Writing runs in the family…
24/10/2016
I must confess I haven’t really managed to get a lot of writing done in the past two weeks but I do have some very good excuses. Firstly, I had my mum staying for a few days and I wanted to re-ignite her enthusiasm to finish some of her short stories so that I can edit them for her and eventually publish them in a book. She had brought her laptop with her and it fell to my long-suffering other half, Chris, to patiently instruct her on the very basics of computer literacy, not that I’m one to talk… my computer skills are pretty limited! Mum put her typing ability to good use transferring ‘The Red Geranium’ from long-hand scrawl into a format that will be easy for me to edit.
Whilst she was typing on her computer downstairs, I was upstairs working on the only story she had already typed up. It has two working titles, ‘My Daughter Isabel’ and ‘It’s All in the Leaves’ but it could well end up being called something else entirely. If I hadn’t learnt so much from my own copy editor, Justine Taylor, over the past eighteen months, I would never have attempted it. The story is just shy of three thousand words and yet still took me six hours to finish. I don’t think any professional copy editors need to worry about me invading their territory. Mum was really pleased with the end result. It is still her story, in her voice, just tightened up a bit. I will make a start on ‘The Red Geranium’ next. She has been on the phone to Chris in a mild panic a couple of times since returning home but at least it means she has kept the momentum going in terms of typing up her stories to send to me.
After Mum went home, I was back in at work on QVC for the following five days and I find it difficult to be creative when I’m trying to concentrate on my day job. Then, on Tuesday, Chris and I flew out to Northern Ireland. I had a charity function to attend on behalf of British Polio for whom I’m an ambassador. We had decided to go a day earlier than necessary as neither of us had visited Northern Ireland previously and we wanted to visit the dramatic north coast, where many scenes from the iconic Game of Thrones television programme are filmed, although I must confess I’ve never actually watched it. We stayed in a boutique B&B near Portrush, Northern Ireland’s most popular beach holiday destination, and I did get the seed of an idea for a short story – nothing concrete as yet though. Because of the recent rainfall, we were treated on arrival to a glorious double rainbow and we also saw one the following day when we visited the Giant’s Causeway.
The Irish sure do know how to spin a yarn which we discovered from our guide as he launched into the tale of Finn McCool! If you can’t quite work it out, I am standing on his boot in this photo.
Lunch was at a tiny little café called Roarks Kitchen, on Ballantoy Harbour, and this scrummy display of cakes put me in mind of June’s selection at the Primrose Pantry in my ‘Time for a Short Story’. Speaking of which, all of the reviews for it have inexplicably disappeared from Amazon. Apparently, I’m not alone in this and usually the reviews reappear but if not I’ll have to chase it up with Amazon.
We had a quick walk along the harbour before setting off on our drive to Belfast. The sat nav had been doing a great job but I was a little dubious when it suggested we should take a left turn down a narrow road which I immediately recognised as another location I had read about for Game of Thrones. The Dark Hedges becomes the Kings Road in the TV show but only once they have covered it in soil and turf as you can see on the two pictures.
Before heading to the charity function at Stormont, which you can read more about in the ‘My Charity Work’ section of this website, we decided to visit the Titanic exhibition. I found it quite sad to think of the tragic loss of life due in large part to insufficient lifeboats for the number of passengers on board. At least the tragedy led to a change of policy in terms of providing lifeboats for all. I would highly recommend a trip to the exhibition if you’re visiting Belfast as it also gave a good history of the industry of the area in the late nineteenth century. Interestingly there was an auction held just yesterday where a humble locker key from the Titanic fetched £85,000!
Although I did take my baby laptop with me, I ended up sightseeing in my free time instead, but I have been writing today, adding a few hundred words to my halloween/bonfire night novella. Thanks to Alison, Lorraine, Jan and Diana for your opinions on whether I should publish when finished or hang on for October next year… I’m still undecided! I haven’t been as productive as I would have hoped so maybe I should aim for another short story to bring out before Christmas?
There are lots of Christmas books out already and I particularly wanted to mention The Christmas Promise by Sue Moorcroft as she was so helpful in giving me some pointers on how to write a short story. I have downloaded to my Kindle and will read it nearer the time. I should also mention my QVC colleague Jackie Kabler’s new book, The Deadline, which was published on Thursday if you like ‘cosy crime’.
Until next time
Julia xx
