Writer’s Hour

A safe space

August 7, 2025

Dear Smythe,

Sometime around a year ago, I discovered a magical little place online called “Writer’s Hour.” A free zoom room where writers can log in at 8 am and write in silence for an hour – together, while apart. The London Writers Salon hosts it for free, along with numerous workshops and meetups and activities for paying members. I try to make a habit of going, and even if I don’t feel up for writing anything “proper,” I’ll still write in my journal or even read – just to be in the space.

I logged on this morning hoping I would be as productive as I was earlier this week, when I wrote a whole letter to you in one sitting. Today has not been my day. Pluto, my sweet cat, has been refusing his medicine before his chemotherapy this morning (he has large cell lymphoma in his nose. He shouldn’t be surviving but he is instead thriving, pure fighter that he is – which is precisely the personality that induces him to refuse his medicine when he is supposed to take it). My stomach is in shreds and I’m barely able to focus on the words in front of me with all the pain. I’m having trouble finding the willpower to write with so much swirling around in my head: the logistics for getting Pluto to the vet, everything I have to report on his health in the last week, how much they’ll have to drug him since he refused his gabapentin. And that’s not covering the heavier stuff looming over me – like the refusal of my visa application a few days ago, and my abject terror of what’s ahead of me for my health. My life.

But at this brief moment, I can’t help but feel grateful. Because for one hour every morning – so long as my work schedule allows it – there is a place where, if I am able, I can put it all aside. For just one hour, all that matters are me and the words. You might not understand Smythe, but any writer does. A space, where art can dance and dream, bubble and burst within me, is more precious than a treasure chest full of rubies and emeralds. And I suppose that’s why writers keep writing. It’s the most valuable thing we have.

Warmly,

Marguerite