COMING FULL CIRCLE!

  

Part of the old manuscript

When I was between eleven and twelve years old, I wrote a children's adventure book. At the time, I was living with my parents in Buckingham, England, where they owned and operated a watchmaker and jeweller's shop.

My father gave me an old accounts ledger in which to write the book. It was quite thick and had a hard cover. I carried it everywhere I went for a whole year, scribbling my adventure story every chance I had in school recesses, lunch hours and after school.

At the end of the year it was finished, but I had no outlet for it. I didn't even have a typewriter (there were no computers or internet in those days).

During the school term after that I lived in the hostel of Wolverton Grammar School. The housemaster, Mr. Hodge, who was an author, read my book, to give me his opinion. He gave me a little review with suggestions for a few changes. I was thrilled when he told me it was very good and I should try to get it published.

However, the book still didn't go anywhere. I carried on writing the poems and stories I had written since the age of nine and took my book with me when I moved to Devon, Canada and finally, The Bahamas.

I still have some of the first pages from the book, but sadly the rest of it was somehow lost over the years. I believe it may had been eaten by insects when stored on Long Island for a while!

Anyway, reading over what I have of the book, I realize that I have actually come full circle. I started off writing mysteries and dramas and now I am working on Book Three in my Buchanan Mystery Romance Series, which is also full of drama!

DOWNSIZING!

Unfortunately, I haven’t been doing much writing lately as we’re downsizing! After years of dragging our “stuff” across the Atlantic twice and back and forwards to Freeport and Long Island, we finally realized that it’s time to simplify our lives!

I’ve been busy shredding the contents of old files, including those from when we had a real estate company. And we’ve been selling or giving away household items and collectibles that we haven’t used in years.

It’s a wonderful sense of freedom! I will get back to my writing soon though. In the meantime, lots of plots and stories are pecolating in my mind!

I have some tips about organizing your life in Chapter Five (“Time Management”) of my book “How to Be the Best Writer Ever!” CLICK HERE! 

BACK TO THE SHORT STORY FORM!

Photo by Johan Mouchet on Unsplash.com

I’ve started writing short stories again and have just submitted a romantic short story to a British magazine! I’m always writing articles, but haven’t written short stories for a while. It feels good!

THE CRAFT OF SHORT STORY WRITING

I’m getting back to my short story writing again and submitting stories to magazines in the U.K. and U.S. 

As bestselling author and master of short stories Stephen King said in one of his videos that I watched the other day, the short story is a special art form and you can get out of practice with short stories if you just write novels. 

Of course, many writers only want to write novels and that’s okay. But if you’re a lover of short stories, which I am, you don’t want to lose the touch! I won't neglect my next novel though!