Welcome...it's lovely to see you......

Welcome to my blog, I guess I should begin by telling you a little about myself, I am a writer, or to be more accurate, I am trying to be one. I have written two novels of a trilogy, and they are available for people to read, but, as perhaps, like many other people, to call myself an actual ‘author’ seems a bit much. Authors are J. K. Rowling , Jane Austen , Stepehen King etc not me, but who knows, maybe one day I will be able to say it without feeling vaguely ridiculous. However, perhaps like them, I have always written in one way or another, it would be very cliched to say, I write to ‘escape’ my real life, aside from the groans that kind of comment invariably brings, it isn’t actually true. I suppose I write, to be heard – it’s that simple.

As for my personal life, I am a mother to two amazing young women, and no, I will not be boring you with all their exploits since they emerged from the womb...suffice to say, I am very proud of them both and I love them more than they can ever really understand. As a single mother, they have been the centre of my world, but now they are creating worlds of their own and it just felt like it was time I did the same. It has never been difficult for me to look at them with admiration, I hope now, they will be able to do the same – not see just their mum, but see someone they too can admire and respect.

So, when the day came when I realised they were both almost as tall as me, so perhaps didn’t need me to open their juice carton any more, or meet them from school and admire their latest artwork, which, to be honest, wasn’t always easy to do, considering it was very often a large sheet of paper, with wildly colourful daubs of paint which, however hard I tried, didn’t obviously resemble anything! Naturally, like all parents, I would say the tried and tested,

“That’s lovely..we must put that up somewhere special when we get home.”

Most of the time that response brought a smile to my budding artist, however, my youngest soon got wise and would ask me which part I liked the best. I would obviously attempt to stall for time by making a show of examining the picture carefully, hoping against hope, something would appear to me. Fortunately, I have blue eyes, so if I ever spotted two blobs of iridescent blue paint, it was generally safe to assume I was the subject.

“It’s obviously me,” I answered confidently, she eyed me suspiciously, before replying,

“That’s right,” she paused, but then added, “but where are you?”

Obviously, I would have no idea, something she never failed to notice, and we would spend the walk home with her explaining, what was obviously a tree, the zoo, a plane etc etc and how she felt I really needed to get my eyes checked as it was all so glaringly obvious.

 

I know I said earlier I wasn’t going to talk about my kids and I promise this is the first and last anecdote, but telling it does serve a purpose. You see, when I started to write the first novel, it was filled with -what I perceived to be – clever turns of phrase, showing off my vocabulary and generally being unforgivably pretentious. So it just wasn’t ‘real’, there was way too many attempts at being ‘authorly’ which resulted in nothing more than perhaps a reasonable essay illustrating the correct use of the English Language. At first, this was hard for me to accept, but then I remembered those paintings, two blobs of blue paint meant my eyes to my young daughter, that was all it took. I began again and just wrote from my heart, now the characters speak and act with, what I believe to be, truth at the core. It may not be ‘clever’ but hopefully, when people read, they can relate to them on an emotional level which is genuine and not contrived in any way. That’s what I’ve tried to do – apply to my writing how I aspire to be in life, if that makes sense.

Well, hopefully, that gives you some idea about me now...as for this blog, what’s it going to be about? Well, I thought we would just see what happens, what do you think? Obviously, there will be posts about the books, but I would also like to share thoughts with you about life, the universe and everything with more than a sprinkling of humour!

So, maybe you’ll stop by again soon, I will try and make sure there’s something worth your visit..until then.

Take care out there xx