I like the sound of Rest and Recuperation. It feels as though it’s been a difficult couple of weeks – lots going on and illnesses galore too – not just me but the rest of the family. So I am VERY much looking forward to a couple of days with some other crazy writer people: the Scattered Authors.
The Scattered Authors’ Society is a semi-organised group of children’s authors. I say ‘semi’ because we’re not a formal society: we don’t have committees and meetings and minutes and stuff like that. But we do have a Membership Secretary, and I run the website, and then during the year we have meet-ups and various people volunteer to organise those. Tomorrow I am off to Peterborough for our annual February conference (again, I use the word ‘conference’ in its loosest sense because it’s basically just us authors sitting around and chatting about different topics). There will be morale-boosting, support and encouragement, and wine. And Malorie Blackman!
Being an author is a very isolating job. It’s not something most people can do in an office, as it requires peace and quiet, so authors tend to spend a lot of their time alone. This has never bothered me because I like my own company 🙂 but it is LOVELY to meet up with people who do the same thing and share the same publishing world. It’s like a big extended family. And after a day or two with other authors, I always come home renewed in spirit 🙂
In other news, I sent a brand new story proposal to my agent yesterday. Hoping she likes it – fingers crossed!
Jo Cotterill 