Morning re-think and Vintage Script

Visiting favourite old haunts in London

Back in England, people have been asking me how I'm getting on with my writing and I've been responding, truthfully, that I'm getting on really well, enjoying my new-found morning time in Nairobi to write. What I'm starting to think, however, is that I may be spreading myself too thinly. I have the whole morning to write, and that is four hours a day more than I had before, but I may be trying to pack too much into the morning (preparing book no.1 to be published as an ebook, writing book no.2 and getting organised to go into schools to do creative writing workshops).

If I'm not careful, this Spanish Civil War novel may drag on for another five years if I'm investing minimum time into it each day. So. This is a tricky decision as the Matala book is gathering steam, but I think I need to put it aside for now and focus on getting 'In the shade of the orange tree' sorted out.

On another note, I was very happy to have a short story called Trafalgar Dusk accepted for a print publication named Vintage Script , a magazine which focuses on historical articles and fiction. You can't read the story online, but click here for a little more info.

Back in Nairobi, I think I need to use my morning hours a little more wisely and get this novel (which I love, but it has dragged on for too long) nailed, once and for all.

How children can help (and not hinder) the creative process

I'm really pleased today to have had an article published by US based writing site Women Writers on creativity and motherhood. Click here to read the article. I meant every single word that I wrote, but I must admit that now with eight weeks of summer holidays and three lively young children to entertain, I am having to employ even more creative means to carve out time for myself and my writing. 

Not long ago, I went to a talk at the school my kids go to, given by a specialist in early years education. One thing in particular that stands out from his talk was when he said that we should never, ever underestimate the importance of getting down on to the floor and really playing with our children. This may sound obvious, but the truth is that there are many times (too many times) that my kids ask me to play with them and I'm 'too busy' making their dinner or cleaning up. Something I am really trying to focus on over these holidays is not being too busy and sitting on the floor with them - and I'm not just talking about five minutes, but proper amounts of time - and really engaging with whatever they're doing. It's harder than it sounds as my mind is too often jumping ahead to what I should be doing next, rather than truly being present with them.

The other thing I am aiming for this summer is that, when I do have a little time for myself - even if it's only five minutes - using that time wisely. I am being helped in this respect by this wonderful book:

The illustrations are stunning and there are a number of mindfulness exercises which help you trust your inner wisdom and deal with stress and difficulties more wisely, compassionately and in many ways, more creatively. I love this quote on the back of the book:

'Some people walk in the rain, others just get wet.'

Roger Miller, Singer / Songwriter

Wise words from The Little Prince

'Grown-ups never understand anything by themselves, and it is tiresome for children to be always and forever explaining things to them.' 

Antoine de Saint-Exupery

I love these words from the second page of 'The Little Prince.' This has to be one of my favourite books of all time, a book ostensibly for children but so rich and multi-layered that it's really an adult's book. I love it so much that it's the only book I own in three languages: The Little Prince, Le Petit Prince & El Principito. For the first time last night, my children asked me to read it to them before they went to bed (obviously not the whole thing; it's too long) but I was so delighted that they loved the pictures and the responded to the poetry of its language, asking for more this evening. It just goes to show how many levels this book can be read on and can appeal as much to a five year old as an adult.

Summer on Kindle

                                                        

            Edith Wharton

I've just finished reading a wonderful book called 'Summer' by Edith Wharton. The prose and characters were beautifully drawn and the tragedy of the love story, moving. Here's a little phrase I liked:

'Now and then a lurch of the train flung her against Harney, 

and through her thin muslin she felt the touch of his sleeve.

She steadied herself, their eyes met,

and the flaming breath of the day seemed to enclose them.'

But the big thing for me is that this is the first ever book I read on ...a kindle! I found myself out here in Nairobi without books as my container's not yet arrived. This being a slightly disastrous state of affairs for me, as I always need to be reading, I finally downloaded this free e-book on to my mac. Ok, I couldn't take my mac to bed with me and if I was out and about, I couldn't just pop it into my bag as I would have been able to with a book. But still, it's good to know that next time I find myself book-less (I have since discovered a source of second hand books at one of Nairobi's many matumba's / second hand markets), I can browse through the kindle selection.

