# 94 See Your Name in Print

I have always been a bookworm. I think I could read before I went to school and now own far more books than is decent. As I've always had such admiration for writers I've long harboured a fantasy to be one. I'll admit that this blog is a training ground for me to practice my skills, build my confidence and generally get into the habit of writing regularly.

It's one thing to write a blog though, on a web space that you yourself have created. This blog doesn't have a counter on it so I can't even tell if anyone's actually reading it. In fact, now I'm thinking about it, this sort of writing is quite self-indulgent and egotistical. No-one asked me to write this, and no-one can stop me. Unless I break the law in some hideous literary fashion.

Convincing someone to print your work, however, demonstrates a certain level of ability at engaging the reader. And being asked, or even better, commissioned, to write for a publication is something of an achievement.

So, you might imagine I was pretty pleased to be asked to write a piece for a healthcare journal. Well, the charity I work for was asked and I volunteered myself for the job. But since I'm the only full time employee there was a degree of inevitability to it. As you may know, or recall from previous posts, the charity I work for supports people who've had stoma surgery. People like me. Except these days I don't need support, I'm the one doing the supporting. The piece we were asked to write was to focus on ways of dealing with stoma surgery positively. I loved this brief and took to the task with relish. Luckily the editors liked what I wrote and printed it. And gave me an honorarium for doing it (which I, of course, donated back to Ostomy Lifestyle).

You may well be curious to read this piece now....well, thanks to the interweb, you can. http://issuu.com/chartermagazine/docs/_1869046 (pgs 5 & 6)

Enjoy! (And I'd love to know what you think....help this writer grow!)