Hello New Year 2016
On January 1st 2006 I found myself alone in the house for the first time in many years.
2005 had been a long and hard year, I had separated from my long-time girlfriend, and I had worked very hard over the year to build my business in my new shop at Denton, and things had for a while been going fine, but in the September earlier that year, it had been announced that the land my shop was on was going to be redeveloped.
I had no idea at the time how hard things were going to get, it was New Year and I was hopeful, although being home alone with little work to do I was bored. Like most New Years, filled with hope for a better year, I thought I would have a good clear out whilst I had a few days off, and so I started with my spare room. The room had once been my daughter’s old bed room, but she had moved out and was living her life, and so I thought it would make it into an office. I set up my computer and organised all my work files, packed the last of my daughter’s things in boxes to deliver to her, and gave the place a really good vacuuming out.
It had been a busy morning when I decided to take a few minutes with a coffee as I eyed up the room, pretty much everything had been done, except for the large four drawer filing cabinet. As I opened the first drawer to reveal files and papers I had not seen for a while, I had no idea of how the contents of those draws would bring back a flood of memories, and some of the hopes and dreams I had been forced to give up as I took care of raising a daughter alone. The files and the papers within dated back seventeen years to 1989, and they contained what is today recognised as Heirs to the Kingdom.
This was the story I had told my daughter as a small child, this was the story that for some odd reason I had never been truly able to shake from my mind. It was that silly stupid thing that over the years I had slipped off and day dreamed about, it was a curious thing that for some unexplained mad reason, I had over the years thought what if? At that point I had reached for a pad to write notes on, and then placed in the filing cabinet until a time when I was ready to do more.
I sat on the floor as I went through endless notes, sketches and scribbles, and in some strange way, which made no sense to me at all, the time felt right to sort it all out into some kind of understandable order. I had no idea of how big a task it would be, as I switched on the computer, and as I worked through the pile, I began to type up the hand written notes onto Microsoft Word files.
Typing it all up into some form of understandable order took far longer than expected. As I added file after file to the computer I felt an overwhelming desire to improve what had been written as notes, and soon what should have been the simple task of transcribing my notes, became the long drawn out process of expanding the notes into a fully detailed background for the story I had told to my very young little girl. I created a history, family details, village life, and a better and fuller description of all the characters.
Completing the background work in full detail took me over a year of long evenings, as I still had to work, but it filled in the gaps of my life alone and kept me occupied and busy. The story at that time was still very vague and disjointed, and I had a file named “Bits Box” into which all the bits of story were placed until I could give them a correct running order. When I opened the file it contained a long four thick list of files with all sorts of odd names like, ‘Robbie and Billy go hunting’ or ‘Scones in Ann Kirks shop’ a lot of it made little sense to look at, but deep within my mind I knew the order and the placing of every part, I had never really thought of editing it together in its entirety, after all that would be daft because then it would become a story, a tale of adventure, hell it could probably be a book?
It makes me laugh today to think back, how could I ever of thought I could write a book? I mean we are talking about me, you know the fanatical horticulturalist, I mean I have spent 30 years growing stuff and advising people how to get the best from their small gardens. I think I can say without any fears, I was good at my job, I knew my stuff and I worked very hard at it, I loved it, I saw myself as the plants man, the guy who loved the wilds and adored the wonder and splendour of trees. Back then I was pretty certain I was not a writer, I mean when I left school I had considered it, probably more than anything else, I really did fancy training in journalism, but I had been told it is not for you, I had been told I would never make it, and so I turned to the only other thing I liked, I became a Horticulturalist. It made sense and for years it had felt right, and yet here I was behind the scenes as I went through life writing stuff down in the form of short stories and poems, and this bowman story, well that had been a sort of an on-going thread for years.
No one knew, it was my thing, something I did to amuse myself, but looking at what I done over the last 17 years, I must admit there was a secret deep down part of me that whispered in my ear, “go on do it, write the thing.” I suppose I thought what if it turns out terrible, it’s not like anyone will know?
