Yes, the little things, and, not wanting to repeat myself…(as if!)
…which keep me going.
Keep me going in the context of book promotion and belief in myself as a writer. Not keep me going as in…
(Why aren’t advertisements for laxatives always like this? {Probably because no-one realises they’re advertisements for laxatives!})
Here is a truism for writers everywhere: It’s not that easy keeping up the momentum of getting your work out to an appreciative audience – well, to ANY audience.
For me, it’s a daily act of courage. That might sound a little bit over-dramatic, but I am, after all, a writer. Really, for me, every time I go out there I have to step over, clamber over, drag myself over a massive wall built of insecurity and self-doubt.
Oh, get over it, Caroline.
Get over it I have to.
Only there are less handholds and footholds. And my legs aren’t that flexible. And my grip’s not that strong. And I haven’t got a safety rope and harness.
So it’s the little things…and they keep on happening, just enough, every day, to keep me going.
Yesterday, a friend at my creative writing class said, broad smile on her face, that she was half way through Of Night and Light and that she’d shown it to her 15-year-old grandson. Grandson, mark you. Like. A TEENAGE BOY. He had started reading it. His first comment: “It’s a bit…girlie.” His second comment, three chapters in: “It’s a real page turner.”
(That wasn’t one of those little things, it was a huge massive great ENORMOUS thing for me).
Today, the the post office I bumped into a neighbour who’d been given a copy of Of Night and Light by Peter (not me – I was too cowardly!) That was ages ago and nothing had been said, so I’d thought…well, you can imagine all the stories I made up.
Even today, I couldn’t bring myself to mention it. SHE did. Her teenage daughter’s reading it at the moment (a reluctant reader) and finding it fun and fast-moving. And could I give her lots of my promotional postcards because there are two schools where she’s keen to hand them out?
Thank you, everyone, whose encouragement and positivity keeps my sun shining and me moving onwards and upwards.
Couldn’t do it without you. Or, I could, but it would most likely be a wretched and lonely journey.
I said it was the little things.
I think that’s severely underestimating their power.