Thoughts on 2022

At this time of year, I always to take a moment to reviews the highs and lows of the year, and to assess what I’ve actually achieved over the year.  I must say I’m glad to see the back of 2022, as it’s not been an easy one. But then when is life ever easy these days? It started badly, attending the funeral of my youngest son’s friend on my son’s 18^thbirthday. Two other more elderly friends died and I spent a lot of time supporting the bereaved at the beginning of the year. 

I was looking forward to February as I had planned a weekend in London with my husband for his birthday. Unfortunately, a hurricane stopped all train travel and we had to postpone at the last minute.  We did get to go in March though, and the weather was so much nicer so perhaps it was a blessing in disguise. 

 

In February my eldest son left home to join the army. I was sad to see my first born fly the nest. I wasn’t one hundred percent behind his decision but it’s what he wanted to do so I supported him. Ten weeks later he was back home after having decided it wasn’t for him after all. I’m glad he tried it though and made that decision himself. He’s since found himself a good job and seems much happier so that’s something to be grateful for. 

 

In April we were supposed to be going to Ireland to visit my husband’s relatives but after two years of dodging the bullet, we both got COVID. I’d been worried about catching the virus as the medication I take for my Psoriatic Arthritis means I have low immunity. Thankfully the vaccinations protected me and the illness wasn’t as bad as I had feared. We finally got to Ireland in May.

 

 

The first half of the year was tricky for my youngest son. I spent a lot of time helping him learn to drive and supporting him through three driving tests. When he did pass I spent several months biting my nails whenever he went out int he car. And then were the A-Level exams which were also stressful. He's now at university studying history.He was really looking forward to going but has ended up more homesick than he expected, but I'm hoping in settle in more next term. 

On the plus side my husband and I had two happy holidays in Spain at our apartment, so the year has had its up-sides too.

 

 

And through all this I have been trying to keep my writing going. 

 

In 2022 I completed Book 1 sent it to several agents, either heard nothing or got rejected, edited it again and sent it to the publisher, ChocLit. Its currently going through assessment via their reader panel, the result of which I’m hoping to hear from soon. 

 

I’ve been learning as much as I can about self-publishing. If Book 1 doesn’t get taken up by ChocLit I’m going to bite the bullet and publish it myself. I’ve spent many years submitting things and either getting rejected or being ignored so maybe it’s time to take control of my writing destiny.

 

I’ve done some serious editing and redrafting of Book 2. This came into being during NaNoWriMo so was a very rough 50,000 words. I got more or less to the end of this, deleting and creating so that it was 70,000 words, then I got a bit depressed because it still wasn’t quite working. So, I went back to square one, did a lot more plotting and planning and am halfway through the process of re-writing. Hopefully by the end of this draft I will have much deeper characterisation and a sound structure and my next edit will be more a case of fine tuning.

 

I’ve dipped my toe into the world of Twitter and done some extensive research on how to develop my own website. I’ve also been reviewing and editing some short stories as I have decided to self-publish a couple of short story anthologies as a way to introduce myself into the world of independent publishing. 

 

After a slow start to the writing year, I’ve ended on a positive note and am fully motivated to make sure that 2023 will be the year I finally get published (one way or another).

 

What were your best bits of 2022 and what are you looking forward to in 2023?

What is Fate?

Wikipedia defines it as:

A power or agency that predetermines and orders the course of events; that these events are ordered or inevitable or unavoidable and that humans can have no effect upon their own fates or upon the fates of others.

I’ve always wondered about fate. Are our lives predestined or do things happen purely through chance?

Is it fate that makes you miss the train or the plane that crashes or is it just luck?  Or is it just bad luck for you to be on that train or plane. 

It’s definitely grist to the writer’s mill and it’s something that has been particularly on my mind recently, especially after the recent terrorism in Tunisia. What if those people on the beach had decided to spend the day by the pool instead, or go on a day trip, or even go on holiday to another resort or country? It makes you wonder.

It would be hard not to be aware of the fact that this week is the 10^th anniversary of the bombings in London on 7 July 2005.

Like 9/11 I don’t think anyone will forget where they were as the news of these devastating acts of terrorism unfolded, and watching the documentaries which are being shown in memory of the anniversary, I am no less horrified today than I was ten years ago.

I lived in London for nine years, only coming back to the north-west in 1995.  I thought nothing of whizzing around on the tubes and buses, it really is the only way to get around.  So those bombers weren’t just making a protest they were trying to destroy the very essence of London life. 

A week after the event, I had to go down to London for a work meeting, to Russell Square of all places, where the organisation I worked for had an office.  I must admit to being very nervous.  What if my one-off journey proved to be the day that a further strike was made on the city?  It didn’t help that armed police were patrolling the tiny Chester train station, which completely unnerved me.  My boss told me to get a taxi when I reached Euston station and so I made my way underground to the taxi rank.

I phoned my husband to let him know that I had arrived safely when an alarm went off and over the tannoy we were told to evacuate the building.  The rail staff directed us outwards towards daylight but when we got there, the police were directing us back into the building. I was pretty scared I can tell you and I seriously thought that these might be my last moments.  I can still remember the relief when I made it out in one piece.  All thoughts of getting a taxi fled from my mind and I walked to the office.  Mind you, walking down the route that the fateful bus had taken was unnerving in itself.

It turned out that the evacuation was the result of someone who had left a bag unattended, but the police were on high alert because the next day the accomplices to the bombers were arrested.

