Mr Sun
Vilhelm Hammershoi 'Sunbeams' 1900Spring is in the air - a two hour walk through the hangars this morning with a jubilant hound has put the world to rights. Everything looks better in the sun, and I un-knotted a lot of things that had been on my mind as we walked through rutted paths bursting with snowdrops, crocuses, daffodils. A couple of weeks ago I found a lovely sepia pen and ink drawing of a high banked lane by PRS Haigh in a junk shop - the frame was falling apart but the drawing was unfoxed and somehow made it's way home ... It was a couple of pounds, but when I looked him up, his work fetches good prices at auction. It's hanging above the computer now - it reminds me of the walks around Petersfield and to me it is 'The Road Home'.
Aren't you getting bored with the constant doom-mongering? For writers at least, previous recessions have not seen people deserting their books. The reports of a recent publishing party at the V&A were upbeat, and Jeanette Winterson wrote recently in the Times: 'We don't stop reading because we are poor.' Equally, we don't stop writing because we are poor. A recent article estimated that if you were going to pay a full time mother in the US the going rate for her 92 hour week as cook, cleaner, chauffeur, nanny, psychologist and all round Wonder Woman her salary would be $200,000 pa. Something to bear in mind if, as in many families, the necessity of a second income is becoming an issue. Comparing notes with friends recently a lot of our other halves are making noises about us 'doing something useful' now that last of the little ones are heading to school in the autumn. Like running a family home unaided, keeping a company ticking over and writing isn't useful - but they don't bring home the big bacon like a grown-up professional full time job do they? At least not yet.
The thing is, I love it here, I love the school our children are at. To keep these balls in the air over the next few years we need two solid incomes. House prices have been crazy, and now the market is crashing - hey presto no good mortgage deals for first time buyers. But we'll get there. We very nearly ended up on 'Location Location' - Kirsty and Phil's TV show about buying property last year which would have been a hoot. They were looking for first time buyers affected by the credit crunch, and I thought 'why not'? Possibly we were too optimistic about mucking in and making the best of it - the couples chosen all had a 'glass half full' approach and no one bought a house. Right now I'd settle for a chicken shed if it was peaceful, I can choose the decor and it has room for bookshelves. If we're going to make this area home (and I hope we will), 'something' has to change - and that 'something' is me the pilot has made clear. He's already been talking about Tokyo, Abu Dhabi, Dubai ... Is it too much to ask, just somewhere to settle down finally and write these books I have waiting to be written?
I worked out this morning I have a book a year ready to go until 2015 - without factoring in new ideas, which will come, for the books to follow. Then there's articles, film scripts, another six years of blog posts ... Commenting on the last post, Emily mentioned Gertrude Stein as an example of genius, and I remembered how she talked about once you hit your thirties you marshall all your forces - it's like your powers align and you focus resolutely on work you love. For me, it's writing professionally, commercially - and I'm going to figure out a way to keep the balls in the air, the family happy and make it all come right somehow. Maybe Mary Poppins is coming into town ...
TODAY'S PROMPT: Friends and family have taken to asking about 'The Book' in hushed tones as if discussing someone whose life hangs in the balance: 'Any news yet?' (sympathetic smile). Sometimes you wish you hadn't told a soul. I overheard a couple of dandy old guys in Cafe Nero today discussing a mutual writer friend: 'Haven't heard a word about the novel,' one said. 'It's as if it's died!' the other agreed. 'He went from talking about it non-stop to pffft' he waved his hand). It made me laugh the way they talked reverently about the novel as a living, breathing thing. One of the many things motherhood has taught me is patience - perhaps in my case it's more of the 'wild patience' Estes says Adrienne Roth talked about. Patience with a purpose is a very, very good skill to learn as a writer. The pilot, as a 'normal' person - fairly (some might even say 'sanely') - has run out of patience with waiting. The best things take time. Good news is all around us - it just gets drowned out by banner headlines. Today, why not keep a conscious eye and ear out for the good stuff on a personal and global level. Cheer everyone up and share it in the comments box. Rowena made a very good point on the last post that paying attention to your ideas regularly brings forward a flow of inspiration. Julia Cameron talked about the necessity of 'filling the creative well', where you set out to do something you enjoy that supports your creativity. Whether it's a walk in the sun that leaves you exhilarated, or a visit to your favourite cafe with a pen and paper and an hour or so making like Baudelaire's flaneur people-watching, what can you do today to get out of a rut and focus on the bright side?
