Welcome all to my new blog home

My blog has a new home:

http://helenholloway.com

Thank you everyone who has taken the time to visit my blogs here on blogger.  I just wanted you to know that all future blog entries will be posted on the above link.
Thank you again,

H

Am I old?

William, who is nearly five, and I were driving to school this morning taking our regular route. We're almost at the school when we pass a senior living place. William, from the back seat, reads the name of the home. "Mommy", says William, "Have we been there before?" 

"No, we haven't", I reply. I then explain to William who may need to live there and why.

"Sometimes old people need help with getting dressed, walking around or cooking for themselves" I say. 

"But you can't cook, Mommy. You need to live there!" 

"But it's for old people", I say.  

"You ARE old!", says William, trying to figure it out. 

Age is a funny thing. I don't feel old, yet after I dropped William off at school it happened. I drove to Goodwill, which is about five minutes drive from the school, to check out their books. I got back into the car with my treasures and started off back to Bagel Boys....which normally is on the way back to school. But it wasn't today.  I found myself passing neighborhoods, shops and roads that I hadn't seen before. I was lost!  We've been living in this area since 2002 and I was lost!  How could that be? Maybe William is right. Maybe I'm getting old and need to be moved into a senior living home before I get lost again. I had to pull into a car park and ask Siri "Where am I?"  

So you'll be happy to know that I'm typing this from Bagel Boys and I'm safe and sound. Have a great and safe weekend everyone. 

I'll have the fruit cup, some tea and a new friend, please!

Its amazing the people you meet when you need them. I'm back at Bagel Boys, which is turning into my regular place of work, and I start talking to the lady behind me. I've seen her sitting in her'office' before, typing away with her net book and coffee. 

She's a marketing writer for large companies and was explaining how to platform, which is what I've just been reading about in '2014 Children's Writers and Illustrators Market'.  It's a little confusing and overwhelming for me but she had some great ideas about blog writing and researching.  

She's so inspiring and I'm grateful for her time and advice.  I was looking for answers in the book but sometimes the walls go up regarding creativity and you're stuck. She taught me in a few words and a few minutes to be free from rules. No one can tell my story...only me! 

Ready for comments

Just realized that how I had my Blogger settings meant that no one could comment unless they had an account with Blogger. Now anyone and everyone can comment. So please feel free to leave any comments, opinions, criticisms, etc.  I'd love to read them! 

 

With the grown ups

Back at Bagel Boys doing a little research when I notice two things: 1, my eyes are beginning to ache because I've forgotten my reading glasses (how dumb is that!) and 2, I'm sitting in between two other women and the tables they are occupying. They are both busy typing away on teeny weeny laptops whilst sipping their coffee whilst I'm sitting with paper, a pencil, an eraser, and juice. So I'm feeling like a child 'playing' at writing in between the grown ups!  

30 minutes later..... Somehow get chatting to the two 'grown ups' and they're both writers too, different kinds of writers but both writers. Even just knowing this makes me feel like a different kind of person to who I was a few weeks ago. I'm now a writer! 

This looks familiar!

The smell of bagels!

So my office today is the local Bagel Boys Cafe where one of the only items on the menu for me to select is tea. Thank goodness they have tea!  It's somehow ironic for a person who is gluten, lactose and caffeine intolerant to be voluntary sitting in a bagel and coffee shop. But the nearest Starbucks or any other similair place is miles away from William's school (which is where I need to be in an hour or two). 

So I have my tea; that's a good start. I have paper and one if those funny pop up pencils that I stole from our trick or treat bucket last week. And I have my brain that I'm trying to stop thinking about the end of this journey and just trying to let it do 'it's thing'. 

Someone asked me recently "what's stopping you writing?".  I guess the truth is I'm scared. Scared of failing!  What if no one likes my work?  What if I give up?  Maybe I should have picked the chamomile tea!

More time to write

Things have been changing around here so much since August.  We had so many weeks off during the school summer holidays thinking that William and I were both returning to the same Montessori school.  Then we had sad news that there was not going to be a job for me there.  No job means no money and no money means no way of paying for William's tuition fees.  William and I thought we'd found the answer at a different Montessori school with a place for us both.  Unfortunately the school turned out to be anything other than a Montessori school and seven weeks later William and I said goodbye.
After a couple of weeks of William and I at home, which I really don't mind as we get along really well, we had an amazing offer to return to our original school.  But the best part about my new role at the school is I only need to be there two hours a day, leaving time on my own to think, to read, to research and to write.
There's a library close by, quite areas in the school to sit and work and the school is located next to a beautiful park.
I'm so excited with our change in routine and selfishly grateful of tons of extra time to work on the book.  At the moment I' feel like I'm just playing at being a writer.  When I talk to friends I feel like a fake, maybe because there's still a part of me that doesn't believe I can do it!  I have so much self doubt and I'm overwhelmed about how much I need to learn, but I'm sure after a week or two of alone time to work I'll feel much better....I hope!

I know I'm no illustrator

Today I sat with pencil and paper trying to draw someone who is the main character of the book. Someone I know so well but have not seen for many years. Someone whom I love so much and will always love for the rest of my life. My Dad. I'm not the best at drawing even though I do enjoy it, and I've not practiced for some time.  

I can't describe how I feel at at the moment.  I just wish more than anything that I could take a photo of him rather than trying to draw him with wings.  This is going to be a tough journey! 

Quite please!

Thought a little research would be a good idea so I'm in the quite room of the local library. Odd to think that libraries these days have quite rooms. I did, however, find some interesting titles, aurthors, illustrators, and publishers who have similar books out.....not the same, but a similar subject. 

I'm learning that there's more than one way to write and publish a children's book. The old fashioned, more expensive, time consuming and professional way is to send your book without pictures to a publisher and if they like it they match you up with an illustrator. Then there's the quick and easy, unprofessional 2013 version of book writing and publishing which is to have an online company such as Amazon make your book....not sure how you sort out an illustrator with this option.   

I guess I have a while to figure it out since only the first line of my story has been written ;-)

Not sure what I'm doing...

A new page....a blank page.... with such potential, eagerly waiting with cursor flashing as my four year old draws space shuttles on a piece of copy paper.  Have you ever noticed how a child can pick up a blank piece of paper and immediately the pencil starts moving.  They don't seem to sit and stare and wonder what others may think of their space shuttle.  Is it too big?  Too yellow?  Too silly?  They just draw.  I could learn a lot from that.
And I'm going to try.  Two people came up with the idea of my new project.  Being very self critical I'm not sure how far it will go.  I dream of seeing our work, the idea, on a shelf in a bookstore.  Not for fame or fortune but just to say "I did it.  The dream came true!".
So we'll see what I can do with this flashing cursor and blank page staring at me and start thinking about my potential, and not the paper's!