multiple languages.…

  • Keep It Simple

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    Peter
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    What’s the best advice you’d give to someone younger than you? The best advice I would give to someone younger than me is this: keep things simple. That may sound too plain to be useful, but a lot of wisdom is plain. We often make life harder than it needs to be. We overthink, rehearse,…

  • Character Outlasts Achievement

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    Peter
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    What is your top tip to be successful in life? My top tip for being successful in life is simple: character outlasts achievement. We live in a world that measures success by what can be counted, announced, awarded, or displayed. Titles, income, influence, publications, prizes, and recognition all have their place. Achievement matters. Good work…

  • Watching M.A.S.H. for the First Time Again

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    Peter
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    What’s a book, movie, or TV show that youwish you could experience again for the first time? I was late to the party when it came to M.A.S.H. It was not a show we ever watched at home. Then I went to college, and suddenly it became part of the daily rhythm. Straight after dinner,…

  • Practical Compassion

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    Peter
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    What is one way you have grown this year? One way I have grown this year is by learning that compassion has to become practical. Over the years I have become increasingly aware of how much pressure some students carry. International students can carry loneliness, financial stress, uncertainty about accommodation, worries about family, the need…

  • Recognising the Thread

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    Peter
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    What is something you wish you could tell your 20-year-old self? At 20, I thought life was a linear progression. You chose your path, dedicated yourself to it, and then walked it. The challenge was to make the right decision early, commit to it, and stay faithful. At 20, I knew what my passions were.…

  • The Cost of Being Always Available

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    Peter
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    Write your guide to setting healthy boundaries in relationships. I am not sure I am qualified to write a guide to healthy boundaries, except as someone who learned them too slowly. For 20 years I was a parish minister. That meant working in a caring profession. People had real needs. Crises happened. There were weddings,…

  • Toussaint

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    Peter
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    What’s a cultural tradition from another countrythat you wish existed in yours? The tradition I wish we had more strongly in Australia is not really Halloween. It is what sits behind it. In France, All Saints’ Day, or Toussaint, is still marked as a public holiday. Families visit cemeteries. They clean graves, place flowers, light…

  • Boogie Wonderland

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    Peter
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    What’s a song that always puts you in a good mood? I’m a little surprised, but the first song that comes to mind is Earth, Wind & Fire’s Boogie Wonderland. It is not really my kind of music. At least, it is not the kind of song that I would play by choice, but when…

  • The Truest Sentence

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    Peter
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    What is a fear you’ve overcome — and how did you do it? I have often been afraid that I do not have much to offer. I sit down to write and wonder whether the thought is too ordinary. Someone else has probably said it better. Someone else has probably said it with more learning,…

  • How Do You Build Loyal Subscribers?

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    Peter
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    How do you build loyal subscribers? I’m not sure you do. The question sounds like something from marketing. How do you build loyal subscribers? How do you grow an audience? How do you keep people coming back? I understand the question. Anyone who writes and shares their writing knows the quiet hope that someone will…