In March, I discovered my husband had published my manuscript on Amazon. Clutching the lilac handbag, I went into a bit of a panic. The delete button on my laptop did not remove the book from Amazon. There was no chocolate in the house, so I ignored him by reading a book. Little did I know, he’d presented me with a ticket to begin a creative writing journey via social media.
While waiting to board the creative train, I watched YouTube footage about how to engage in social media. I wish I had known about Neetsmarketing rather than shouting at the lovely people who were trying to explain. Fortunately, there was light at the end of the tunnel, Sue Moorcroft was the first person to accept my friend request on Twitter. Her response to my book review and ideas to promote ‘Just for the Holidays’ lit the creative spark, and she helped me to understand Twitter. The sound of the whistle jolted the pistons in my imagination.
Once I had boarded the creative train, some wonderful people waved me off. The first review request came from Angela Petch. Her reaction to my review of ‘Now and Then in Tuscany’ fuelled the creative enthusiasm and the train started to increase pace. She also agreed to join me in a whacky race to meet up with Sue Moorcroft’s character, in France. Angela introduced me to Patricia Feinberg Stoner and Rosemary Noble. Rosemary ‘Ranter’s Wharf’ made me rant on behalf of my ancestors. Patricia’s book is funniest book I have ever read about becoming an accidental expat, in France. It was a great day when Patricia sent me her ‘Rude Book of Limericks’, and I realised she had quoted me on her front cover.
I crashed into the inspirational Diane Need, in the Midlands, when my creative ideas were heading in all directions. Diane’s heart-warming, fun novel was a great read on the journey. Jan Ellis asked me to review one of her books and sent me a book parcel, and this was the ticket to my new collection of books. Jan is currently writing a blog post about the contents of her handbag, and I know it will be amusing.
On my creative journey abroad, I stopped off to meet Patricia Furstenberg. She took me on a magical journey back to my childhood through her children’s books. She is also my Twitter guru and is Queen of the Hashtags. At her stop, Patricia introduced me to Jennifer from ‘Jennieration’. Jen is a ‘fearless thinker’ who delights in language, culture and creativity. Jen’s daughter, Ella, is the youngest author in my Handbag Gallery, and she wrote a wonderfully creative guest post.
While speeding along the tracks of creativity, I met Carol Cooper. And I was thrilled when she came up with the idea of interviewing the interviewer. She looked inside my handbag and made me reflect on my journey. Angela Petch also asked me questions about the editing journey. At this point, I reached a bit of a crossroads, I had neglected my writing. The blogging train had been gaining speed and getting out of control. I decided to get off at the next stop and visit my book again.
Locked in my study, in ‘Editingland’, I couldn’t resist interacting with Wendy Clarke. I stopped over at ‘Silent Night’ to present an extract, and found Wendy incredibly supportive. She featured me in her blog, and wrote a generous blog post about how to use software to market a book. What a wonderful stopover! I would never have found out about this if I had not boarded the creative train via social media.
Finally, I realised the creative train isn’t out of control. Sometimes, one shouldn’t worry too much about the final destination, but one does need to interact with others on the journey. ‘You Can’t Go It Alone’ so I recently asked Angela for support. Angela will talk to me about my editing next year. My interactions with Adrienne Vaughan and Jan Brigden also gave me a lovely boost on my journey. Caz Greenham, the children’s author, has convinced me that Eric Seagull exists. I now live inside the creative world with authors. It was lots of laughs with the hilarious Lisa Mary London. However, it was frightening inside the Dutch woods and the world of Imogen Matthews’s characters. She is mailing a guest post to Books in Handbag about how she stumbled on a forgotten World War Two. I will be travelling back in time to the seventeenth century with Anna Belfrage.
Having established my seat on the creative journey, my role as blogger has gained pace in 2017. Thanks to the response of the writing and reading community, I have had a wonderful year. My role as an ‘accidental’ blogger and supporter of writers has pushed me towards an exciting, unknown destination. Each day, I open photos of handbags and develop more interactions with wonderful authors. Next year, I will launch an initiative for readers with Anne Williams. I hope that many others will hop aboard the new initiative to celebrate reading.
While writing about my journey, Judith Barrow has just tweeted that she has ‘enjoyed being part of the journey’. The people I have met on my journey have made the whole adventure worthwhile, as I get to peer through the window at their writing world. Sue Bentley’s friendly comments always make me smile as I head towards my unknown destination.
A big thank you to everyone for supporting my blog – your enthusiasm has fuelled my creativity and put me on track. Have a wonderful Christmas! Best wishes for 2018! Hope you will join me for more adventures in 2018.
For me, this has been the creative year of the handbag and new friendships! How can you sum up your year? The Year of …
Please see all my adventures at Handbag Adventures and my blog at jessiecahalin.com.
