Kate Loveday's Blog

I always enjoy learning the history of places I visit, and while living on the beautiful mid-north coast of New South Wales, I researched the past of Bulahdelah, a picturesque village about 200kms north of Sydney on the Myall River.

In the early days of colonisation ...
Bulahdelah was well-known as a timber-cutting area, home to magnificent cedar trees. The local Historical Society is active, and they made their information freely available to me, and I searched records and pored over photos. Then an artist friend loaned me a book of ‘Rachel Henning’s Letters’- letters that had been written by the English wife of a Bulahdelah timber-mill manager in the mid-nineteenth century to her various family members. In them she described her daily life, which she found very agreeable.

This made me curious about the lifestyle and conditions for all women in the nineteenth century.

What my research found was that women then had few rights and were dominated by the men of the time, and not all women led the pleasant life enjoyed by Rachel Henning.
The law in that era stated that when a woman married, all her assets became her husband’s property, and the law gave him the right to force her to obey him in every area of her life. This meant she was totally dependent on him for everything, both financially and emotionally. If he turned out to be heartless, violent or miserly, she just had to put up with it.

So, under the laws of the day a woman had few rights; prior to her marriage, she must obey her father, and when she married all her property became her husband's on the day of their marriage. She became virtually his chattel, to treat as he wished. No matter how badly he chose to treat her, she had no redress.

Women were considered to be physically, emotionally and intellectually inferior to men, and the entrenched and patronising attitudes of the time meant that the judiciary, all male, took the view that whatever the man did was right and a woman was meant to be an obedient homemaker and bedwarmer for her husband, while not expecting sexual pleasure herself!

Throughout history there have been many influential women
But on investigation it becomes obvious that they were either rulers, like Elizabeth 1, in England, or Catherine of Russia, or else they were wives, mistresses or concubines of influential men. Many of them had great power.
Strong, powerful women.

But what of the ordinary, everyday women...
Women who had the spirit to rebel against this injustice – women who refused to be browbeaten by the men? And if they defied custom – could they face the results of going against the conventions of the day?

Happiness – and love – could not have been easy!

It was these findings that incensed me and provoked me into writing the Redwoods series.

AN INDEPENDENT WOMAN is the first novel in the series. This book explores life in Australia in the latter part of the nineteenth century, and to make the story authentic meant researching many details in Sydney in that era. Which hotels, pubs, churches etc had been built by then? Where would Kitty and her mother have shopped? How far had the suburbs spread by then? What transport was available? It also looks at the attitudes that caused Kitty unhappiness in her marriage.

After I finished ‘An Independent Woman’ I started to think seriously of my next book ,which was to continue Kitty’s story and begin that of her young daughter Joy. However, I found that writing in a series throws up a whole new set of problems for an author. I have covered this topic in my blog on writing a series

By the time I came to write ‘A LIBERATED WOMAN’ I had already done a lot of research into Sydney in the late 1800’s for ‘An Independent Woman’. However by 1893, the starting date of this book, the political climate had changed. There was hot debate over the looming prospect of Federation. Some colonies were for Federation, some against, and I needed to research the political figures of the day and their opinions. Also, Australia was in the grip of an economic depression – did this affect my characters?
Then there was a whole new world to portray when Joy went to England, to meet her English family and be presented to Queen Victoria, and to have a London Season. The relatively free and easy lifestyle of Australia gave way to the strict social codes of Victorian England, where life was highly regulated.

My research for this included learning the protocol of presentation at Court, and what activities happened where and when during the Season – from garden parties and coming-out balls to a week at Royal Ascot for the thoroughbred racing.

‘A MODERN WOMAN’ begins with the commencement of the new century, a time of hope and new beginnings, and focuses on Joy’s life now she has becomes a woman – on her relationships, and on her burning ambition to make Redwoods into a successful thoroughbred horse stud, an ambition that was born back in England when she visited Royal Ascot with her grandfather.

As I had already done a great deal of research into women’s roles in those early years for the previous two books I had no need to delve further there, but I knew little of horse breeding. So my research focused on that. I investigated some of the ailments that can afflict horses, watched the birth of a foal on ‘You Tube’ video and ‘picked the brains’ of a horse breeder. All very interesting.

For the racetrack scenes I drew on my own experiences, having been a lover of thoroughbred racing and a frequent visitor to the races for many years.

I have always loved the thrill of watching those magnificent animals stretching towards the winning post, every fibre in their bodies striving to win, and then to see how they relish the cheers of the crowd when they beat the rest of the field!

