Thursday Cite & Insight Invite – 22nd June

Here’s a good one from American writer Ralph Marston:

‘Rest when you’re weary. Refresh and renew yourself, your body, your mind, your spirit. Then get back to work.’

I’ve had a lovely three years off work, writing when I want to and self-publishing many books, as well as trying to keep fit and undergoing any necessary treatment for thyroid cancer.  However, I’ve come to the conclusion that I want to earn more money than my pension and Amazon royalties are giving me.  Sam doesn’t want me to go back to work, but …. needs must.

On Monday I drove back to the hospital for a meeting with my old manager to enquire about returning as a bank secretary to cover staff holidays and sickness and other times when there is just too much work.  We were soon chatting like I’d never been away, with the end result that I was given a bank contract and I can now work whenever I like, as usually one department or the other is more often than not short-staffed.   At the moment I’ve chosen to work on  Tuesdays and Thursdays only, which should augment my pension a little bit!

I learned a lot from working as a medical secretary.  Bank work will take me into departments I’ve never worked in at all, and so it will keep the old brain active.  I can still write on days when I’m not working (there might be a few less blogs though), so as my youngest son often says… it’s all gravy, baby.

 

 

Thursday Cite & Insight Invite – 15th June

This week I’ve found a quote from the late British novelist Sir Terry Pratchett:

‘It’s not worth doing something unless someone, somewhere, would much rather you weren’t doing it.’

It’s the old ‘rules are made to be broken’ thing, which of course causes much excitement when you’re in the middle of breaking one of them.  In these days of ‘Elf & Safety’ though, the list of rules forbidding you doing anything are becoming longer and longer and harder to ignore.

However, have you ever experienced the thrill of breaking a known rule?  I must admit I can remember one or two episodes as an adventurous 12 year old involving Woolworth’s Pick ‘n Mix display and an apple tree in a farmer’s field, but hey…

Sam deliberately goes out of his way to ignore rules when he thinks they smack too much of the nanny state, but then he always was a bit of a rebel.  Me, I don’t even eat Pick ‘n Mix sweets these days…

 

Thursday Cite & Insight Invite – 8th June

This is a good one from singer and actress Doris Day:

‘The really frightening thing about middle age is the knowledge that you’ll grow out of it.’

Nowadays we can expect to live to around 80 years of age at least.  Of course there are the exceptions (my dad lived to only 49 and  my mum to 92).  Therefore I would say that middle age starts at 40 years and continues maybe to 60 years.  However, the age of retirement is getting later and later, and is set at the moment at 66.  By the time my sons retire, the goalposts could have been moved even further back to 68 or even 70.

So where does middle age end?  I’m almost 60 and would like it to continue to the usual age of retirement, but we have to draw the line somewhere!  I found out when my mum died that doctors can put ‘old age’ on a death certificate any time after age 75 if the person dies of natural causes, and so there’s a black hole between the ages of 60 and 75 in my opinion.  I would think you could call somebody over the age of 70 elderly, but what about the 60 – 70 year olds?  I certainly don’t feel elderly yet, so I’m going to stretch middle age out to 70!

Where do you think middle age starts and ends?

Thursday Cite & Insight Invite – 1st June

I had to laugh at this great quote from Victorian writer Judith Stern, when I saw it in my week-to-view diary:

‘Experience is a comb that life gives you after you lose your hair.’

When the hair starts thinning and the reading glasses appear, then you finally ‘get’ what life is all about.  The understanding of human nature and the insight you have gained over many decades has helped you to realise why you were put upon this earth.  However, can you pass your wisdom onto the next generation?  No you cannot, because they are not listening.

You have your comb at the ready, but you can’t use it!  Arrgh!!!!!

