27 February 2020 was the launch of my first novel. The whole process had taken years. But I had an agent and a publisher and life was rosy. And I had a lovely launch party at The English Rose Cafe in Victoria, London where friends, family and fellow writers came and my books sold out!
Three years later life is very different: we’re (hopefully) post pandemic, but witnessing a devastating war in Ukraine and an escalating global environmental crisis. On a personal level I’m divorced and no longer have an agent or a publisher. It’s been tough for everyone and I could easily sound bitter, but I’ve redrafted my second novel, Jacob’s Ladder and finally completed my third, The River Brings the Sea. I’ve been sending them out to try to get a new agent. So I’m not giving up yet.
And there are other pleasures apart from writing and reading fiction. Recently I’ve put together a pamphlet of my poems and submitted it to a major women’s poetry competition. Even if I’m unsuccessful, the discipline of selecting and ordering poems has made me feel more like a real writer. And the support of poet friends who made comments on the pamphlet has been uplifting and invaluable.
I’ve also taken my love of gardening to a new level, still volunteering in local parks I’m also involved in conservation work – laying dead hedges, planting wild flowers and helping to retrieve rubbish from the very polluted River Brent. I keep a garden/nature diary and this, with yoga and swimming is keeping my mental health on the positive side. Most of the time.
So, life isn’t quite as rosy as it was three years ago today, but I’m still here and it’s nearly Spring again.
Ali Thurm 