Back from my holiday in France where we gorged on delicious French cheese and local wine I am now raring to go...back to France mainly! We had such a lovely time even though the rain was pretty much incessant and there had been a little visitor before our arrival of the mousey variety...no I don't mean Mavis from Coronation Street!
So what now, well for those of you not on Facebook, the exciting bit of news is that I have given up my job to concentrate on writing! I know, I know...I can hear all the established writers laughing that I won't earn any money for years if, indeed, at all. However the truth of the matter is that I was only working part time and not earning very much. If I had a fantastic highly paid career maybe I would have been a little more cautious...although maybe not. After all, I am 47 now and have five children. I have either always worked or been at home with small children. With my youngest about to start full-time school I genuinely feel that this is my time to have a go. It may have been fishing, cooking, jam-making, a whole world of experiences are out there waiting and as I said at the beginning of this year....this one is MY YEAR and is going to be blooming marvellous. I promised myself that I would live outside of my comfort zone (ie not on the sofa) and that I would achieve or at least be striving to achieve some of my dreams. And to that end here I go!
I have so many positive reactions to my leap of faith that I almost feel I owe it to everyone to do the very best I can, which I most definitely intend to. I have never made big announcements before, I have just made lots and lots of silent promises to myself that I have never kept. By making a song and dance of things I am hoping it will keep me to resolutions and make a huge success in my efforts.
I am not expecting to become the next JK Rowling, Sophie Kinsella or Joanne Harris but I shall be found in my office writing as my job Monday to Friday (occasionally popping out for air and the odd cappuccino!).
Let the mockers mock, I genuinely couldn't care less. I've done my share of scrimping and scraping and know what it's like to have no money left from my wages once the bills are paid. I can live on far less than we will be living on - when my older sons were small and I was a single mum I survived on less than £80 a week!
Hopefully by this time next year I will have a finished product, maybe even an agent...who knows? What I do know is that I will enjoy getting up every morning knowing that I can sit at my desk and get lost in a few hours of writing. I can't think of anything I would rather be doing!
Finally, a big thank-you to everyone who has been so positive!
