Yesterday afternoon I was lucky enough to be left alone for a few hours in order to work. This mostly involved collecting my thoughts and re-reading the notes and manuscripts of the novels I intend to set right to – hopefully – publication one day. In this time I sat happily at our kitchen table and studied and thought, and all too soon my family returned and life returned to normal.
My husband repeatedly inquires after the necessity of having to withdraw from the house with the children in order for me to get some work done. I could say this:
Karen Andrews used to write everything longhand – until her children came along and seized her workbooks for their own scribbling. She then moved onto the computer – until her children came along and decided they too liked to type into Word Documents. Karen has since learned to take her work away from the household and now writes at her local cafes and public library. The peace, alone, is worth it. www.miscmum.com
But that would just be re-hashing the speakers bio’s from last year’s Emerging Writers’ Festival (more of the 2009 Festival at the end of the week, which I am happily a part of. Sorry for the teaser). The case remains the same, however, from 2008 to now, as you can see above. For if I was to stand up and leave the table for a matter of moments it is always commandeered by my offspring who MUST play Beados or MUST do drawing NOW.
The time I got, though, was worth all the inconveniences that came later. Trust me.
(I’ve deliberately obscured a lot of the stuff you see on the table, in particular the map attached to the pants clothes-hanger. Top-secret, you see. That or I’m a rabid paranoid.
In my defense, isn’t that the most essential part of a fantasy novel? The map at the start? A most handy rubric.)