What started on New Years day 2006, has influenced all aspects of who I am. I often argued with myself, and to be honest regretted publishing the books that have been written, but I cannot deny writing this has changed my life for the better. I am truly an introvert, I love to be alone away from people focused on a project, and wow does writing cater right to the centre of my soul? I love it, it opens my mind and allows me to tap into every aspect of the person that I am, it opens my heart and soul and allows for them mix in way I never thought was possible, and although it leaves me exhilarated and exhausted, it the happiest I think I have ever been. Sat alone with an empty page and the creativity buzzing in my head and running into my fingers is simply the best feeling on earth, and if I am truly honest, I wish I had not listened to my school advisors, and done this when I was 16 years old instead of waiting to my mid-forties to take the plunge.
On December 22nd 2007 I lost my business to a council hell bent of turning me out and building their idea of what people wanted, ironically it’s a civic square lined with trees and a fountain, and it was a tough time and left me very ill as I lost everything including my life’s savings. The cost was high, but eight years on I think maybe it was fate working to show me another way of being, maybe I was getting to old to work from dawn till dusk outside in the rain, snow, and freezing winds, maybe it was time to slow down and sit at the desk and use my mind instead of my hands to craft a living.
When I took a break in 2008 to write rather than rebuild from the ashes of my old horticultural business it surprised a lot of people, even today people look at me in total shock and surprise to hear I have finished in horticulture, in many ways it surprises me, but like all things in my life, I worked hard and researched deeply to gain as much knowledge as I can to do the best job I can, and I found it deeply satisfying. I published with an indie publisher in 2009 and got out the first three books over two years, but I was unhappy with them and always felt that I could have done it better, so in 2013 after a huge amount of deep thought I withdrew my contracts and decided to go it alone with my own publishing company initially meant only for my work, I now have six in the series out and for sale and feel very happy with them
I started writing the first book in the series in May 2007, I knew then it was going to be called the Bowman of Loxley, I must admit I did not think that as I sit on the eve of what will be the tenth year since I began clearing out the old filing cabinet, I would still be writing the same story, but in this year of 2016, it feel it’s fitting that I will complete the first draft of the last book, and bring my story to its final ending.
Writing this story has been life changing. Through HTTK I met a young woman through a friend who was doing the artwork for me, she read the first manuscripts, and really enjoyed them to a point where she asked if there was anything she could do to help? I needed advice on using the internet, and she became in a way my unofficial PA and researcher, guiding me into publishing and promoting the story worldwide. Today she is my wife, and probably the most versed on the complexity of the story, as she is now the only one who reads the rough stuff and helps me to polish it up for print. I have three children now, a step son and two daughters, and through writing and research, I have managed to set up my own publishing company as a vehicle for my writing, and a few others, I never would have guessed that my life could turn around and change so much.
Commercially it is not easy to be a writer these days, like all things in the modern world today, people want everything for less and less, and so life can be a struggle and less extravagant that my horticultural days. But when I way that up with the facts that I work about the same amount of hours, but I am dry, warm, and surrounded by my family, I cannot deny it is a better way of being. Heirs to the Kingdom is not a best seller, but that really does not matter, because I do have a small dedicated following that really enjoy the books, and for me that is exactly what writing is all about. I share my hopes and my dreams through the lives of the characters I have created, and it is a wonderful and fulfilling way to be, and as I end this wonderful series of stories, I feel excited as to what I can do next, that I hope will be another little adventure.
Like ten years ago, I have no idea as to what the future may hold, but I am happy to know that as I am now past the 50 years of age mark, I can slip slowly into a life around a family I love, sat at my desk using my wild imagination spliced with my dreams, and continue to create other stories to share with those who would wish to read them, and frankly life just does not get better than that.
Happy New Year to all of you, live with peace and in safety, and be happy throughout 2016.
RJM.