How they love to race!

Having once been the part-owner of a racehorse I understand the nervous excitement Joy felt before and during each race, and the euphoria when her horse came first past the post – a feeling that’s hard to beat! And I understand too the affection and attachment you feel for your horse, win or lose!

‘A MODERN WOMAN’ is due to be released on March 1st, when it will be available in print and ebook on Amazon and can now be pre-ordered on Smashwords, Apple iBooks, Barnes &Noble , and Kobo
As for the relationships and emotions of the characters, in all the books – well, allowing for the difference in the conventions of the time they’re not all that different from those of people today.

Times change, but people don’t.

Over the centuries we have all had similar needs and desires – for a good life, security, a loving partner. A wish for romance is strong in many of us. And we all experience similar emotions at times. Love, hate, fear, anger, frustration. We all have different ways of dealing with them, and so it is for the people of Redwoods.
I had a lot fun doing this research, and putting the characters into the situations in these books. I hope you will enjoy reading about them as much as I have enjoyed telling their stories.

Reading enriches our lives. I once heard a man say proudly, “I haven’t read a book since I left school.” I felt sorry for him, for he had missed out on one of the simplest, most easily achievable and fulfilling experiences in life – something that not only gives hours of enjoyment but also helps to broaden our outlook on life.

I can’t remember a time when I couldn’t read, even as a child I can remember reading everything I could lay my hands on. I must admit I can’t remember having been read to as a child, and, as one among a family of seven my mother probably hadn’t time for such activities. But someone must have read to me at sometime, for I can remember starting school and having an elementary knowledge of letters and being able to read the simple primers that were in the first grade.

The things we read as children have a way of shaping our actions as we grow into adulthood, and I credit the National Geographic magazine for forming my insatiable desire for travel. My father was a reader and we always had the Readers Digest and National Geographic magazines in the house, which I devoured. An article in the National Geographic on the Great Barrier Reef, complete with colour photos, made a lasting impression on me and I grew up with a strong desire to visit and experience its wonders for myself. I kept that magazine for many years, but I was in my twenties before I finally made a visit to Cairns. I was so excited, still seeing those beautiful colour plates in my mind’s eye, and was horribly disappointed to find that the Crown of Thorns starfish had eaten most of the coral that year, leaving only bare, grey skeletons. It took many years for the reef to recover, and another twenty years before I was able to fulfil my dream to see it, snorkelling in the beautiful clear waters of the Outer reef on a day that I will never forget. But it had stayed with me for more than half my lifetime, by which time I had been fortunate enough to be able to visit several of the places I had read about as a child in my Dad’s magazines.

Of course I read novels too, going the full gamut of adventure stories at school (ah! how I worshipped Sydney Carlton in Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities –so noble in his sacrifice!) Regency romances as a teen, along with mysteries (I read every Agatha Christie published) and through the old authors like Jane Austen, Somerset Maugham, Ernest Hemingway and Leon Uris.

I have also dipped into English history with Jean Plaidy and into Australia’s early days with that wonderful series ‘the Australians’ by Vivian Stuart Long , and more recently I explored our Colonial days with Patricia Shaw.
And so to our present day Australian authors such as Kate Grenville, Judy Nunn, Peter Watt,Colleen McCullough and Kerry Greenwood to name but a few. Great storytellers, all.

Of course, as well as fiction, libraries and the internet are full of books about every subject under the sun. Whatever you want to read, it’s all there for you, the product of some writer’s talent who has dedicated part of their life to putting their knowledge or artistry into words for you. My life is richer because of them, and I thank them all for the hours of pleasure they have given me and their insights into life.

When my children were young a bedtime story was mandatory, and something I enjoyed as much as they did. It was a special way of bonding, and they all grew up as inveterate readers. Now I have two grand-daughters and bedtime stories are part of their bedtime ritual too. If I am visiting at bedtime, it gives me pleasure to take part. Now they have access to their IPads and can enjoy stories via the wonder of ebooks, reading for themselves. But I am still happy when the youngest brings me a book and asks, “Read me a story Nanna.”
I am sure they will grow up with the love of reading that is passed down from one generation of family to the next. Whether we read printed books or enjoy our stories on an e-reader or tablet doesn’t matter. It is the reading, that transporting us into a different life for a few hours, to view life from different perspectives, that is so enriching.

