Tag: Memoir Writer

My Latest Meet-up With Fellow Blogger, Sherri Matthews

Last week I had one of my regular meet-ups with my dear friend Sherri Matthews, who blogs at A View From My Summerhouse. As many of you know, Sherri and I both live in the south of England, but 150 miles apart from each other; however, I’m very fortunate that her two grown-up sons live in my neck of the woods and she visits them as often as she can.

To my delight, apart from our usual pub lunch, this time I was able to share one of my favourite walks with her — Cuckmere Valley and Estuary — the beauty of which I’ve celebrated many times in haiku and tanka verse.

My first get-together with Sherri was back in June 2015, when we met for lunch and discovered that we could do more talking in a few hours than some people do in a week! Not only was Sherri the warm, caring, and sincere person I expected her to be, but I found she shared my quirky humour and eccentricity, too. So how could we end up as anything other than good friends?

Of course we have writing in common also, and I think she’d agree that we support and encourage each other through the highs and lows of completing our projects. Sherri is working on the final draft of her memoir Stranger in a White Dress and, by now, most of my followers know that I write offbeat novels.

Sherri twice contributed to my monthly guest storyteller slot that I ran for a little over three years. On both occasions, she managed to delight readers with some flash-fictionalised seasonal memoir  — ‘Chocolate Umbrella’ and ‘A Blue Coat for Christmas’.

I look forward to my next meet-up with Sherri, when I plan to share another of my favourite walks by the sea, which includes the site of archeological interest mentioned earlier this week in my tanka poem about a crow.

Has anyone else a story to tell about real-life friendships they’ve made through blogging?

My Meet-up With Fellow Blogger, Sherri Matthews

Sherri & Sarah Last Monday, I met up with the wonderful Sherri Matthews who blogs at A View From My Summerhouse.

Sherri and I have become firm emailing friends (the modern equivalent of pen friends) since she appeared as guest storyteller on my blog back in December. I’ve lost count of how many emails we’ve exchanged since then, but they’re probably exceeded the one hundred mark.

Although we live about 150 miles apart — Sussex and Somerset — we’ve discovered that in the past we shared many of the same stamping grounds, which makes it amazing we never crossed paths earlier in our lives; then again, maybe we did walk down the same street, never knowing we would become friends later.

In fact, it’s uncanny how many life coincidences and things we have in common. For example, one of Sherri’s grown up sons lives in the seaside town (these days a city) where I was born and went to school, while her other son lives in the county town where I attended Technical College and, later, where my husband had an antique shop.

Last weekend, Sherri was on one of her regular visits to this county town, which is only 17 miles from my home, and, to my great excitement, stayed on an extra day so we could finally meet.

Much as I suspected, we got along famously and never stopped talking. If anyone were to calculate the number of words shared between us in a few hours, these words would most likely equal the length of a novella! Needless to say, the time flew by far too fast.

Before I sign off, I just want to mention that Sherri hasn’t been able to blog for the past fortnight due to her new laptop breaking down and the retailers taking an age fixing it for her. This has meant she has had to use her old laptop, on which the internet moves slower than a snail. But at least the machine is useable for word-processing, so she can continue working on her memoir. Meanwhile, do check out Sherri’s blog and have a read of her old posts and say “hi”, so she has some lovely comments awaiting her when she returns to blogging in the near future.

Meanwhile, I say three cheers to WordPress for its grand blogging community, where friendships such as mine and Sherri’s are forged 🙂

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