2020 will go down as a bad year for Napoleonic plans, but a great year for taking up qigong, and in particular, learning to shift your weight without falling over.
Anything which involved putting a date in a calendar, or contacting public and private bodies, or even putting physical objects in physical places, has been doomed and we’ve been thwarted time and again in our plans for the publication and launch of Joe Faber and the Optimists.
We finally gave up waiting for the time to be right for that cosy book launch at Winstone’s bookshop, Sherborne, with friends, fizz and a few posh nibbles. A couple of months ago, we launched the paperback version of Joe Faber and the Optimists via Zoom. Yes, I know, yawn… it’s not the same is it?
Extract from book launch interview, September 2020
How did this novel come about?
Including a few words from my husband Terry. Interviewer Susan Elderkin. Event organised by Liz Gordon from Brilliant Fish
https://vimeo.com/482718648
HOWEVER it did present some opportunities we wouldn’t otherwise have had. It made it possible for friends and family from far and near to come together. My Shetland family for a start; my naughty little sister was the inspiration for Nell in the book, so it was great that she could be there. Two wonderful writers, members of my reading panel whose editorial comments were invaluable, were involved – that’s Juliette Adair in Uplyme and William Davidson in York – as well as writing colleagues from here and now. The lynchpin, responsible for introducing us all in the first place, was Susan Elderkin, who conducted the interview with such poise and insight. It was wonderful to see friends from Wales and Herefordshire in the same ‘room’ as the Dorset / Somerset gang. So it made for quite a celebration.
Zoom also allowed the event to be recorded. Armed with the conviction that iMovie is designed to be used by children, I’ve started editing some short extracts, which I’ll be posting here.
2020 has blocked our route more times than I care to remember but it’s also led us down some unexpected paths.
Let’s hear it for optimism!