Mother Writes: Back to school & writing

Monday, 2 September 2013

Back to school & writing

Back in beautiful Kenya, and september often feels like a time of new beginnings, probably because of all those years of starting a new school year around now. The children go back to school tomorrow and I get my mornings back. I've started to make some enquiries about going in to schools to do creative writing workshops, but it seems it may not be as straight forward as I'd hoped, namely because of the difficulty of getting hold of a work permit and also the relevant head of literacy even agreeing to have a meeting with me. However, I'm not going to be deterred easily. I'll keep pestering until the school secretaries are fed up with me and agree to meet me. And even if nothing comes of it this way, I shall definitely go in to lower income schools and give the workshops voluntarily (am presuming they are less concerned about work permits - hope I'm not wrong there.)

I'm also really enjoying working on a short story I'm going to submit to Mslexia, the theme being 'foreign parts' so no prizes for guessing where my story is set. And, difficult a decision as it's been, I'm going to put my new novel aside for now so I can sort out In the shade of the orange tree and get it ready for e-book publication. Kindle Direct Publishing, here I come!

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Mother Writes...What's it all about?

When I was little, I imagined with the supreme confidence of a child that when I was all grown up, I'd be a celebrated writer. And by grown-up, I probably meant about eighteen. The concept of even reaching the age of thirty, let alone beyond, was off my radar and my seven-year old self shuddered at the ominious thought of not having published at least several novels by that grand old age.

Fast forward to the present. Here I am, age thirty-five, wife to a lovely hubby and mother to three gorgeous children. Now, am I writer? My seven-year old self would hold a very strong opinion on this: No, because I don't have a single published novel to my name. But I'm pleased to say that now I'm all grown-up, I'm also a bit more measured and realistic in my expectations of myself. Don't get me wrong - I love my seven-year old self for believing I could achieve that much but I have, over the years, come to an important conclusion:

If you dance, you are a dancer. If you paint, you are a painter. And if you write, you are a writer.

But we have to actually do it, not just talk about doing it. It's all too easy to procrastinate about our creative endeavours and that's all I ask of myself now: to create; to write. And if I'm lucky enough to get something published (which I'm pleased to say that I have done, in the form of short stories, reviews and articles), well, that's a bonus. And that's what this blog offers: little slices of honesty on my plate of life as mother, wife and creator of words. It's often not easy to juggle all three, particularly dealing with bouts of chronic insomnia. But I have to trust this is all part of the journey, and challenges are what make life interesting.