There are many things that drive me crazy about this country; but the lack of opportunity is not one of them. I have always known that I can do whatever I want to do here, when I set my mind to it.
Years ago, I was just a newspaper reporter of sorts and columnist. I wrote enough for it to become a habit.
“You should put those stories into a book,” said our local librarian at the time, Angie Lopez. “A book,” I remember thinking to myself. I wonder how you do that.
My first book was titled “Window on the World,” the name of my weekly column, and consisted of a collection of columns from 2011-2014, if I remember correctly. I had found the self-publishing assistance online, purchasing a package to make things easier on myself — gulp. The book was far too long, not well organized, not illustrated… and so on. But I did it; I published my first book with Infinity Publishing, as they were known at the time. Somehow the tome also managed to promptly appear at Amazon.com and I was amazed by that.
Move stage promptly forward, and I was so in love, at the time, with my horse Winston that I knew I needed to write a children’s story about him and his friends on the ranch. Again, I used Infinity Publishing, and the book came out OK, though placing photographs amidst text nearly drove me over the edge and the photos were not great quality. When you know better, you do better. (Later, when I came to realize that I needed extra copies of the book and the publisher had gone under, I re-worked the manuscript with better photos, adding the postscript about Winston now being a forever spirit at our home at Solace. I preferred the second version.)
Shortly after that, the writing addiction apparently in full force, and another set of columns was ready to be published — “The Animals Teach Us Everything & Other Short Tails” — this time about my work in animal rescue and my own beloved rescue animals at Solace. I was relatively happy with how this book came out, having discovered a more efficient helper in the pagination and processing arena. I liked the illustrations and the flow of the columns, though the book was still too long. Regardless, I acknowledged I was getting better at this.
From there, it was grieving my sister time and the book I had worked on for so long in my mind “The Rosebud & Her Brilliant Adventures” was born, after a record amount of time taken in writing and re-writing the manuscript. It was Rosie’s last testament, as it were, and had to be done just right. I spent many a day or three away from home, mostly at the coast, writing her story and grieving her so badly it was hard to write. Including many images from her life and grief conversations with others, my Rosie book as I fondly call it made me quite proud of my grief journey and the one I shared with others. Even now, I can pick up the book and bring myself to tears. Rosie passed in the summer of 2018 and that is quite a long time ago.
From my Rosie book, it was time to put together another manuscript related to Rosie. Back in the ’90s, the dawn of the internet, my sister Rosie and her friends all lived very close to one another in the City of London. They were first time flat owners and, considering it was such a novelty at the time, they used to email one another a lot, chatting about this and that — a lot of boy chatter and food porn. They took turns to cook for one another in their apartments, and here the Soup Diaries were born.
The emails were printed out and kept after the fact and all the girls wanted someone to put them together, though they hadn’t identified who would do it. Even though it was not my own story to tell; after Rosie’s death, I offered to compile the emails for the girls and, with the help of Rosie’s bestie Charla, added in the recipes. My friend Lizzie did the design and layout of the book, and I have to say I was very proud of this piece. A friend even asked to use the book for her book club!
After our successful collaboration with “The Soup Diaries,” Lizzie and I decided to put together the story of our shared childhood on the East Coast of England in Aldeburgh. “The South Lookout – Our Aldeburgh Childhood” was, again, paginated and compiled by Lizzie, but this time she was also the co-author. This expedition was so fun, as we had our two voices of memory recalling very different things. Our tales were also extremely funny. We spent many hours looking for old family photographs in 1970’s plastic-paged albums and this was such a labor of love for both of us. We were very happy with the result and managed to get the book into various local shops and host a very successful book launch, signing and art show in the town of Aldeburgh last year.
Yesterday my latest book “Tomorrow Is Not Promised – A Story Collection From 2019-2023” went live on Amazon.com. It will also be carried by River House Books in the Crossroads Shopping Center of Carmel, and I shall be doing a signing at the bookshop this coming Sunday, Jan. 12, from 11-12:30. Alongside me at the signing will be the adoptable animals of South County Animal Rescue (SCAR) and I hope to have a good turnout for them and for me.
In America, I have found, you can do any darn thing you set your mind to. I went from writing a weekly column and doing a little reporting to being a published author of several books. I’m already working on the next two with more to follow. Writing is an occupation that can rather consume you and make you a bit antisocial; but it also fulfills your life in an indescribably wholesome way.
“Do you make any money at it?” my businessman father enquired, and I had to admit that, no, I didn’t make much money at it, if any at all. But I love it, I defend my position, and love is worth so much more than money. Besides, who knows. Maybe my next publication will be the one that gets picked up by a publisher and I could be on my way to a more lucrative future in that regard.
Whatever ultimately happens, I love my little hobby, my passion and I recommend everyone seek one or two of those in their lives. No matter how much you enjoy your work, work is work and love is love. Know how to separate those two things.
