Sometimes I think my friends envision me sitting at a well-organized antique desk, nicely dressed, showered, hair blown dry, nails manicured and sipping a gourmet coffee while I effortlessly type page after page. It’s a very nice dream! The reality is that after seventeen years of juggling kids, a house, writing and my day job as a lawyer the last five of them, I find myself in a constant state of disheveled chaos, scavenging for time and still in my pajamas when my boys get home from school!
Here is how it unfolded.
After I had my first son eighteen years ago, I decided to stay home to raise my children until they were all in school. I felt lucky to be able to do that and so I took the job very seriously. But after about a year, I felt unfulfilled so I started to write whenever I had free time (which was not very often!). I had two more children in five years and all the while I kept writing. I even wrote in the back of my minivan while waiting for them at pre-school! I picked up the pace after I found an agent who thought she could sell my work. Of course, life is never that straight forward. It was a long road getting to the writing and publication of All Is Not Forgotten. During that time, I published other novels, edited, and eventually went back to work as a lawyer (after fourteen years away from the field).
But I never gave up the dream of making a career as a writer. I used to tell my boys that it was important to always have a dream, but to also be responsible. I did not stop working as a lawyer. Somehow, I also managed to keep writing. I signed with a new agent and she loved my concept of a psychological thriller based on memory science. I was a bit nervous about switching genres, but I had always enjoyed suspense and thrillers and I was very interested in this story concept. So I dusted it off and wrote All Is Not Forgotten. It was great advice and I am so glad that my children may get to see my dream come true.
Of course, “living the dream” for me, and so many other writers, is far from glamorous! I spend my days juggling promotional work with family obligations and staring down blank pages of the next novel that is dying to make its way out of my overcrowded head. I sometimes fantasize about the world coming to a halt for a day (maybe two) so I can catch up. But that is one dream that will never come true! Still, as I sit here in my pajamas writing this, a long list of things-to-do sitting beside me, I know I wouldn’t have it any other way.
All is not Forgotten by Wendy Walker. HQ £12.99
