What you may or may not know about me is that, as well as providing coaching services, I also write. Mostly stories, but also some non-fiction. My most recent publication, Crystal Companions, is a portmanteau novel (made up of several stories with a unifying thread). Based around an adult education evening class, it features the stories of the twelve students and their chosen crystals, and starring Kitty, the tutor who is teaching them about the qualities of their crystal, and ways to choose, use and cleanse them. I wrote it because I learn best from story, rather than dry facts, and I figured I’m probably not alone in that.

With my menopause coaching, I’m in the process of putting together a workbook from the slides and content in my Coping to Confidence course (which I may be about to rename), so that people have an alternative (and cheaper) way to access my material, and can work through it at their own pace.

But I’m also writing a portmanteau novel in the same style as Crystal Companions. It stars the same tutor, this time running evening classes around the menopause, and the content will roughly follow that of my seven coaching sessions. Since I have a Facebook group called Menopals, I’ve given the book the title of The Menopals Meetup.

There are two main reasons I’m writing this. One is that, as I said, many people learn better from story than from dry facts. The stories will feature a lot of facts and suggestions for lifestyle tweaks, alongside questions that readers can ask themselves. I hope they will, as it’ll help them get the most out of the stories.

The other is so that I can feature some of the stories of menopausal issues that I’ve heard in the course of my studies and coaching. Because, while every woman’s journey is unique, they share common elements, and one of the biggest things I’m hearing is how many women suffer alone. Reading about others going through the same things can be so reassuring. And of course, as a side-effect, if people buy it or read it on Kindle Unlimited, it gives me some passive income to add to what people pay me for my coaching.

The women in the stories (including a trans woman) aren’t taken directly from real life. I’ve taken elements from various people’s stories and redistributed them around the group. But if any of my fellow-students and clients happen to read the book, they’ll recognise some of what they read.

I’ve written the first session/chapter so far, and I’m about to edit it. A friend has kindly said she’ll read it for me and give me an honest opinion. Once that’s done, I plan to publish the story in bite-sized sections, right here on my blog, so watch this space!

For the trans woman’s story, I have both a sibling and a friend to guide me, to ensure I get it right, and my sister Rachael (previously my brother Mike) has offered to put me in touch with someone who’s gone through the whole transition. Apparently (I didn’t know this until my conversation about it with Rachael on Sunday), the process of physical transitioning involves taking HRT to mimic the hormones one would have as the opposite gender; then, after some time, having the ‘bottom op’. Prior to the ‘bottom op’, a trans woman is taken off the HRT for a time, effectively putting her into menopause, which can be pretty difficult to navigate. So it makes perfect sense for a trans woman to attend menopause classes, so she can formulate a strategy for coping with the symptoms. I’m having lunch with Rachael and Tanya tomorrow to talk about it some more, and I will definitely run the story past them before I consider it finished. Rachael is also providing the artwork for the book’s cover, as she’s a talented artist.

But of course, the books aren’t the only things I’m working on. The other things currently occupying me: getting my podcast equipment and software set up, ready for my first interview (hopefully next week!), of course with the invaluable support of my partner, Rick; and writing the sessions for my follow-up course to Coping to Confidence, currently called Confidence to Clarity.

And there’s another vexed question. Do I continue with those course titles, or change them to bring them into the Menopals stable? When I was searching for a good name for my first course, the advice given was to find one that told people what they could expect to gain from the course. Most of the more obvious ones were of course taken, but I settled on Coping to Confidence as a good description of my aim for the sessions. It’s still a good description. I’m finding, though, that the companionship people gain from meeting others on the menopause journey is one of the most valued elements of the course.

I tried at the time to find a way to include Menopals in the title, but for some reason, nothing came to me. Now I’m wondering whether to call my courses Menopals Meetup, or possibly Menopals Mentoring, to better link them to my book and Facebook group.

Answers on a postcard, please! I would genuinely love to hear what you think.

So, whether I get any sign-up for my next round of courses or not, I have plenty to keep me busy! In between seeing my friends, reading voraciously (I’ve really got into that again with a vengeance since retiring!), and ensuring I get more exercise, of course.

Oh, one final thing – I’ll be appearing as a guest on the Women of a Certain Stage podcast in about 3 weeks. I’ll send the link when it’s out, but there may be some clips coming up as teasers for the full show. Honestly, though, things have moved on so much since Lauren Chiren interviewed me, I may have to add some comments under the video to update listeners, once it goes live.

Anyway, thanks for listening, lovely to see you – gotta go now and edit up that story for you. See you next time with the first ‘exciting instalment’ of The Menopals Meetup!