Holly Ringland

There’s something about March… all over the world, it is the season of change… spring… autumn… whether seeds are twitching in dark earth with the sensation of new beginnings, or leaves are turning crimson and decorating the earth in fallen red stars, change is on the wind in March wherever you are. You can taste it.

So it was that this time last year, in March, my fingertips were twitching with the sensation of somethin’-a-brewin’... I’d had enough of my imagination lying dormant in an ambiguous yearning with a hunger for something that I just could not identify. I’d had enough of scribbling in margins, I wanted more. So I went where all good detectives go to find the answers – Google. And after joining a few writing centres, signing up for newsletters and entering a few pieces in competitions, I stumbled upon Red Bubble. I joined immediately, ga-ga over the never-ending pots of paint and albums of photographs… and words! Writers, writers everywhere. I was instantly greedy… devouring words with shameless manners. My hunger started to abate as I took my fill… and one of the first delectable morsels I came across was none other than LittleHelen. I skipped and hopped and wriggled with glee through the imagery of her scrumptious mouth-watering heart and then took my time unwrapping her words – she will forever have a field of tulips all her own in my soul for being the woman who introduced me to Good Morning Girl, one of my favourite treasures. I wrote to her immediately and thus began one of the moons in my sky revolving around the glorious light that is Ms Hells Bells.

Three seasons later, it’s March again. In my world, the leaves are turning scarlet, the crispness of change is in the air… and when Helen recently inducted me into her Hottest 100, I realised how much change this ruby-coloured bubbly place has brought to my life in the last twelve months. To go from marvelling at Helen’s sassiness and creativity afar to being one of her interview subjects (a delight to experience) was just another humble reminder of how rewarding wearing Red Bubble boots can be.

So, I have to say, with all my cards on the table and my heart open and bare, to all of you bubbly lovely pretties who have spent moments of your time reading my words and responding to my work, propelling me further and further along my writing tightrope, thank you for being part of my year of change. A bouquet of ruby stars for you all.

And Hells Bells, for believing in me and cultivating me and encouraging me to grow and love and roar, and for being so intuitive and creative… and interviewing me… you gorgeous lioness… thank you.