Back to Lake 32
‘Tired… and slightly balder’ after a recurrent brush with Non-Hodgkinsons Lymphoma, writer in residence Stephen Connoly blogs - in signature understated style - on being back in business at the lake
Image credit: Dan James
A lot has happened since I started my first month as resident writer and January 2021 didn’t turn out anything like I was expecting. I couldn’t visit Lake 32 due to COVID restrictions - although this did trigger a more interesting approach for my first submission - and I had to deal with an unexpected medical complication.
Over Christmas 2020 I had noticed a lump forming on my left temple. A biopsy early in January ultimately revealed not a cyst, but a recurrence of the low-grade Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma I was first diagnosed with back in 2017. Fortunately, a PET scan in early January showed a single, localised area instead of something more widespread. A course of radiotherapy in February soon got rid of it, leaving me tired… and slightly balder.
Anyway, with all that behind me, it’s time to get back in the saddle and start working on ideas for May. Having read the pieces Hannah, Alun and Jacqui have produced, I have a lot to live up to.
My January piece involved people prevented by COVID from getting to the lake. My piece for May (again a radio play) will be about people who are obliged to go there when they don’t want to be: Ali and Jack come to the Lake to scatter their (estranged) late father’s ashes and film the process for relatives unable to be there due to ongoing COVID restrictions.
I have plenty of ideas about how the story will proceed, but before I start writing, I need to get the characters clear in my mind, and find out as much about them as possible. Who are they? What makes them tick? What do they fear, what do they want.
Stephen Connolly is Dialect x Waterland writer in residence in January, May and September 2021. You can read more on his blog here.
