January is done and dusted!
And what have we accomplished?
My latest book, Michael (the final in the a historical fiction trilogy, The Triptych Chronicle) is taking me the longest to write of all eleven titles in my list. It’s not writer’s block, it’s not that I don’t like the story arc or the characters.
It’s simply life…
Is it a career?
Maybe it would be if it paid my way through every aspect of my life. But many authors, both mainstream and indie, will tell you that earning enough to pay all the bills is extremely difficult.
If you are one of the lucky ones – well done, you. But for most of us, there has to be another income stream.
So – my writing life is perhaps not a career in the accepted sense.
We all chase dreams. Some more than others. But the writing dream is one that comes with its own issues. In this honest and revealing post, Gordon Doherty, writer of spectacular Roman and Byzantine fiction explains how the profession of writing really tested him!
Pickling walnuts. Imagine a slab of sourdough, some fruit chutney (maybe apple and almond or fig and onion) some delicious aged cheddar that bites one’s tongue and pickled walnuts on the top. A thing of joy!
Gosh! What a year it has been!
And how fast it has flown!
I wonder sometimes if it’s an age thing, that time flies because one is on the downhill run…
I’m a very slow reader of fiction.
Partly because I spend a great deal of time reading non-fiction for research. For time off, I either embroider or tumble into bed exhausted at night and manage just 3-4 pages of the fiction novel I might be reading.
I haven’t counted the books I’ve read this year and will just list those in my library which appealed the most to me as a reader and writer. I’m not a believer in listing books which have not been what I had hoped or which I was unable to finish. I think it’s unfair to the author who may well by liked by many other readers and who has a brand and who has worked hard to pull off a good novel. Reading ‘likes’ are completely subjective and so below is my very subjective list…
In a recent interview, I was asked whether I visited the sites in my stories. Living in Australia, I’m many air-miles from the sites about which I write, and the cost of visiting those places annually would send me into debit rather than credit with my friendly financial institution.
So…
What to do?
My latest guest was born of academia, wanted to be a cat burglar, got high through the seventies (one is desperate to ask was it good?) hates diets but has never ever had a surfeit of life and in addition writes killingly observant blogs on the world of writing. Not only that, her latest book, Food Of Love, is amongst other things an homage to chocolate.