I’m not sure whether it’s because of that experience, or because London is very much in my blood, that the events of 7 July have always been very close to my heart. Afterwards I did a lot of research on how the events unfolded and put that into a story. 

Over time the story has lain on my hard-drive as I’ve never been sure what to do with it.  As time went on I thought that it was probably redundant.  But I’ve decided that I don’t want it to lay dormant forever, and so tomorrow on the anniversary I’m going to post it here on my blog.

I hope you enjoy it.

Phantom Nasties

I mentioned in an earlier blog that we had a family outing to see The Phantom of the Opera at the Liverpool Empire.

Phantom is a family thing. I took my husband to see it years ago at Manchester and he fell in love with it. I must admit it was more of a slow burn for me, but when the DVD came out, after several viewings I found that I loved it too as did my boys.

Three years ago, me and my husband went down to London for the weekend to celebrate our 10^th wedding anniversary (sans children). We had a wonderful weekend, stayed in a fab hotel by the Tower of London, had a champagne ride on the London Eye and revisited some of my old haunts from when I used to live in the city.

But the highlight for me was going to see Phantom there. I

’d booked seats four rows back from the front of the stalls. I had wondered whether we’d get neck ache like you do when you are too close to the front at the cinema, but it was completely the opposite. We were so close to the drama on stage we actually felt as we were part of it, especially as the massive chandelier spent most of the show hanging right above our heads.

Last year Phantom came back to Manchester and I wanted to take the whole family to see it, but in the end I couldn’t get tickets. Well I could have, but the seats cost a fortune for the four of us, and they were so far back, it would like have been sitting outside the theatre.

Then it went on to Liverpool, and although the tickets weren’t cheap, they were at least in the circle with a half decent view, and the boys were really excited about going, which really made the night for me.

Whilst the production was fantastic, because we had been spoilt the last time we saw it, this time I did feel rather removed from the action. But what really let it down, for me, were the three noisy people sitting right behind us. They chatted and laughed all the way through the first half, so that I could barely hear the speaking parts.

I began to get really annoyed and did a few hard stares behind me which worked for a while, but soon the annoyance returned. I really wanted to say something but kept remembering a time when my friend had spoken out at something similar, and ended up having to leave the theatre herself half way through the show when the people causing the disturbance turned nasty.

Eventually though I couldn’t stand it any more and turned round and politely but firmly asked them to be quiet.

It didn’t go down too well, and apparently they were making nasty gestures behind me, but at least they shut up.

I raced out to the bar at the interval and wasn’t looking forward to going back afterwards. But when we got back to our seats they were gone. And other people around me thanked me for being so outspoken and wished they had done the same.

The second half was much more enjoyable, especially as I was buoyed up by the fact that I had stuck up for what I believed was right.

Not sure I would have had the guts to do it though if I had been on my own.

Theatre tickets arent cheap though, we had been looking forward to it for weeks, and I can’t understand why people would pay that price for tickets and then completely disregard, not only the production they were going to see, but also the feelings of others around them.

Perhaps its just me, but I was brought up to have respect and consider other people’s feelings.

Shame other people aren’t the same.

Shirley Valentine and Times Gone By

The other night as I was idly flicking through the television channels I came across the film Shirley Valentine. No matter how many times I’ve watched the flim, it always comes across as fresh as the first time I watched it and is just as poignant.

The film was at the hilarious point where Shirley meets her old school friend (Joanna Lumley). Shirley admits that she thought her friend was an air hostess and Joanna comes back as says, “Good Lord no, I’m a hooker.” or words to that affect.

The bit that really got to me though is when Shirley is on the bus going home, and is remembering how she used to be when she was a girl, full of hopes and dreams for the future.

I think that bit really got to me because I had a similar experience recently. At the end of March I celebrated my 10th wedding anniversary. Ten years – where did they go then?

We decided to celebrate by going away for a weekend without the children which we have done so rarely in the last ten years. (I was pregnant with our first son on our first anniversary, so technically we haven’t yet had an anniversary on our own).

We looked at various different options but settled on a weekend in London. On the Friday morning we travelled down on the train, stayed at a really nice hotel close to Tower Bridge (with swimming pool and spar), had a champagne flight on the London Eye and went to see Phantom of the Opera at the theatre. All in all a wonderful and memorable occasion.

I enjoy going to visit London because for nine years I used to live there. I’ve always had a fascination for our capital city and decided to go to polytechnic in north London when I was 18. I didn’t come back to the north west until I was 27. I lived in a variety of places and had so many experiences there that I can barely remember them all. But sitting on the tube and exploring places where I used to go or live brought a lot of them back to me. On the Saturday we got the tube to Richmond where I used to live and work and then followed the river all the way round to Chiswick; also a place I have lived in.

It was really weird, as though those things had happened to a different person in another lifetime and I found it really hard to reconcile the person I am now to the person I was then.

I’m not saying that I’m unhappy with my life or how things have turned out just that the years have flown by so quickly. In my head I’m still in my early twenties and sometimes it comes as a bit of a shock to realise that I’m actually in my early forties (despite the continual reminders from my boys).

I also began to think about all the time I wasted when I was down there, when I should have been out and about and making the most of the attractions of such a wonderful city and its made me more determined to make the most of what I have here, especially now the sun has started to shine.

Have you had any profound or thought provoking experiences recently?