My Irish Sabbatical

Time Out in Ireland - Just the book you need for a sabbatical in Ireland

I wish that everyone could get the opportunity to take some serious time out from work. And by this I don’t mean a few months off to have a baby, or time off because of an involuntary redundancy. But real time off that was planned for – a sabbatical in other words.

I didn’t quite plan to have so much time off work myself. It has been the accidental by-product of relocating to Ireland at precisely the worst moment in history to do so. However, my unemployed status has not been without its benefits. I have had time to really think about what I want to achieve in life, and what is important to me.

I always knew that I wanted to be a writer, and this little journey started long before I moved to Ireland. But it is here that my quiet ambition has been allowed to mature into something more tangible. I have now published a novel, albeit just on Kindle at this moment in time. However, this small act is enough to make me feel like a published writer. I even have an email from Amazon congratulating me on this achievement. The novel is selling, and I have even had my first review – five stars no less. However, what gave me the most satisfaction were the emails and text messages from people who have read my novel and loved it. Now that feels like an achievement!

This year of unemployment has been tough for me. I have spent over 30 years in paid employment and I love working. I have made some of my best friends (and worst husbands at work) and it feels good to be busy and an active member of society. The constant rejection, or even blank silences, in response to the hundreds of job applications I have made since I moved to Ireland has threatened to drain all my reserves of confidence. So my little Kindle experiment has at least helped to balance this out.

But this past year has been good for something else. I want to be a writer; but since that won’t pay all the bills I have decided that I would like to do something a little more meaningful than work in an office for the rest of my life. I need to have more balance in my life. I don’t want to spend all day at a computer and then spend all my spare time on my laptop, writing. I want to do something that makes a difference to people’s lives. I also know that as much as I love Ireland, my heart really belongs in Shetland and therefore, we are probably going to move back there before too long.

So I had better finish my “Irish” novel pretty quick while I still have time to do so.

Misplaced parental anxiety

I realise that publishing my novel via Amazon as a Kindle download is not the pinnacle of publishing success. It would be much better for my novel to have been picked up by a real publisher and produced as a paperback. However, this has not happened yet, and I felt as if time was running out for this book. I wrote it over three years ago, although I have been tinkering with it ever since trying to edit out as many errors and typos as I could find. It was time to let this baby go and start to concentrate on the next one. But no sooner had I, metaphorically, pushed it out of the nest than I wondered whether it was the right thing to do.

Now it is out there, floating in the great ether of the electronic publishing world waiting for someone to notice it.

Many people have already read the novel in its draft form. Mostly friends and family, and without exception they have loved it. But then again they would, wouldn’t they, or they would keep a diplomatic silence on the issue.
Now complete strangers are free to buy it and to make comment on it. I have read some of the comments on Amazon that people have written about other author’s novels. Some of them are not pretty.

Ever since I had two children I have spent every minute of every day worrying about them; hoping they are safe, well and happy. Now I almost feel as if I have another baby to worry about. Suppose nobody loves this one. Should I have kept it at home with me a little while longer?

I guess time will tell.

Launching my novel on St Patrick's Day

I have finally plucked up the courage to launch my first novel onto the unsuspecting public. Dancing with the Ferryman was dreamt up one sunny afternoon when I looked out of my kitchen window and saw an ordinary man. At the risk of people identifying him I don’t wish to go into too much detail, but suffice it to say he was a typical Shetland man. That is to say, he was family oriented, hardworking in his three different jobs, not to mention maintaining a croft, and living in the house he built himself.

I thought of all the handsome heroes I had read about in the numerous chick-lit books and realised that there was an untapped source of romantic heroes right here on my island. Now all the women in Shetland reading this would probably think this was hilarious, as Shetland men are not renowned for their romantic notions. But it occurred to me that with a little bit of poetic license I could create the first proto-type. His name is Magnus – a typical Shetland name. He does not have a glamorous career in the city, he does not wear designer suits, drive a flash sports car and he is not tall dark and handsome with a chiselled jaw and a six pack. He is quietly spoken, maybe even a little shy and just a tad old fashioned. Not quite the standard issue 21st century hero.

Turning to my heroine I decided to see how far away I could get from the norm here as well. Jo is a rather ordinary woman. A civil servant, not stunningly gorgeous, maybe even a little frumpy, and she is pregnant as well.

With the two characters fairly well formed in my head all I had to do was find a way to get Jo to Shetland. The resulting novel is a love story, but not just between the characters. It is in effect a love story about Shetland.

The story is entirely fictional, but it was inspired by my love of Shetland. I first visited Shetland on the 8th February 2003 for a weekend. It was grey and miserable when I landed but it was still love at first sight. I went back to work on Monday and resigned. I put my house on the market and moved up on 2nd June 2003; and never regretted it. Although I am now living in Ireland I do not think it will be too long before we move back home.

Dancing with the Ferryman can be downloaded from the Amazon website from 17 March 2010. It costs $2.99 or the sterling equivalent (about £2.15). If you do not own a Kindle you can download the Kindle software from Amazon onto you PC, Mac or as an Android application onto your smart phone.