There’s nothing new under the sun. How many times have you heard that? A dozen? A hundred? When it comes to fiction it’s true – no matter what idea you come up with it’s been done before. But as a writer it’s your responsibility to make it all seem fresh and alive, as if it’s being told for the first time. This applies to all genres – mystery, romance, dramas of human endeavour, in fact all fiction.

Take all the great love stories – Romeo and Juliet, Wuthering Heights, Anna Karenina, Gone with the Wind, Pride and Prejudice, Casablanca. Add a few of your own favourites if you like, and think about them. They’re all about love, about boy meets girl, man meets woman, and about the obstacles that come between them and their true love. Same idea, different problems, different resolutions, different writing. Those authors took an old idea and, using their own special magic, wove stories that have been loved by generations of readers. They haven’t all been joyful stories, many of them haven’t had happy endings.

But they have all touched our hearts.

And how have they done it? The authors have taken the idea, and they’ve created their characters and situations and woven their stories around them. But it’s the characters that are the pivot. If the characters are real people, people that come alive, people that we can love or hate, then we care about them, and we care what happens to them. And that keeps us turning the pages to the very end and then, perhaps, we’re sorry that it is the end.

As a writer how can you do this? First, your characters must be real to you – you must know them intimately. As you write you must be able to get inside their heads, to know how they feel. If you don’t know, then how can you make your reader know? Your reader wants to feel their emotions, to share in them. Emotions are mankind’s common language, we all have the same emotions – love, hate, anger, sorrow, joy – and we never lose them. And as well as the emotions, you need to know how your characters will react to any situation. For this point in time you must become your character. And of course you must create situations that will put them through the wringer, so we can see how they’ll come out on the other side, see how much they’ve changed.

All this means that as you create your story you must write from your heart. However, once you’ve finished the story you must begin to use your head, for this is when you must take your rough diamond and polish it.

You owe it to your readers to make sure your words flow in a manner as close to perfect as you can make it. It’s not just a matter of ensuring there are no errors in spelling or grammar, you must also think about the sounds of the words. Are they pleasing to the ear? If in doubt, read your work aloud. Do the words sing? Do they convey your idea as you wish? Or are they stilted and banal? Simple words, beautifully expressed, should be your aim.

So there it is. WRITE from the heart – EDIT with the head. Take an old idea and make it new.

And perhaps your story will touch hearts!

Kate Loveday

There is a big difference for a writer between writing fiction and writing non-fiction. With fiction a writer can give free reign to his/her imagination. It can soar like a bird. The only restrictions are to stay within the bounds of possibility. But with non-fiction you must stick to reality – unembellished by your creativity.

With fiction you want to tell a story and you want captivate and entertain the reader, you want the story to be as engaging as possible, and so you employ all your writing skills – all your imagination and creativity – into producing your masterpiece.

Non-fiction needs a totally different approach. You are writing for a different type of reader – a reader who is seeking information. No flights of fancy here. Just facts. Here your reader is not looking to be entertained – he is looking to you to help him solve a problem. You can only attempt to do this if you have the knowledge and expertise to do so.

Perhaps you’re an expert in your field. Or you might be someone who has discovered a new and easier way to build a dog kennel, and you want to tell other dog owners or soon-to-be dog owners all about it to save them time and effort. In either case you do it because you know something that you believe will be helpful to others. And to be able to pass it on you have to explain it in the clearest way possible. No fancy words, just plain, simple statements.

I have just finished a non-fiction project, which has taken much more time and effort than I envisaged when I first started on it, and I have found it much more difficult and demanding than fiction. Called ‘Eat Cook Slim’ I decided to write this book because of the frenzy of diets, books, supplements and meal replacement products on the market today relating to weight loss and good health. During more than thirty years experience in the beauty/natural therapy industry in Australia I helped hundreds of clients to gain good health and a slim figure – by which I mean the right weight for them – along with the benefits of a healthy glowing skin, which is the basis of all beauty. I know that diets don’t work and that following the simple guidelines to healthy nutrition is the only way stay slim and healthy, and when you know how, it’s not all that difficult. And I believe I can pass this know-how on to others. So I wrote a book about it, and then decided to put together a series of books of quick, simple recipes to accompany it. It proved a big task.

I had no idea of the amount of time and effort I would need to put into such a project.

When I’m telling a fictional story I become embroiled in the lives of my characters – I’m like a fly on the wall watching them as they go about their endeavours, eager to see what they will do next, totally immersed in them. And I love every minute of it!

