It’s that time again. I seem to post around this time each year. I wonder why.
Of course, I’m currently writing a romance. And it begins on a Valentine’s Day. If you’ve been following me on socials, you’ll know that I’ve been working on (and re-working) it for quite some time now. And I’m ALMOST there! – Yay! And I have revealed the title: Love Songs, Romcoms & Alternative Endings. Where’s it at? Final touches … meaning I’m combing over it one (a few) last time, adding the other important bits (like front and back matter), and having the cover designed (this one’s the itchy-scratchy part – it’s hard to wait in anticipation for something that may or may not be what you’ve imagined for your cover.) Below is a bunch of covers I created, but it’s not going to be the final cover. This is just me playing around.
So, that’s the writing part of my update. In other news, we’re coming up to almost three years here at Port Macquarie … and so many things have changed since. When you have little ones, time seems a little slower. But with teens, the last three years felt like an unexpected invitation to ride in a high-powered car – I hung on for dear life while the world whizzed past me. In the time someone grabbed my hand and hurled me into the passenger seat, buckled me in, slapped a helmet on my head, and warned me to hang tight … my eldest turned 18, finished high school, moved out and started uni (a massive milestone not just for him but also for me as his Mumma); my second got a job in the meantime, is now beginning her journey towards the HSC (Higher School Certificate in our state) – which is like being in the loop all over again for us parents; and our baby is into her second year of high school, deeply involved in musical theatre. On it goes.
And I don’t think life is going to get slower as I get older.
The only thing I can do is get with it. Focus on the ride, enjoy what I can – not just endure or survive it – make the most of it. While I take care of my chicks the best way I can, I also try not to make my whole world revolve around them. Hence, I write. Writing is mine. It’s for me. While a major part of my identity is wife and mother, I am also a writer. But in writing, I always think about who I’m writing to or for. Thomas Umstattd Jr, a well-known podcaster in the writing sphere, always talks about ‘his Timothy’. Now, I always took this to be like Paul’s Timothy in the Bible, someone he taught, discipled, passed on his knowledge to. I thought I had understood his meaning. But it wasn’t until very recently that I finally truly grasped it. My ‘Timothy’ is not my generic reader but that one specific – and real – person I know personally who represents my core reader And by golly, I think I may have finally met her. And it took my family moving to the Port Macquarie area to meet her!
What am I reading? In the last couple of months, I happened to read two ‘fake dating’ romcoms. My Phony Valentine by Courtney Walsh – which I thoroughly enjoyed via Audible. And Love, Unscripted by Denise Hunter, which I borrowed from my local library. Highly unrealistic, but probable – ‘normal’ women like us meeting a celebrity (one a star hockey player and the other is a movie star). While it’s not totally impossible, it is most certainly (for me) escapism from reality … and isn’t that why we often turn to fiction? To escape a bit of reality?
On the flip side, I’ve also been reading a lot of murder mysteries, mostly Agatha Christie: The ABC Murders; and currently bookmarked is The Monogram Murders (The Brand New Hercule Poirot Mystery), which is not actually by Christie, but written in her style by Sophie Hannah. While it’s very similar, and she captures the essence of Poirot, you can just tell there is a slight difference. I haven’t dug too deep into the nuances; I’m just here to enjoy it.
In both cases, romance and murder mystery, I’ve asked myself why I read them. Isn’t romance too unrealistic and sets us up for disappointment, and aren’t murders gruesome? I think my answer is: because I want hopeful endings. True, some people never experience romance or the love of a wonderful other. But happy endings (or beginnings) can and do happen. Why can we not hope? In a murder mystery (such as those of Christie’s), there is a resolution – the bad guy/girl gets caught. Don’t the majority of us, as humans, want happy (or happily-for now) endings? Don’t we sometimes want to escape a bit of our reality to read something that could give us some joy or maybe a glimpse of what could be? And maybe … even work towards it?
What have I been watching? It was summer holidays for the kids in December and January. To keep my youngest entertained, I have allowed her to finally watch ‘The Hobbit’ and ‘The Lord of the Rings’ trilogy. So, I also had to watch the 3 x hour movies of each one. We also watched ‘Tolkien’ together, which just helped round out the whole LOTR journey. Oh, and just for curiosity’s sake, we threw in ‘The Minecraft Movie.’