I started thinking today as I unwrapped a packet of fresh kitchen rolls that there was a time years ago when kitchen rolls didn’t exist. I was a child in my mother‘s kitchen. If we spilt something we reached for a dish cloth. Why don’t we do that now? What’s happened to us as we have grown? Have we got lazier? Or have we just got caught up in the times that we live in. We don’t actually need kitchen roll. We managed perfectly well without. And all of that has made me think that I’ll start a blog about getting older, about how time has changed life, changed our lives, and considering whether it’s changed the people that we are.
Next year I will be 70. I can remember when I started at secondary school and I saw the sixth formers. They didn’t seem like schoolgirls to me. They were women. And I thought I’m simply not going to live long enough to become like they are. A childish thought of course. For here I am, way past being a schoolgirl. Sometimes I catch a glimpse in the bathroom mirror, and I do a double take at the vision. I think, who on earth is that old lady? Then I realise it’s me. And I can’t get used to that. Sometimes I look down at my hands, and I don’t recognise them as mine anymore. The swollen arthritic joints, the change in the skin. And I find myself asking who is me? Is it me inside, and if so, what is this outer covering that seems to taunt me?
I’ve no idea where this blog will take me. I remember beginning one just before the lockdown of 2020 and I did it almost religiously every day and I did derive a great deal of pleasure from doing so. I don’t know whether many people read it or not. And the same will go for this one. I’m not a great one for projecting myself on social media so……time will tell.
Hello, I have just discovered your blog via the usual, slightly convoluted way of the internet. It was a book review that brought me here. I have been taking a look through some of your other pages and was driven to write to you about how intrigued it it made me. The quality of writing is very good, and I wonder if you are a writer of fiction yourself?
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for your comments. And for reading! I have not really pursued this blog in the way that I’d hoped. Perhaps I should revisit it…
ReplyDeleteIn answer to your question, yes, I do write. I always have. Lots of fiction, book reviews, poems, thoughts and dreams. Some pieces appear on the blogs and some don’t! But writing is a reflex, like breathing. It’s some thing I have to do. I’ve never considered myself to be particularly good at it. So your comment made my day. Thank you.🥰
Oh you are very welcome, Book phase. I like the style of your writing. Have you published?
ReplyDeleteThank you. That’s very kind of you. No, never published. 😟The odd article in a magazine. I’m dreadful at finishing! I have numerous novels begun but never completed. And I still don’t really think I’m good enough. And at my age I think publication is unlikely.
ReplyDeleteI can empathise with that. The not finishing part! Maybe complete one, a novella perhaps, and self publish it. There's a great sense of achievement when it's all one's own work.
ReplyDeleteSelf doubt can be a terrible thing if it stimies production. I knowany mature writers on Twitter, don't let age be an obstacle 😉
Thank you for your encouragement. By the sounds of it you are a scribbler too?:-)
DeleteI do a bit. But I don't have the patience to write grovelling letters and queries to traditional publishers! So, I self publish. Have had a couple of shorts in anthologies.
ReplyDeleteThat’s fantastic! Is it expensive to self publish?
ReplyDeleteNo, most self published authors use Amazon. There's templates for laying out the interior and cover, so you only pay for the proof to check it's okay. I also don't have the money for a cover designer so I do that myself too. I've used Photoshop and Canva.
ReplyDeleteCanva is a really easy to use site with selections of images and the ability to upload one's own.
It does take a little practice but I do like that it's all done by me.
It's the free version that I use.
Thank you so much for all this information. It’s interestig. I will check it all out but I imagine if it’s Amazon it’s not a physical copy of a book but for Kindle?
DeleteYou can create both! For example, a pseudonym I write under has published two books. You can take a look to see what I mean. Whatever you decide, good luck with your blog and future writing...
ReplyDeletehttps://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B0B1JLVCDC/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1706517382&sr=1-2
That's amazing! Thank you for all this advice and your good wishes. I will explore the link to your books. Good luck for all your future writing too.
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