 

Thursday Cite & Insight Invite – 25th May

“I went to a bus station crammed with buses, but only got on the one going my way.” – Roy Stolworthy

So saith a self-published writer on LinkedIn in a discussion I saw recently.  A member of one of the writers’ groups asked whether there were too many authors, and if so, was that the reason why they did not sell very many books?  A couple of replies were to the effect that authors write what they want to write about, and so possibly might fail to write about what is actually trending.  Another, Roy Stolworthy, wrote that he went to a bus station crammed with buses, but only got on the one which was going his way.

I liked the last reply.  It says a lot.  Readers will buy books based on their genre preferences.  I prefer to write novels about family dramas which some call ‘women’s fiction’, so therefore, in theory, should my books appeal to half of the entire world’s population?  It would be great if they did, but as I’m not yet up there in the best-seller lists, maybe some of the women are catching a different bus!

What do you think? Are there too many authors?  I’m starting to think along the lines that no, there are not too many authors, but maybe there are too many free books available.  Readers tend to favour the free books instead of paying even $0.99 for one.  Therefore authors will see decreased sales, although I do tend to see a spike in purchased books when my own KDP free promotions end.  However, I have reduced the number of days that my books are given away for free now. After ‘A House Without Windows’ was free for a weekend in April I had over 1100 downloads and 15 verified purchases the next day, but after ‘Revenge’ was free for a weekend recently I only had 12 downloads and no verified purchases afterwards. There is no rhyme or reason to it, but I still think it’s the number of free books available that might be causing a lack of sales for some authors.

I’d welcome comments on this topic.  ‘A House Without Windows’ is more of a thriller/suspense, whereas ‘Revenge’ is more women’s fiction, so again perhaps the thriller genre is more popular.  There’s my answer then – I need to catch the correct bus and write another thriller!

Thursday Cite & Insight Invite – 30th March

I must quote my late mother Dot today.  Dot was always coming out with wise little ditties and sayings, but one always stuck in my mind.

Today is Dot’s funeral.  I will have 25 people for lunch following the service at the crematorium, and then afterwards will have to go to Addenbrooke’s for another radiotherapy treatment.  As you can imagine, today is not a good day.

However, my mother’s words ring in my head at this time.  If she were still alive she would be ringing my phone and telling me:

‘Sometimes in life you have to do things that you don’t want to do.’

Profound words, eh?

That’s all for today. See you tomorrow. x

Thursday Cite and Insight Invite – 23rd March

Today’s quote is from the American comedian and TV host Ellen DeGeneres:

‘Beauty is about being comfortable in your own skin. It’s about knowing and accepting who you are.’

When we’re at that awkward age of about 12 – 17 we are desperate to be the same as our peers and to ‘fit in’.  We wear clothes that do not suit us and shoes that might possibly cause us to have to visit a podiatrist later in life,  just so as not to appear different to our friends.  I remember falling off my 6 inch platform shoes in 1974 in full view of shoppers in Lewisham High Street and tearing my bell bottom trousers.  In 1970 I walked about with a cow bell around my neck.  Now I think…why?

However, generally by the time we are in our fifties we wear clothes that suit us and eschew the more outlandish creations.  I care not two hoots whether I’m fashionable or not, because I now have no desire to fit into anybody’s idea of what I should look like.  I walk around wearing jeans, jumpers and trainers, and carry my faithful old rucksack on my back.  I can still hear my dear aunt telling my cousins…”She goes shopping with a rucksack!”.

Okay, so I’m a bit ‘bo-ho’ (bohemian) as my son calls me.  I hate handbags.  I like rucksacks, tassels, ruffles and fringes.  I like sitting in the middle of a field listening to rock bands playing, and I often go walking about in the dark with a torch.  I cannot remember the last time I wore a dress, but hey, that’s me.  I’m comfortable with it.

Have you accepted who you are, or are you still trying to fit in?  Below, here I am aged about 12 on a ferry somewhere, desperate for long straight blonde hair like my best friend, but…alas….(I’m okay with my mop now and have got it under control)!!

 

 

Thursday Cite & Insight Invite – 16th March

I like this one from singer Diana Ross:

“Instead of looking at the past, I put myself ahead twenty years and try to look at what I need to do now in order to get there then.”

