Earlier this week I flicked through the new prospectus for degree and diploma courses at West Dean College of Conservation and Creative Arts. I found this picture and the quote I gave the College at the end of my course. I wrote it ‘off the cuff’, but as time passes the words become increasingly true.
I first developed a website and a blog when I was a student at West Dean, as part of my course. We were learning about writing a novel, how to edit and revise, how to have a multidisciplinary approach to research, informing our writing, and about the relationship of the writer with the publishing industry. Six years later I am redeveloping my website so that people can find out more about where I’m coming from.
I remember wondering what it would be like to learn about Publishing, and being apprehensive about the second year of the course. My heart was in writing. My passion was to become the best writer I could be. The second year exceeded all my expectations. Now, six years later, I am so glad that I did learn about the publishing industry. It gave me an understanding of the ongoing processes that happen after writing. It gave me an insight and professional vocabulary. I had the knowledge to not only write, but also function effectively within that industry.
I’m the daughter of a printer. As a little girl I went to my Dad’s printing works and I learnt to read, helping my Dad with proof reading. I read and he checked that all the words had been set painstakingly in the right order, one piece of lead at a time. As I got older I learnt more and talked to customers about their orders. My Mum ‘took in typing’, and I listened while authors dictated their work. Mum took them down in shorthand and turned them into beautifully typed manuscripts. Words were everywhere. They were important. They put food on the table. They paid the mortgage. They kept my parents employed. I learnt to love words.
I also learnt to respect the writers of those words; the customers at Ridout & Son the Printers, and the authors who came to our bungalow on the hill, overlooking Herne Bay. It didn’t occur to me that I would ever be one of them. They seemed too important. But more than anything I wanted to be a writer.
I first went to West Dean to undertake a short course in Creative Writing, in 1992. It was tutored by a wonderful teacher called Dianne Doubtfire. She encouraged me, and following the course she continued to mentor me, but life has a habit of getting in the way of dreams. I had no expectation of being able to earn a living as a writer. I was a nurse and then a midwife. I worked hard. Paid the bills. And in the background, a constant theme, was the longing to write full time.
In 2000, during a period of working part time while my son was little, I went to University and studied English Literature and Creative Writing. It was wonderful. Illuminating.
Fifteen years later I was lucky enough to go to West Dean to study for the MA in Creative Writing and Publishing. I studied while working full time and in the very first session we were asked about our concerns. Mine was Time Management. I was still a midwife. I had to rely on the good will of my managers. I had no right to the time to study. I could request five shifts off a month, and the rest of my shifts were given at their mercy, and generated by a computer. I needed them to be on board.
But I did it. I wrote my novel, This Place of Happiness. I learnt about editing and revision. I learnt about approaching literary agents and publishers. I learnt about myself.
Two years after finishing my MA I suffered a brain injury and it put my writing on hold for two years while I rewrote my life. I have the luxury of time now. I also have restrictions that mean I have to use that time wisely, scrupulously managing and planning so that I can achieve my goals. But I’m achieving them. Without my two years at West Dean I don’t think I would have had the skills to build a writing life for myself.
But I’ve done it.
On the 18th of May this year I received an email from Dark Edge Press offering me a two book deal. This Place of Happiness is going to be published.
