POSTED BY Jessica Redland | Jun 03, 2016
A year ago today, my debut full-length novel, Searching for Steven was released. Nine months later, the follow-up in the series, Getting Over Gary came out. In August this year, the final book in the trilogy – Dreaming About Daran – will be released. Crikey! That’s three full-length novels in the space of fourteen months! Actually, it’s three full-length novels and a novella in the space of fifteen!
It’s been a funny old fifteen months. Here’s a few writing highs and lows during that time:
HIGHS:
LOWS:
Thankfully, as you can see, there are more highs than lows. Phew!
Two days before Steven was launched last year, I lost my job. It put a massive dampner on the launch for me because it was so unexpected. Fortunately, I was able to secure another role to start as soon as my notice period was over, so the financial panic was over. I lost that replacement job in April so I’ve actually reached my one-year anniversary in the same situation I was in on launch day. Didn’t see that one coming!
Every cloud has a silver lining, though. For a few years now, I’ve had a very part-time job as an internal verifier (IV) on the CIPD qualification (the professional qualification for people in HR careers) for a distance learning company. I won’t bore you with the details of how it came about, but I’ve been very fortunate in securing the role of tutor with the same company. It’s a very different way of working because I need to tutor at weekends in Birmingham and London which takes me away from the family, but it means I am around during school holidays. I also mark assignments and provide email guidance to students as and when submissions come through. On its own, it might not bring in enough money to match the salary I had, but I’ve also been given some additional work, designing some new materials and re-writing some existing ones. This extra work does bring in enough to match my salary, but for a lesser investment in time.
I’ve massively struggled to fit in time to write since the launch of Steven. The new job I secured was demanding and very hard to switch off from. Now, I have the luxury of time. Yes, I’m away roughly two out of every five weekends, but I have time during the week to write.
In theory.
The reality is that we have a new puppy so my days seem to be pretty much spent Ella-sitting! When she settles down, I’ll hopefully spend more time writing than being in and out of the garden for toilet stops (the puppy; not me!), fighting her off my laptop, and having her curled up asleep on my knee.
I wonder what I’ll be doing this time next year.
Jessica xx