For more years than I care to think about, I wanted to write. I knew that I was good with words but, a novel, well that was a whole different ball game. This mental block was compounded by the fact that, firstly, I didn’t believe that I could write and, secondly, I had nothing to say that anyone would want to read. So, that book remained the idea in my head that it had always been; for the next 30 years!
Until, one morning, I decided that I would actually write instead of just thinking about it. I had long wanted my eldest children to understand why our lives had been the way that they had and, as a result, decided to write my life story. So I sat down at the computer to do just that. I was 65 years of age.
Now, as I suspect with most writers, I soon discovered that there’s always a cup of tea to be made, the washing up to be done or a game of solitaire to be played. Anything, in fact, to distract from the task in hand. The difference this time was that, after each distraction, I made sure that I went back to the computer to carry on writing. That perseverance paid off; in fact, it proved to be the key to unlocking my thoughts. By the end of the day, I’d written 2,000 words. Although, if the truth be known, words appeared on the screen of their own accord. I wasn’t so much writing as acting as a conduit. So much so that, by the end of the week, I’d written 20,000 words and had become a writer. When the book, “The Other Side of the Doors”, was published, it came in at 120,000 words. I really was a writer!
Those who read the manuscript were very complimentary about it with one agent telling me that, despite this, I would find it difficult to get taken on as no one knew who I was. “Bugger you.” I thought, “I’ll write another book, then you’ll know who I am.” So that’s what I did. This was followed by a third and then a fourth, all self published and all to good reviews.
That novel, however, remained unwritten; until last year. Well, “Finally Meeting Mum” is now completed and I’m now in the process of sending the manuscript to literary agents to try to get it into mainstream publishers. Interestingly, the book has served a purpose that wasn’t anticipated. It has helped me to get to know my mother and made her into a real person and that pleases me enormously; something that I hope it will do for my readers. Finally realising that I can write both fiction and nonfiction, I’m working on two more works of non fiction and another novel. Then I just might retire.
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