Rollercoaster Writing Journey

May and June have seen its ups and down in my writing life. One story progressing slowly, one almost stopped all together and another is getting ready to be published. 

I’ve continued writing my story about Vincent van Gogh – or to be more precise, about an artist consumed by his work and ambition to produce something of beauty and essence. It’s meandering a lot. I thought I had it clear enough in my head what kind of story I wanted to tell but as I’m writing it, I’m very much feeling my way forward. It’s a bit like when there’s a power cut and you’re trying to find your way to where you might have a candle.

I got completely stuck with my magical realism story. I had feedback that the order of scenes and chapters weren’t quite working and got so overwhelmed by trying to work out a better structure that I ended up putting the entire reordering on hold. I even considered taking out all flashbacks from the story. I’m still editing and I’m still hoping to be able to find an agent for this story, sooner rather than later, but that plan seems to have been delayed. 

On a more positive note, I’ve had my poetry novella professionally proofread and I’m now in the finishing phase of preparing this story for self-publication. Watch this space. I hope to publish What Good Could Grow Here within the next couple of weeks. Below is the cover for those who missed the cover reveal I had in the beginning of June. 

I’m taking up submitting my poetry to competitions again. I’ve had a hiatus for a few years where I just couldn’t be bothered. As it is, I have a few poems that are too long to be part of my Poetry Sunday updates on Instagram but that I really like. I therefore have two competitions coming up that I will be submitting to. Wish me luck.  

Don’t forget that you can now sign up for my newsletter. It’s monthly and gives a summary of what I have been reading, writing and designing the past month. There is also a prompt for those of you who’d like to get creative. Just go to the Newsletter tab in this blog and follow the sign up link. 

Queen Victoria: Daughter, Wife, Mother, Widow – Lucy Worsley

Like so many people, I find Queen Victoria an interesting person. I’ve also come to love reading Lucy Worsley’s books. I’ve seen a few films about Queen Victoria but this is the first book I’ve read. I found it fascinating but it had an unexpected effect. I’ll come to that further on.

I was hard to read this book without getting images in my head from Jeana Coleman playing the role of Victoria or Emily Blunt in the movie “Young Victoria”. They are both excellent actresses and both productions are very well made. Worsley’s book also does something unusual – it’s ordered into specific days in Queen Victoria’s life, the important dates, whether on a personal or a public nature. I really like that way of telling her story. Of course, it never just about that date but also giving context to its importance.

For me the book highlights the unusual situation of a royal family of being both a public business who everyone thinks they have a right to take part in, and being a family unit. How this balance is constantly coming into conflict with each other. Her mother clearly didn’t find this balance when Victoria was growing up. Victoria and Albert did a slightly better job at it, at least when their children were young.

She’s a complex person: brought up for two roles that required very different skills – the submissive wife and the assertive ruler of an empire. She was brought up to believe everyone should do her bidding, yet that she should be submissive to her husband. It obviously created a clear conflict which I don’t think she really came to terms with.

The unexpected effect of reading Queen Victoria was that the more I read about her, the more I felt she is not a person I like. I sympathise with her situation but I started to dislike her. We all grieve in different ways but she adopted some really unhealthy attachments to her grief that she held on to longer than would be healthy for anyone.

All in all though, I enjoyed reading Lucy Worsley’s Queen Victoria. If you have a curiosity with Victoria or that time era, I would strongly recommend it.