Also, it's good for me to start looking at e-books in general, how they are formatted & presented / front covers etc if I'm going to be publishing an e-book. I must admit that I thought I would hate reading online and whilst it wasn't as enjoyable for me as physical book, it definitely didn't detract from the wonderful writing. On that note, I'd highly recommend Wharton's novel to anyone. Her books are always a bit tragic, but the prose is just stunning.

A taste of the next book

I am absolutely loving writing my new novel. The characters and plot are shaping up nicely and this one seems to be more dialogue based so I'm having lots of fun with the conversations. To give you a little visual taster, the novel is mainly set in Crete in both 1967 where young people flocked to live in caves seeking an alternative, utopian lifestyle and then forty years later, in 2007. Unlike the last novel, I have lots of LIVING people to talk to about life there, my mother being one of them! Here's what it looked like back in 1967 (picture taken from the caves):

And here's roughly the same view now:

A present day picture of the caves...

...and four previous cave dwellers reunited last year, in reminiscent mood (my mother is second to left with the hat)

Relaxing into my new writing routine

I can actually feel myself starting to physically relax out here. The days are warmer and slower and I feel like I'm not rushing so much anymore - in fact, I'm barely rushing at all.

I have got myself into a good routine as I have every morning from about 8.45 to 12.45 to myself for my writing, reading and conjuring and it is BLISS. It's worked well dividing my morning into little project chunks and even if I only work on one of these projects for ten minutes, that's fine, I have still given it some thought. So here's what I do (in no particular order): 1) Research digital publishing and read about it online 2) Edit my Spanish Civil War novel as it still needs some attention before I publish the e-book 3)Write between 500 and 1000 words of my new novel 4) Research and think about creative writing for kids as I would like to start running workshops at the start of next term 5) Do some exercise! This involves me walking very fast up and down up the long road at the end of our drive (it currently takes about 40 minutes but once I get my 'power-walking' style perfected should take less!  People often think I am lost and ask if they can help me, it is such an odd thing to see for most people!)

All the above might sound like quite a lot but it's amazing how much I can get done in 4 hours.

Oh, and before you think that photo of me was taken at our house and this is how we eat breakfast every morning in Kenya...it's not (sadly!). It was taken at a lodge during our last trip here in February.

Onwards and upwards

So here I am in Kenya with all its glorious mud, rain, dust, bright colours, smells of the earth, air, flowers and fruit and it's all new and wonderful and sometimes downright weird. But it really is good to  be here, I'm slowly finding a new rhythm to my days and meeting a few people. Now that the children are settled in school (my eldest does 8.10 to 3.15 and my younger two do 8.30 till 1) I, very excitingly, have each and every morning to myself which, no surprises, I will mainly devote to writing (as well as at some point in the future do creative writing workshops in schools I hope, just working on this at the moment so more of this later...)

Just yesterday, I heard back from the agent who had my full manuscript - my final thread of hope of finding representation in the traditional publishing industry. She had many wonderful things to say about it eg 'outstanding plot & backdrop' blah blah blah BUT the answer was still NO. There are no two ways of saying no, it's just NO. It's hard for me to express how this made me feel, I'm not going to go on about it but - pardon my french - I am utterly bloody gutted. When you put your heart and soul into a project for so long - and I'm sure some people reading this have experienced this in a similar way with something else - and it's something you believe in whole-heartedly, it's not easy to admit to yourself that whilst lots of people (agents) have clearly been impressed by it over the years, they just have not been impressed enough.

This particular agent encouraged me to keep working on it but I can't. I don't have it in me. I've re-worked it to the death. It wouldn't be right to say that I'm 'admitting defeat' but what I do know is that I should pick myself up and continue, I must pick myself up and continue. The good news is that getting an e-book out there for those of you who want to read it is one step closer. Boy is it going to be a steep learning curve for me, I'm not even on Facebook and have never really wanted to be but I think now, if I'm going to be tackling the world of digital publishing, it would be a big mistake not to get myself out there.

