2012

New year, new life, new house, new attitude.

I’m going to finish my book. I’ve spent since July thinking about it, and it’s time to get the rewrites done and start resubmitting it to the agents who said almost, but not quite, and to the publisher who said yes please, we’d like to read more.

There’s something about writing, the act of sitting down with this laptop and letting words fall out of my fingers, which makes me feel whole. I need to let it out. I have words and words and words all jumbled up in my head and they are desperate to escape. So much of last year was taken up with dealing with life and I didn’t have time to lose myself in words. I need them.

A few days by the seaside always help to clear my head. We saw in the new year in Formby, in a beautiful cottage where the children could rampage around the garden and roll down giant sand dunes, and I had much needed grown up time talking and relaxing and being me. No proper photographs, though, because I managed to forget my camera battery. I won’t make that mistake in a few weeks when I go to France, I promise.

Happy Christmas

We’re in the new house. And look, everyone is happy. Hooray. Here’s to 2012 and all it brings. Have a lovely Christmas.

starting over

There isn’t an easy way to say hey guess what we’re getting divorced and my ex has moved to Canada and I’m here with four children and a dog and a cat and a tank full of blooming tropical fish I don’t know how to look after, is there?

But there you go. Most of you know it, anyway, and if you didn’t, well, there you are. And yes, it’s horrible and hard work and scary and I’m excited at the same time. Life is starting again, and I like it.

But I was cleaning the kitchen today whilst doing eleven billion other things and dealing with my broken children, when I thought about this blog. It’s a pretty good metaphor for the way I am right now. It’s sitting here, all shiny and beautiful and nothing’s-changed-ish, and I don’t know what to do with it. And we move to our new house in Buckingham in less than two weeks, and I’m sitting in my house and it’s all shiny and beautiful and nothing’s-changed-ish. Because I’m a bit scared. Because when I start packing (or writing) it’s real. Properly real. And I don’t know how to fit a washing machine. Or put the bunk beds together. Or the children. I don’t know how to put them back together.

And I’m actually terribly untidy, and since July when I started living alone with the children I’ve been fighting against a sea of bits of paper and lego people and squeezy yogurt wrappers which sneak under the cushions and wine glasses and oh, help. And I don’t know how to fix the broken dishwasher, either. And there’s a million tons of paperwork and we forgot to put the bin out and my favourite chicken died the day my ex left for Canada and it’s really scary being a grown up. And this isn’t flowers and pretty and village life. But it’s real life. And it’s all I’ve got right now. You can keep me company whilst we start over, if you like.

chicken in red wine

I’m on my way back. It’s been a long old summer, with lots of changes for everyone, but I think I have found myself again in all of it. Have a lovely weekend, and I’ll be back with photographs and the usual ramblings next week.

NaNoWriMo 2011

It’s almost time. All over the world, people are starting to think about National Novel Writing Month, aka NaNoWriMo.

Last November I started a book and wrote 50,000 words in one month. Scary stuff, and I spent the whole time in a words obsessed haze. So for anyone contemplating it this year, here are ten things I learned whilst doing NaNoWriMo.

It was worth it! An excerpt of Sealed with a Kiss reached no1 in the Harper Collins Authonomy chart for unsigned writers – have a look, you can read the first few chapters there. And a year (and an editor, and lots of twiddling with chapters and characters) on, I’ve had interest from agents and publishers, and I’m about to take a huge leap, inspired by my friend Melanie, and venture into the world of self publishing.

And if you’ve even wondered what NaNoWriMo looks like, here’s photographic evidence.