Wednesday 11 January 2017

Time To Write ...

I am completely convinced that time moves at a different pace when you are not working.  I don't just mean for people like me who are between money-spinners.  I mean even if you are working but on sick leave - time just has a different quality to it.  Since leaving the Former Day Job, I have stuck pretty much to a routine.  I still get up early so I can have breakfast with Steve when he gets home from work (usually around 5.30 am).  Once he has gone up the Wooden Hill to Dreamland (as we used to say when we were kids), I load up the dishwasher, hang up the washing, sweep the floors, dust and have a general tidy around, just like I used to do when I was working.  I even still meet my coffee shop buddies at least once a week, usually around 7.30 at Nero's.  I try to avoid putting the TV on.  I do not want to become a Couch Potato.  So whilst I am not at a Day job, I go out most mornings looking for a Day job.

Yesterday, for example,  I went to Cheam Village.  Pretty little place; lovely old buildings, a few small independent local shops, nice atmosphere.  Then I went to North Cheam - and we will leave that there.  I looked in both places to see if there were any openings either in a Writing or not-quite-full-time capacity then had a coffee at Costa.  Whilst at Costa I added to a story I started a few days ago and wrote an entirely new story for a little girl who soon celebrates her fourth birthday.  I like doing that and often write personal stories for people I know - that was my second in a week! .  I even read a couple of chapters of the book I'd taken with me.  Then I decided to head home.  I looked at my watch.  It was 11.30 am.  So I had done all that in one morning!!!  That  is what I mean about time outside of the normal 9 - 5 routine being so different!  You can achieve a whole lot more!  You can get back to being yourself again.  You find hidden reserves of creative energy that had been mercilessly suppressed when your life revolved around getting to work on time, hitting targets, squeezing shopping into lunchtimes and generally being an employee.  This is a whole new ball game!

Of course, sitting in coffee shops, writing personalised stories and adding to something else, does not bring in the bacon.  But I have got two articles to write in the next day or two and I need to catch up on Young Writer stuff in time for the session on Saturday week.  I proofread a poem on Tuesday that is being published in an anthology in March.  And my eternal hunt for an agent has begun again in earnest.

This is my time.  I deserve this!


Wednesday 4 January 2017

It's 2017 !!!!!!!!!!!!

Happy New Year to each and every one of you. I can hardly believe it is 2017 already!  Hope your festive season went well. Ours was brilliant and it was lovely to see people we don't see too often.

Well - it happened.  I am between jobs!  It was all very amicable and will give me some breathing space.  Fortunately several Creative Writing opportunities have come along - talk about perfect timing - which will be very handy as I look for another job.  It did feel a bit weird yesterday not to go back to work like so many others.  This morning I got up at the usual time, had breakfast with Steve before he went to bed after working last night, met my coffee shop buddies as usual and then spent the morning job-hunting.  I know something will turn up - even if its isn't full time.  I have signed up with several on-line recruitment companies. too.

My plan for 2017 - especially now I have a bit of time on my hands - is to write another book for children and to get myself signed up with an agent.  I have tried my entire life to get an agent and I will go through my new W & A Yearbook (courtesy the in-laws) looking for one and for any other new openings.  I deserve it now.  I have been writing for over fifty years!!!  When I think of how much I have had published over the years, plus the fact I have been a member of the Society of Authors for two decades or so, and all the courses and workshops I have run, talks I have done, competitions I have judged and commissions I have been presented with, and the huge success of the Young Writer group, I think now is my time!  Watch this space.

Wasn't it sad to lose Rick Parfitt, George Michael, Carrie Fisher and  Debbie Reynolds all in the space of four days!  What a shock!  We saw Quo at the O2 not four weeks ago - Rick was too ill to perform but Francis Rossi gave it his all.  To then find out we lost Rick on Christmas Eve - how sad is that?  But then, I think, 2016 was a very bad year for celebrity losses.  I seriously cannot think of any other year where we lost so many!

So as I sign off I wish you all the very best for 2017.  Believe in yourself and your dreams will come true!