The final word from our four writers and a heartfelt thank you to them all for sharing their writing years. Ladies – you’re an inspiration.
JACKIE BALDWIN: BALANCING
This month for me has been all about trying to balance the competing demands on my time between the day job, writing the first draft of my third crime novel and getting sorted for Christmas. My heart says write but my head says shop, clean and do the ironing! I have never been good at splitting my focus.
Tis the season to be jolly! I am a member of a wonderful crime writing community called Crime and Publishment in Gretna. Some of us are published whilst others are working on a first draft or at the submission stage. After our Christmas meal we went round the table celebrating everyone’s writing wins, both big and small. It was heartening to hear how far we have come since our first year in 2014.
For me this time of year is always a time for reflection. To remember those people and animals who are no longer with us but lit up our lives, to be grateful for those who are still here and to think about where I want to direct my energies in the brand new shiny year to come.
It has been a pleasure to share my writing journey with you all this year. Wishing you all a very merry Christmas and a happy New Year.
ANGELA PETCH: SHINING
December Frost: sparkly, ice-cold, sharp, and a fitting way to skate away from a year of monthly reports. I shall miss them: it’s been a way of focussing during quite a year.
December 1st, I launched my self-published “Mavis and Dot”, and, promoted by a Blog Tour, it’s going well. My shiny new banner helped pull in interested readers. On the following Saturday, I manned a successful book stall outside Arundel Cancer Research Shop. All profits from M and D are destined for this charity. A sequel has been requested; I’m thinking up scenarios for the two ladies.
Edits for Bookouture are 99% done for the first Tuscan novel commissioned for Spring 2019, (no title yet), and I’ve written a couple of chapters for the second. The rest is in my head. This year I will pin to paper.
Thanks so much to Jane and my trio of friendly authors. New friendships made, new goals formed. Good luck to us all, happy Christmas and 2019.
CLAIRE DYER: HURDLING
So, another year has gone by and I’m definitely a year older, but no wiser I fear!
Some highlights have been (in no particular order): my kids are doing OK; Mr Dyer is well and busy; my cats are still my friends; my novel The Last Day was published and I’ve been working on another two books since which has been both a challenge and a joy; it looks like there may be a new poetry collection in 2021.
Some lowlights have been (in no particular order): my mother’s dementia; the state of the nation; I don’t seem to be ageing like Dame Judi Dench, more like Ena Sharples; Hollywood still hasn’t called to offer to make my book into a movie!
And, as ever, there have been hurdles as is the case of the writer’s life. No sooner are we over one, then another appears. Sometimes they trip us up; sometimes we sail over them, landing gracefully on the other side a bit like a gazelle. And, as ever, there’s no saying which the next one will be as I sit here at the year’s end with the echo of the starting pistol and the crowd’s roar in my ear.
LUCY COLEMAN: REFLECTING
As the year draws to a close it’s a time when I reflect upon the highlights and low points of my working year. But more importantly it’s when I set new goals for the year ahead.
It has been my second most successful year as an author to date, for which I’m incredibly grateful. Hitting the no. 5 spot in the UK Kindle chart with ‘Snowflakes Over Holly Cove’, my second novel writing as Lucy Coleman, was beyond any dream I ever had. The goals I set are never about the results, but about the work required to keep honing my skills.
My goal for 2018 was to write four new books. Tick. And the first novella in a new little project with a new pen name. Tick.
My goal for 2019? Four new books and the second novella.
I write because it’s my passion and I write from the heart. The happiness and fulfilment is in the creation, because it is a little like the lottery. In this case fate is in the hands of the legion of wonderful reviewers and readers who choose your book. And that’s humbling.
Wishing everyone a 2019 filled with happiness, love and good health. And to the incredible Jane Cable and my fellow writers, you are all an inspiration!