Intention and Exploration

Oh, and Season's Greetings!

It’s that time of year when writers write to wish you a Happy Christmas, a Happy New Year, or a Happy Holiday Season. Why be different?! I wish you all of those things!

It also seems to have become a tradition to review the past twelve months - I’m going to be controversial, and start with some recent, simple treasures.

I love to learn - I always will. The books I enjoy the most are those that teach me something, both as a person and a writer. Of course, they also have fabulous characters, plots that make me want to keep reading etc, etc, but I do love to learn something new - something that makes me think, ‘I didn’t know that,’ or ‘Wow! I want to try that out in my next book.’ I frequently feel this when I read something by one of my favourite authors, Liane Moriarty (whose book launch for In a Single Moment I attended in London).

Most recently, Eva Rice’s This Could be Everything is buzzing around my brain. This Could Be Everything is described in its cover blurbs as a ‘thing of joy’, ‘a comfort blanket’ and ‘a gorgeous feel-good story’. But boy, does Eva Rice make you wait for those things! It’s grippingly sad, with a heroine who’s been through so much, and who can’t allow herself to accept all the joy and potential she’s being offered. There is a fabulous sex scene which is almost one hundred percent interiority; a huge chunk of uninterrupted text which gives us the main character’s feelings and emotions and responses with barely a mention of mechanics.

Another recent treasure of this year has been my return to making art. I have a studio - financed by an inheritance after my beloved mum died - which I hadn’t used for a while. (Writing has always eclipsed my urge to make art, even though I studied painting at university). But making art is still hugely important to me, and, until I’m allowing myself to do it again, I tend to forget how important. So, I’ve been splashing paint around and ripping up paper to make collages in recent months whilst taking part in an art course called Find Your Joy. I really hope I’ll continue to do this in 2025.

The final two lessons of the course focused on Intention and Exploration. The messages were that you should decide on an intention before you start a creative project so that you have something to refer or return to as you work, even if that intention changes, and, that you should approach a creative project in the first instance in a spirit of, I wonder what would happen if I… rather than trying to make something perfect straight away. I love these ideas. They fit in exactly with my preferred approach to writing. If you have an intention - however loose - it launches you into a project. And if you’re experimenting and stretching yourself, then you’re unlikely to get bored and demotivated. What you’re trying might not turn out to be successful, but you will have learned along the way.

What else has happened this year? Well, Prickly Company was launched of course, and has received lots of kind and positive reviews. Hurrah!

I’ve laboured over edits for Closest Kept, out on May 6th. I think I’ve mentioned previously that my developmental editor, Tiffany Yates Martin gave me …shall we say, a full-on experience. Ha ha! And, although this was occasionally challenging at the time, I’m so glad she did. As I’m writing now, I can hear her voice, prompting me to dig deeper. More learning!

I enjoyed a summer with my son, home from university, then had to get used to him being gone again.

I went on holiday to a tower in a woodland in Suffolk that made me think of time travel.

Five Winters won a Star Award, awarded by the Women’s Fiction Writer’s Association. Yay!!!

I’ve also dealt with energy-sapping health issues - resolved now (hurrah!) and occasional feelings of isolation - writing can be a lonely business, and I’m sure you didn’t want me to bang on for the entirety of this post about how marvellous my life has been this year!

But I like to think I’m a pretty determined and good at coming up with solutions to problems and issues, and one of the things I’ve been doing recently is to write alongside others online - both with the London Writer’s Salon and the Women’s Fiction Writer’s Association. Sometimes I still write alone of course, but when I do feel the need of some company, doing this has really helped.

Oh, one last thing, I performed stand-up comedy again this year - an experience that was, as usual, terrifying and completely amazing.

Okay, that’s it for now. See you next year, and I wish you all you wish for yourself in 2025!

Kitty X