It’s taken me a while to get to this post but I finally unearthed my notes this past weekend and found some headspace to process the Problogger Training Event and its many learnings.
Of course in true Debbish style my learnings are all very ‘me’-centric… but of course everything is always about me, me me!
A few years ago I listened to a writer speak about her first book. She was in her early-mid 30s and taken a redundancy from her job in government several years before – which piqued my interest, having done the same.
But she said – although she earned a little income teaching writing and mentoring – it wasn’t enough to live on. She’d had the good fortune to get a publishing contract and an agent, and was working on final edits when she found herself broke.
She decided she’d have to go back to work and started looking at jobs in the field she’d worked before. It was soul-sucking she said… to think about going ‘back’. And then, her mother told her not to do it. Her mother offered to help support her while she continued writing.
I have long been a lover of words. I love reading, I love writing and (sad but true) I love talking.
I’ve now read a couple of books – a novel and a biography – about people who’ve also been word-lovers who’ve developed dementia or alzheimers and have become lost for words. Both – along with other illnesses robbing people of their ability to express themselves – are tragic and I had a little taste of that for myself last week.
Kirsty’s prompt for this week’s confessional asks us to share our biggest roadblock.
I had a post all planned – about my writing – and the fact that I don’t even try. I blithered about my fear of failure and my apathy but… the post wallowed in my drafts folder and I didn’t get it finished before heading off on a long long work trip yesterday.
It gave me time to think however… and I realised, if I’m really being honest, my biggest roadblock – when it comes to life in general – is my weight.
Two weeks ago, the lovely Amy from A Novel Start selected me to participate in the Sisterhood of the World Bloggers Award.
Sadly the overwhelm of recent weeks have gotten in the way so this (along with everything else on my #ToDoList) is a bit later than planned.
One of the motivations for my seachange just over two years ago was my growing consciousness of the fragility of life. I’d done a lot over my twenty-odd years of adulthood, but had been nervous about pursuing my real passions nonetheless.
I recently reviewed Joanne Tracey’s debut novel, Baby, It’s You. I mentioned elsewhere that she was self-published and someone suggested I interview her to get some insight into the long arduous road self publishing process. And I aim to please, so… without further ado…
A few bloggers I follow have already been discussing their New Year’s Resolutions and plans for 2015. I’m not big on resolutions but I sometimes set some goals for the year. I mean naturally I commit every year to losing weight, doing more exercise, earning more money, working less, being less of a bitch and so forth. But, well… I’m talking lofty aspirational stuff.