But non-fiction demands so much more. You must check your facts, down to the last detail. Does the latest research agree with your advice? You must be careful not to make a mistake, your readers are relying on you. I must admit I gave a relieved sigh when I finally finished this project. And if it helps a few readers I’ll be satisfied.

But I can’t wait to get back to my next partially written novel, which has been languishing in my laptop for too long!

http://www.amazon.com/Eat-Cook-Slim-f...

When I finished writing my first novel ‘Inheritance’, which is a standalone book, set in contemporary Australia, I had no ideas about writing either historical fiction or a series. However, we had moved to an area on the mid-north coast of NSW, an area that figured prominently in the early days of colonisation, and I became interested in its history.

This led me to explore the attitudes towards women in the nineteenth century, and I decided that my next book must be about the life of a woman in that era, when women had few rights and were dominated by men. I determined that my character would be a spirited woman who did not take kindly to subjugation. Then I began to look at the attitudes towards women over the years, and decided it would be interesting to do a story of three generations of women – mother, daughter and grand-daughter – spanning the second half of the nineteenth century and up to the end of the flapper era, the 1930’s. Would the patronising attitudes of men towards women have altered? And how would women have changed? I realised it could not be told in a single book, and decided to make it a series of three books, one for each generation. So far so good.

What I did not realise was the problems posed to writers of series.

The first book, ‘An Independent Woman’, was straightforward. The main character, Kitty, lived her life in the book and when book one ended, she had a daughter, Joy, who was a baby. Now, I had to continue Kitty’s story in book two, so I couldn’t just start it when Joy was a grown woman, too much time would have passed.

First problem – how to cover the years as Joy grows from child to young woman, and hold the reader’s interest? Not an easy task. She went to school. She learned to ride and developed a love of horses. Not riveting phases of her life! So book two, ‘A Liberated Woman’, continued Kitty’s story, and covered Joy’s life from age thirteen to young womanhood.

Second problem, as time passes there is the continuation of characters, and how they would change as they were affected by the changing history of the times. It was a period of uncertainty in Australia, when there was continulal debate over the decision of whether the separate colonies should join together to form the Federation of Austalia or not – some for, some against. There was also a severe recession in the 1990′s. How would my characters be affected by these problems?

I thought I knew my characters well but when it came to writing scenes I realised there were so many small details to remember, particularly with places and minor characters. How exactly had I described Lady Barron? Craddock? Harry Osborne? In which hotel in Sydney had Kitty stayed? Minor points perhaps but important enough that I had to return to book one to check.

And with a series there is always the question of how much to explain in the second, and subsequent, books in case people start reading that one first. Each book must really be able to stand alone as well as being read in sequence, but it’s hard to do that without boring those who have read the first book. Finding the balance between these needs is challenging. Each book must have its own plot, its own characters, including some from previous books, and its own changing tensions. But it must still relate to the preceding story and answer the questions left unanswered at the end of that, and to have its own problems unresolved at the end that will be answered in the next book, if you want readers to be waiting for the next of the series.

When ‘A Liberated Woman’ was published last year in paperback ( the ebook will be available on Kindle and Smashwords later this month) I knew it was time to get on with book three, but already I could see that the planned trilogy would not be enough. There would have to be at least a fourth book if I was to fulfil my original intention.

By now I’ve started keeping a list of characters and other important facts, hoping to overcome some of the problems. I am still writing book three of the series, which I hope to publish by the end of this year, but I am already thinking ahead to book four. And will that be enough? Or is this why series keep growing? Only time will tell.

An Independent Woman (Redwoods,#1).

It‘s been said that words are pegs to hang ideas on. But if you’re a writer and you wish your writing to flow, to express your ideas in the best way possible, then you need to choose the best pegs to showcase your ideas . A writer should think of words as either diamonds or stones. The great writers made sure they included a fair share of diamonds among the stones in their sentences.

By this, I don’t mean to shun the use of common words, but to choose those that evoke an idea in the most effective way, words that have strong connotations. For instance, you might want to describe an old man walking down the street. You say, ‘The old man walked down the street.’ Picture that in your mind’s eye. Then change it to, ‘The old man shuffled down the street.’ Only one word altered, but isn’t it a different picture?

You don’t need to use long words to impress, a good writer chooses simple words full of meaning – strong words. Take Shakespeare’s, ‘the sands are number'd that make up my life’. Simple words – big idea. He knew a thing or two about words.

Sounds can make words sing. Listen to them, let them run through your consciousness. Beyond the sense of a word is its sound, its spirit. Words strung together to show their melodies, playing off one another, can build like a piece of music, creating a beautiful harmony. If you read a passage that flows easily, pleasing your ear and conveying its message with simplicity, then the writer has achieved his goal – his words will live!

