Today I plan to complete Chapter 7 of The Haunted Tide. I have two pages of bare bones, in which I am writing in the first person from the perspective of a teenage girl who is embarking on her first relationship with a boy she really likes, which means thinking back to my own teenage feelings. It’s fun but also devastating to realise that I’ll never feel like that again. I’ll be fifty nine in just over a week! Thankfully I have a lovely Chatterbooks group that meets once a month in the local library to read and discuss books and, once it’s written, I can ask the girls to give me some feedback. I have to admit, I find it easier writing the ghostly scenes. But then, like anything, the more I write the easier it becomes. When I was writing Joe and Nelly, I had to look at wartime life through the eyes of a young boy, and I have never been one!
I am very interested in the things older people remember about their teenage years. I find my earlier childhood is much clearer in my mind. Perhaps it’s because of the turbulence of hormones, rebellion and that old cliché: sex and drugs and rock n’ roll. My teenage years are hazy – and they were troubled. One of the things I will never forget is the music I listened to, and still do. One singer-songwriter has been with me since I was fourteen and she always will be – Joni Mitchell. Her lyrics, tuning patterns and harmonies are inspiring. I remember singing her songs and believing I could be her. I dreamed of going to Saskatoon in Canada to see where her life began. So I was very sad when it was announced that she suffered from an aneurysm in March. My grandmother, always referred to as Nan and very precious to me, died of an aneurysm in 1997. I am delighted that Joni is on the road to recovery and is well cared for. It must be so frustrating for her not to be able to write or paint, another of her talents.
writing in north norfolk 