Good thinking, eh? I suppose from the day we start our pension pot we are looking ahead to the future, but at that time our old age is but a blot on the distant horizon.  Now for me, the blot is coming a little nearer.  In 20 years time, should I live that long, I shall be 80 years of age, and I’d like to think that all my years of early morning Pilates and healthy eating might have then started to pay off!

Who knows?  The body always wins out in the end, but what I’d like in my old age is not to be like my poor mother was in her last years; helpless and finally bedridden and dependent on others for personal care and day to day tasks.  My aim is to be (hopefully with Sam still alive too) in a little retirement flat in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, not too far from my sons.  I’ll have the shops nearby, and with a bit of luck might still be able to walk there and buy my groceries rather than having to drive.

Nobody can be sure what life is going to throw at us, but it’s best to prepare for old age in advance.  Dot used to say ‘everything in moderation’, and I think that’s good advice.  I look forward to being a little old lady mooching around the market or around the Isle of Wight with Sam, still enjoying my grandchildren and great-grandchildren, and keeping my brain active by still writing stories when I can think of them!

What are you doing to prepare for old age?

 

Thursday Cite & Insight Invite

Here’s a good one from Reba McEntire, the American singer, songwriter, actress, and record producer:

“To succeed in life you need three things; a wishbone, a backbone, and a funny bone.”

When we’re young, we wish and dream of what the future could possibly hold.  Some people have the backbone to go after their dreams, but others take the safe route and stay within their comfort zones.  Do the dreamers make it?  Some might, but those that do not might fare better if they a born with a sense of humour to see them through.

Throughout my childhood I always had a dream of becoming a doctor.  I have always been fascinated by the workings of the body.  However, by the time I was about 17 or 18 it was quite clear to me that my brain would never be able to comprehend the level of mathematics and physics necessary for entry into medical school.  Basically I think I am number illiterate.

The backbone comes into place when realising this fact and not writing yourself off as thick as two short planks.  Undeterred, I left school and went into science in a different way, until I finally realised that I was not cut out to be a scientist either. When briefly trying to comprehend HND mathematics in a college course, I actually got the giggles one day and ended up playing noughts and crosses at the back of the class with a similarly affected friend.  Quite the opposite of being academic I was arty and creative instead, but it took me many years to come to terms with this fact.

Now I’m revelling in my dream job of writing all day, and earning royalties for my novels. I regret not persevering with my writing as a youngster, but hey, I haven’t got one foot in the grave yet.  Granted, the royalties are not enough to buy an ocean going liner, but after my experience on board a tender in the Cayman Islands, I wouldn’t want one anyway!

Thursday Cite & Insight Invite – 16th February

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Youth

I was leafing through my village magazine yesterday, and I came across this amusing quote from the late Dorothy Fuldheim, an American journalist and anchor, who spent the majority of her career in Ohio working for The Cleveland Press and WEWS-TV.  She also wrote a book ‘Three and a Half Husbands’.

“Youth is a disease from which we all recover.”

How lovely though to be that ‘typical’ 15 or 16 year old, certain that you will never become ill or die, and knowing for a fact that none of your loved ones will either.  You haven’t been battered by whatever life has thrown at you, and you see the good in everybody.  The world is at your feet, and you have your life ahead of you to accomplish whatever you set your mind to.  All you have to worry about are the spots on your face, and whether or not you can attract the attention of the opposite sex.  Mum and Dad, although they’re stupid, are always there to hand out money and sort any problems out.

The trouble with being 15 or 16 is that it doesn’t last.  All too soon you are 25 and then 35, maybe struggling with a mortgage while trying to feed a young family.  Your career might not be going in the direction you want it to, and Mum and Dad could possibly be retiring and might also have health problems.

Would you want to be that 15 year old again?  Well, maybe for just a day or two might not be too bad, but I wouldn’t want a re-run of the whole 45 years afterwards unless I could somehow know then what I know now!

How about you?  Would you want to be 15 again?