Of course, words are not just written, we speak them all the time. And how you say your words can categorize you, every time you open your mouth.

Take ‘Pygmalion’, later updated and presented as that all-time favourite musical, ‘My Fair Lady’. Who can forget the shrill tones of the early Eliza Doolittle as she tells her would-be teachers, ‘Eeeeooowww, I washed me ‘ands ‘n face afore I come, I did.’ There’s no mistaking her as the grubby little flower-seller from Covent Garden. However, after Professor Henry Higgins, who intones ‘the rain in Spain stays mainly on the plain’ ad nauseam, finishes with her she is taken for a lady – and dubbed a princess.

Such is the power of words!

An Independent Woman (Redwoods,#1).

As writers, we’re urged to write from the heart. If we search the innermost corners of our heart, what might we find? What might any of us find? Writing gives us an excuse to go to the deeper, darker parts of our heart, to dig deep and bring out parts that are buried deep. The parts that are kept hidden from everyday life, the parts we never reveal.
Is there anyone who has never done anything they regret, something they’d rather no-one knew, something to keep hidden? Who hasn’t lost someone dearly loved, and felt pain too sharp and intense to bring out and expose to the daylight?
These deepest parts of our hearts are part of life for all of us. Until you experience them you haven’t truly lived.
As writers we have the opportunity to reveal these hidden parts of our hearts under the pretext of imagination. And it’s the knowledge of life we gain from the secrets lurking in the recesses of both heart and mind that add poignancy to a story. Even the most light-hearted tale benefits from a dollop of darkness. Too much sweetness and light is cloying.
Don’t we all love a villain? Don’t we revel in dastardly deeds? In the old-time melodramas the audience were encouraged to cheer the hero and hiss the villain. And they loved it! Don’t we all love a sad story? “It was wonderful – I cried all the way through it!” That used to be the catch-cry for the old sob-story movies. Is today’s reader so much different from those old-time audiences?
It’s the interplay of light and shadow that creates a story. And the blacker the shadow, the more intriguing the story. But that darkness must be real, it must come from the heart, because readers aren’t easily fooled. They can tell the real deal.
Are we all willing to bring out those buried secrets and expose them to the light of day? Or is that perhaps why we love to write - the opportunity to reveal so much of ourselves under the guise of fiction?

You want to write? That's wonderful! For me, there are few activities that can bring as much pleasure and reward as finishing a piece of writing, reading it, and thinking 'Well, that's not bad.' But the absolute pinnacle of satisfaction comes when you have your first piece of work published and see it in print for the first time. What a glorious feeling!
However, between first making the decision that now is the time to start writing in earnest, and having your first piece published, there is a wide gulf of effort on your part.
Perhaps you don't come to writing until later in life, maybe you never had the time until you retired. Well then, you're going to have to learn a lot in a short time.
Or maybe you're still young. In this case you have many years ahead of you to learn your craft and hone your skills. But you will have the impatience of youth and want it all to happen now.
Maybe you come somewhere in between?
Whatever age you come to writing you have a lot to learn. It has been said that writing, and finishing, a piece of work is one part inspiration and nine parts perspiration. Believe me, this is true! No matter how brilliant the idea you have for your first story, you must be prepared to put in many hours at the computer, first completing and then polishing and re-polishing your work before it is ready to submit to a publisher. It can be a long journey, and you will need bucket loads of persistence.
There are many steps along the way, and the first of these is the plot, the framework on which every story hangs.
Every story begins with an idea in the writer's mind. You need to think about your idea and flesh it out as much as you can before you start writing. Do you have an idea for a complete story, with a beginning, a middle, and an end? Perhaps you don't have the whole story in your head to start with, you probably have an idea that you believe you can develop into a good story.
There are basically two types of writers; plotters and pantsers.
Plotters are those who sit down and plot the whole story piece by piece, until they reach a satisfactory conclusion. Plotters prefer a well-structured outline and fully developed characters before they start the actual writing process. With that in place the plotter has the base on which to create and flesh out the story without worrying about what comes next.
Pantsers are those who 'fly by the seat of their pants'. (That’s me!). They start with an idea and, at the very least, the main character, and begin to write, but they don't really know where it's going to take them. The rest of the story comes to them as they write, often directly from the characters themselves. Pantsers play the 'what if' game but it helps if you can at least know how the story is going to end, so that you have an idea of where you're heading.
Neither of these ways is 'right' or 'wrong'. All will end up in the same place - at THE END. It's the journey that's different.
Whichever way you choose the most important thing is to find the writing process that works best for you. Perhaps you'll use a bit of both.
Whichever way you write, the beginning of your story must hook your reader into wanting to read on. You have a very short time to do this. If the reader isn't 'hooked' in the first two or three paragraphs, or at least the first page, you may well lose them. Get something happening immediately. Establish a threat or worry or story question at once.
You could start your story with a minor problem, or a turning point in your main character's life that 'hooks' the reader. You don't usually start your story with the major crisis, you usually build up to that as time goes by, but you do introduce conflict in the form of a problem.
As time passes and the story moves on you make the problem bigger or you solve it but create another problem as a result of solving it.
As the story progresses you add more problems, revealing something else, leading into another predicament.
Then you come to the 'dark moment' when it looks as if all is lost. Finally the characters overcome the problems and the story reaches a happy or at least a satisfactory ending.
You have now completed the first stage of your journey!

