I am not sure if I really believe in signs as such but if I did I have most certainly seen quite a few recently… and by signs I mean signs from God, a higher power, or the universe, I obviously don’t mean road signs or shop signs.
I don’t know if I have mentioned before that I enjoy writing? (please note British sarcasm) but lately I have noticed things that I watch or read have a writing theme in them somewhere. Of course you are thinking, if you have an interest in writing then you would head towards those topics of interest within a TV show or book but these are not obvious parts in these stories. Let me explain, the books I have read recently or are still reading don’t necessarily need the writing theme it is just in there as part of the story that I had no idea about when I picked up the book. Also the mere fact I was reading these books at the same time struck me as a huge coincidence. One was the audiobook I was listening to during the day and the other is my Morland dynasty book that I read at bedtime.
Before I go to sleep at night I read usually half a chapter as they are quite long of a Morland Dynasty book by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles, the current book I am reading is 34/35 called The Winding Road. These books follow the family of Morlands from Yorkshire. One of the reasons I feel it is a strange coincidence is that the writing element that comes into the story is actually a character who pops up often in the last few books but is not actually a Morland or even married to a Morland. If I was being critical, which I am not I can’t think of any reason the author followed her story so closely. Like I said the character is not a Morland by birth nor is she married to any of the Morland men, she is a female who wants to write fiction in the 1920s which is virtually unheard of at the time and gets a job at a publishing house where she finally gets her own novel published.
It was while I was listening to Confessions of a 40 Something F**k Up that I first realised there was an interesting coincidence going on here. In this book Nell has worked as a book editor in the past and her character does have a writing storyline as well which from the blurb of the book you would not know and is definitely not the reason I chose the book in the first place. I am not saying I was planning on writing a novel but both these storylines have made me think ‘could I write a novel?’
The coincidences don’t end there either because at the same time as reading these books I was attempting to find time to watch a TV show called Magpie Murders. I love a murder mystery, a whodunnit type of TV show so I thought I would give this one a go. I will admit the synopsis does say it is about a novelist so it was not a complete surprise to find a character who is a fiction writer and a character that is his editor, but it still felt weird to me that I was surrounded by this world of publishing and writing every where I went to fill my leisure time.
Since reading and watching these stories I have also started listening to The Honest Authors podcast with Gillian McAllister and Holly Seddon which I am thoroughly enjoying and is definitely making me consider starting a writing course. It might be that I have no chance of sitting and writing a whole novel, I don’t even have an idea of a storyline but could that be something I learn if I decided to take writing seriously? Could it be that writing has been the career I should have always had but didn’t have the confidence to admit to wanting? I truly believe anyone can do anything that they put their mind to but have never believed it of myself but what if I did?
So as it turns out maybe I should believe in signs after all…
NJ x
nicola jayne 