But a quick question for any of you reading this - I'm at the beginning stages of looking at e-books and also print copies being made of my book which you (the buyer) would have to pay 6.99 for or something like that to have a physical copy. What I'm wondering is whether people would prefer to have the physical book OR would be happy to buy an e-book (much cheaper for you) and then read it on your kindle / ipad etc. I'd be so grateful if you could drop me a line and let me know.

And hey, even though things didn't go the way I hoped they would, I have a great deal to look forward to with this new book I've started work on. It feels right, like this is what I should be writing about. Also, I must remember that potential possibilities abound with digital publishing. Just think Fifty shades of grey. Maybe I should be writing kinky erotic novels instead?!! I'll just have to make the next book a bit more steamy....

Kenyan countdown

3 full days to go before we move to Nairobi - can this really be possible??

Since I last posted about the agent wanting to read my full manuscript, I've heard nothing. I did actually send her an email last week with a gentle prompt, asking if she'd had a chance to look at it yet. She responded that she hadn't as she's been up to her eyeballs in the London Book Fair but will get back to me in the next few weeks. So this period of *hope* (that dangerous but beautiful word!) has been extended.

In the meantime, I have had a short story published in an online magazine. Always rewarding to see my name in print (let's face it, all I really want is to egotistically see my name in print!). The magazine was meant to be a physical one but a bit guttingly they ran out of money before it went to print and had to do a virtual version. But no matter, they liked my story enough to print it :)

I will be blogging about the experiences of my middle child in Kenya here and probably continue to blog about writing-related topics on Mother Writes. See you on the other side - wish me luck!
x

Dreaming in Lisbon

Lisboa

I spent last weekend in the tumbledown rainy sunny city of Lisboa, visiting some old friends. I love this place. The dire economic straits the country is in is palpable but despite this, Lisboans have not lost their sense of alegria. (This is a Spanish & Portuguese word which broadly translates to lightness of spirit). 

The whole time I was away, I was feeling pretty excited because last week, for the first time in a VERY, VERY long time, an agent asked to see my full manuscript. I really needed this as a boost to my confidence and to help me believe that my writing is of some merit because, believe me, there are times when I wonder. So while I was away, I was in that wonderful in-between stage of golden hope, knowing that they liked what they'd read so far, and that this could actually be something. Now I'm back in England and the rest of the manuscript has been sent off to them. I sat for a long time at the lap-top, not quite bringing myself to be able to push the 'send' button because that in-between dreaming stage will be lost to me forever. It's a bizarre feeling but once I pressed it, it's out of my hands again and now all I can do is sit tight and wait.

Kenya

I spent last week in Kenya and it was...well...heavenly.

Here's me in our lodge near to Lake Navaisha. I managed to read 2 books during the week (when did I last do that?), write some haiku, organise cover letters for the different agents I'm going to send my manuscript out to, eat far too much, sleep more than I've slept in months, do some yoga overlooking the lake and also spend proper time with my hubby (the longest alone since our honeymoon!). I also found out whilst I was away that a short story of mine is going to be published soon in What the Dickens magazine :)

Without even going on safari, we saw some incredible wildlife and I'm so excited to share this with the children when we move out in 6 weeks (yikes, 6 weeks, is that all?!!). It feels like a bit of a tick-tock countdown now I'm back in the UK, so much to do, so many people to see. I don't think we're going to be back here for at least a year and admittedly, everyone is so busy these days with work and family lives that quite often a year goes by anyway without seeing people. But even so, our move to Africa is feeling nearer and more real and I'm feeling a mixture of dizzy excitement on how our lives in Kenya will unfold and sadness at this chapter ending here in Twickenham.

I spent the morning in a frenzy of printing and by the end of this week I'm going to send out my manuscript to ten more agents. Then next week (or the week after), the final ten. A friend on saturday made the point to me that it takes a mere half hour to upload one's ebook on to amazon (really?) and yes, that may be what I'm looking at in a few months time and if that's the case, I shall endeavour (!) to embrace it. But until then, I'm fighting till the death for the analogue / acoustic version of my book ;)

Here's me getting to know a wild fig tree!