amazon.com/author/kateloveday

Where do you find your ideas? As a writer I’m often asked this question, and the answer has to be - from life. Not necessarily from my own life, of course, although it’s these experiences that shape my outlook on life, that help to create my beliefs. An idea can come from a news item, a chance remark overheard in a public place or even just by looking at someone and wondering about them and maybe imagining a life for them. Yes, ideas are all around us, just waiting to insinuate themselves into the mind.

But not so the characters. This is the thrilling part of writing – to create a character from the fabric of your own imagination, to give him(or her) a life, a personality, strengths and weaknesses; to mould him to whatever you want, good or bad, honest or truthful, cruel or caring. He/She can be pretty or ugly, dark or fair, short or tall, bitchy or sweet, manly or a wimp; it’s all up to you, it's your chance to play God! What power! It’s no wonder we writers become addicted to writing.

But the strange thing is that if you’ve created them well enough, your characters become real, and they end up dictating to you. They often take the story where they want to go. Forget your own pre-conceived ideas, if that’s what they want, you ignore them at your peril!
And often you find them intruding into your own life. They can make you feel guilty if you haven’t written about them for a while. I often find that one of my strongest characters, Kitty, who is the main character in An Independent Woman, the first book in the Redwoods series, forces herself onto my attention. When I conceived the idea for this series, I planned to write three books, each one written about the daughter in each generation, beginning in the late nineteenth century and finishing mid-twentieth century. I planned their stories to reflect the changing ways and attitudes to women over those years, as women gradually gained more independence. But when I finished the first book there was no way Kitty was going to let me put her to bed. No, she still wanted to be #1. And so she is still a dominant character in the second book, A Liberated Woman, alongside her daughter Joy.

Now that I’m working on the third book n the series, I decided it was time to move on and leave her behind. But she doesn’t agree. She has even infiltrated my dreams. Believe it or not, I dreamed of her last night. I was standing outside a room with a closed door, and inside that room someone was hammering on the door. “Let me out, let me out,” a woman’s voice was calling. “You can’t keep me locked up in here.”

It was Kitty. Believe me! So what am I to do? I suppose I’ll have to let her have her way, and put her in this book too!

Wouldn’t it be great to be able to sit down and write without having the interruptions of running a home! There never seems to be the amount of time you want for writing, so often something else crops up that needs immediate attention – like the baby crying, or the cat jumping up on the table and knocking over your coffee, or the washing machine beeping to remind you the clothes need hanging out. Or maybe it’s time to go and pick up the kids from school. All things needing immediate attention. Ignore them at your peril!
I bet when Somerset Maugham was writing his Tales of the South Seas he never had to leave his writing to do the laundry. I can just see him sitting at a table in some little bar in some little island, coconut palms waving gently in the breeze outside, a glass of whiskey at his elbow, as he scribbled away in his notebook. And he probably had fresh clothes laid out for him daily by a South Seas Island laundry-maid. And when Ernest Hemingway pounded away on his Corona#3 typewriter, writing his masterpieces, I bet he didn’t have to stop to go and prepare dinner.

Oh for a house-husband!

I read that JK Rowling said she did no housework for a year. How did she get away with it? Never cleaned the bathroom? Ate out every night? They all wore the same clothes for a year? Or did she just have a wonderful old-fashioned housekeeper? Sigh!

I never seem to have enough time for my writing. How do you manage? All suggestions welcome!