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Happiness is Something You Can't Buy
Here I go again... even after saying I wouldn't take this long to write up another blog post, months have flown by and It's already mid October.
Dancing has kept me busy, I signed up for Swing 3 & 4, which will end in December sometime. I am so dedicated I drive to Montreal after work for a class that only starts at 8:30PM and ends at 10PM... making my arrival time around 11:30ish, depending of course on Montreal's famous detours and construction. Hockey season has also begun, making traffic jams painful even in the middle of the night.
All that said, between dancing and my writing projects, I'm proud to say I believe to have my depression and anxiety under control. I know my title might be a bit misleading, of course I paid for dance lessons. But you know what I didn't pay for? The laughs, the constant smile that is plastered on my face, meeting new people, and being active.
My last post from forever ago I wrote about dancing, so today, I'll write about my writing projects.
I've written a novel! Well, two and a half. Well, two and a half plus the first chapter of a fourth.
It all began with a photo. I was flipping through my grandparents' photo album and asked my dad who someone was, which he replied, "that's your great aunt Kate who disappeared." Seriously. So after asking my aunt, my dad's sister, who told me the same story she heard which was Kate showed up to her parents' home with her two children wanting to leave her husband. My great grandfather disowned her and told her to never return. Whoa.
I'm an Ancestry.ca nerd and started my search, went through some old messages from an aunt no one really talks to (a WHOLE other story, maybe for another time) and contacted one of Kate's granddaughters on Facebook. Learning she had five children, not two, I knew there was more to the story. The granddaughter, Stacey, put me in contact with her aunt Beverly, the eldest child of Kate. We had an amazing chat, I learned some stories about her mom and what had happened the day her mother left, literally disappearing into thin air.
Now of course I won't tell you much more, I'd rather you read about it in my novel!
About a year and a half ago, a few friends pushed me to write a novel, inspired by my family secret. I began writing when it was slow and quiet at work, at night when my husband played video games, or on weekends. After a few months, I had my first draft. I couldn't beleive how proud I was of this stack of paper I had in my hands. I bound it and began the editing process.
Fast forward to today, I'm editing my 6th draft and reading over beta-reader's notes and feedback. It's a long process, some of the times I've wanted to pull my hair out and other times all I want to do is write more.
I'm hoping to polish my manuscript up enough to sent to agents soon, with dreams of being published. Setting a goal, which I haven't done in forever, feels amazing. It's given me the push I think I needed.
My heart and soul is in all three hundred and something pages (keep in mind, this is all double spaced and one side!) and even if I don't get published and become famous, this experience has given me something I could never buy.
It's taken me this long to find something that helps with my depression and anxiety. I think being creative, with not a lot of stress (not for now anyways) really helped and I plan on writing every week.
For those of you who are interested in or read historical romances, what would you like to read about? Is there something you can't find anywhere else? Are you only finding WWII novels based in England or about American soldiers? Do you want more Canadian history?
What makes you happy that you don't have to buy? Is it taking walks? Cooking with a friend or loved one? Dancing? Sewing? Knitting? Writing letters to friends?
