I wasn’t happiest, but I was least existentially stressed when I was taking my professional exams as a junior doctor. I had no children at the time so I had three clear priorities: keeping women and their babies alive; keeping myself alive; and revising for exams that helped me to do a good job of the first.
I really shouldn’t complain about my life now – it’s far richer – but it’s so much harder to prioritise. Contrary to mum stereotypes, I am an appalling multi-tasker. I can organise children and keep the house under control; I can, it turns out, set up a new business; and I can draft a new novel. I just can’t keep all of those things in my head at the same time. So this week, the house and novel have suffered.
My novel. We’ve been watching a lot of the Great Pottery Throw Down so excuse the metaphor. Before Christmas, I was throwing promising new items from the wheel at great speed. I’m hand-building now, with a cold slab of clay in front of me. What I have in my head and what I have in front of me are two very different things. But I know it’s just a matter of clearing headspace and pushing through though.
I went out of my comfort zone and put my short story into a Bookfunnel promo. In April, the people who get my newsletter will have an opportunity to read other people’s stories, and vice versa. I’m not able to read the others yet, but I have seen the covers and they seemed so much better than my ‘child who looks like a plate’. It forced me to upskill and take a short online course in graphic design. This is the result. What do you think? Meanwhile, Rachel has re-formatted the text for me in Vellum. If you’re on my mailing list, give me a few days and I’ll send the link for the update.
New version.
sophie beal 