Surprises!

I didn't start writing with the intention of making my fortune!! I've enjoyed the few things I have written and have been thrilled that somebody 'out there' appreciates it and has published some of them!

Today I had TWO emails! From two different places who have accepted my stories before, to say they were accepting a second! Whoo-hoo!!

Bringing my total to 7! Nothing I can go on a spending spree with, in fact, I think I may have been able to buy a cup of coffee and a biscuit from the proceeds of two articles!

Creative Writing Ink made me the December 2011 winner for the short story 'Jessie' and they have now voted me the poetry winner for February 2012 for 'My Senses, My Memories' (watch the website!).

About a year ago Cafe Lit - Creative Cafe Project - put my story 'Neighbours' on their site, and today they've accepted 'Good Luck Bad Luck Cat'!

So two in Creative Cafe Project, two on Creative Writing Ink, two in Carillon Magazine (issue 29 February 2011 & Issue 31 November 2011) and one on the Gold Dust 2012 calendar. I'm happy!

It's not an ego thing, just nice to be acknowledged! Makes you feel good about yourself  and gives the encouragement to carry on!

Starting Point

In the beginning

A few years ago I bought a writers magazine for my daughter who was about to embark on a university course in creative writing. However, I found the mag fascinating and started putting pen to paper myself! One of the competitions in the mag was to write a short story based on a simple photograph. I remember the picture well – it was a woman with a red umbrella walking up some steps. I wrote the story but didn’t submit it. At least it was a beginning!

Soon afterwards I read Jonathan Coe's book The Rain Before It Falls (didn't finish it!) which at one point had someone describing photographs to a blind girl. There was a story in everything she described: the reason why the caravan was at an angle, the weather, the tree, the Spring flowers. This inspired me to start building a family story book on the photos I have in biscuit tins and ice-cream tubs. It was like stepping into a time machine with every picture; I recalled the occasion, the place, the people, the laughs, and the tears.  Needless to say this can leave one in a rather quiet and melancholic state of mind.

When my mother turned 70, we bought her a lever-arch file, a pad of paper and a brand new pen and instructed her to write down her life story! She was always saying things like: “When we were kids….”, or “Your Granddad used to….”.  She enjoyed the experience and we now have a lovely story of her childhood, early days of marriage, travels to a far away country, fears and aspirations. Although I’m nowhere near 70, I decided I needed to at least start on my own life story – for my children and still-to-come grandchildren!  I’ve got 67 pages, with a few photos, and haven’t yet got to the part of meeting my darling husband!

Fortunately I’m a diary writer. For my first Christmas after finishing school, my sister gave me a very small page-by-page diary to record my first impressions of working life. The following year I continued on note-pads – which are now falling apart and almost out of date order! Apart from quite a gap when my children were very small – which would probably have been good fun and the most interesting parts of a diary – I’ve sat each morning over coffee and breakfast and recorded frustrations, the weather, and family news, so it was easy to start writing a life-story, but it’s possibly also a life-long task!

And then to blogs ….. And a family website ….. And an internet-published story …. And a real published poem!

Come to think of it, I have a vague memory of saying I was “writing a story” as a 9 or 10 year old, so maybe the beginning is earlier than I thought!?