WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO NOW?

Charles Dickens (7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870), created some of the world's most memorable fictional characters and is generally regarded as the greatest novelist of the Victorian period. (Thanks Wikipedia).

The catalyst for writing Fifteen Postcards can’t be narrowed down to one event. It is a combination of events over a number of years which lead me to sit down and to start seriously on tapping away at my computer keyboard.

I believe most people have an inner ego (and many people have an all-to-obvious outer ego), but my inner ego wanted to leave something of me behind. Something that says ‘She existed’. 

Its been argued that my children should be proof enough of my existence. It was my children who moved me away from my life path of being a dedicated Customs Officer, with a goal to work for the World Customs Organisation in Brussels, where I had planned to leave my mark on history. So once my life path was undeniably altered by the arrival of my daughters, and the unexpected death of my father, I spent seven years essentially treading water working at Antique Alley not really knowing where my life was going.

So once both my girls were at school, the question I was asked (and am still asked), by everyone in my family and circle of friends was “What are you going to do now?”. So my answer is this:

Now? Now I am going to do something for me. Something for my personal ego. Something which has bubbled inside me for the past seven years helping customers at Antique Alley, seeing the happiness on their faces when they find that perfect piece of china to add to their collection. Experiencing vicariously the joy of avid collectors as they fossick through the shop. I love it. And I want to write about it. Just as Charles Dickens wrote about ‘The Old Curiosity Shop’ and the terribly sad tale of Nell and her grandfather.  So ‘that’ is what I am going to do ‘now’ that the girls are at school. I am going to publish a novel.

My novel may not be on the reading lists 150 years after its been published like the novels Dickens wrote, but I am happy that I am following a dream. Everyone in the world should be free to follow their dreams. And I want to encourage all of you to follow yours.

13 MARCH 2014