If I have seemed a little quiet for a while, that’s because I have had a substantial break from writing. Well, that is not completely true. I have been writing: just not writing fiction. I have been writing about garden furniture, gazebos, outdoor ornaments and teak root tables. Yes, that is different from ghost stories and war tales and historical novels … very different. Let me explain.
In 2017 my husband and I joined forces with two other friends and colleagues to form an online retail company selling garden and conservatory furniture. It was to be a very different role for me, but hopefully a lucrative one, and as all we writers know, unless you are J K Rowling or David Walliams, you rarely get rich trying to make a living from being an author.
So I set aside the manuscripts I was working on, took off my fiction head and revved up the commercial side of my brain. Extolling the virtues of reclaimed teak and revealing the latest developments in ‘synthetic rattan’ might not be the most inspiring articles to write, but this was a new direction for me. I had a new challenge, and populating our new website with product descriptions that would appeal to customers, bring in new business and take us to the top of the Google Ad rankings became my everyday task, my bread and butter.
A few months in and our two business partners decided to step aside, meaning it was then up to my husband, Jon, and I to launch the website and make sure the company would succeed. We lived and breathed the business, put in the hours, and gradually our efforts paid off. The business became profitable and strong, we had hundreds of happy customers and by Spring 2021, we had built it to the point where we could sell it on to new owners.
Since then I have been catching my breath, catching up with family and friends (Covid allowing) and regaining my work life balance. There have been long walks on Welsh beaches, lazy trips along the canals and rivers of the Midlands on our narrowboat, and my Kobo has been buzzing with all the books I have missed having the time to read. Bliss!
I wasn’t sure when – or even if – I would return to writing some books of my own, but as my head has started to clear, I have felt that writer’s itch starting to return. There are unfinished stories to be completed, half-researched ideas to be explored, finished manuscript to find a publisher for, and a young adult novel that I want to rewrite for an adult audience. I am not sure where I will start but hopefully soon I will have something to share.
Wish me luck and watch this space!
Here’s to a creative 2023!
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