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Journeys

As I think I have said before I am currently training to run the London Marathon in April. When I first got the magazine in September last year it seemed ages away and a little surreal, now there is slightly less than three months to go and it now seems incredibly close, I have a half marathon race in just over eight weeks and yesterday the race number and rules and regulations came through. I am now starting to fundraise, and keeping my fingers crossed that I don’t get an injury. For anyone interested my fundraising page is;

http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/melsmarathonmadness

I have been pleased with my training, it started with going out at 630 in the morning for a maximum of three miles, now my long weekend run is up to eleven miles with the other runs averaging 4-5 miles. I am still hoping to finish within five hours. Perhaps the thing that has touched me most is how the kids and my friends have reacted.

Hpops has asked me several times if  I am sure I want to do the marathon, and since she has started cross- country at school she has said she finds running hard and worries about me.  She has started taking more an interest and when I have run at night she checks that I am going to be OK running in the dark! I do have to say I dislike running in the dark, I have to alter my route to ensure that I run where there is street lighting and even roads or pavements, the last thing I want to do is lose my way or fall over! I think Mr T has been pleased that I have stuck with the training even in the cold and wet – but as I have said I have no idea what the weather will be like in April, last year we had a heatwave but other years have been wet, windy or even snowy!

Not only have the children taken an interest but some of my friends have too, several have asked where the nest place is to come and yell. This has really touched me, I am told that there is plenty of on-course entertainment for spectators apart from the actual running element and it will be great to see some familiar faces along the route. In some ways I am looking forward to the race, it will be very buzzy and a great atmosphere but at the same time I am dreading it hoping I don’t get too far behind by target pace and so on! Whatever happens though I just want to ensure I finish and get that medal, the kids seem to think that getting a medal at the end means you are first, second or third but I have explained to them that because it is such a long way you get a medal for getting round – then the fight started about who could take it to school first!

Meanwhile the kids have been busy, Hpops has finally decided she does like cantering, she was riding her favourite horse this weekend and she did seem much more confident.  My little imp has been on a journey to drive me into madness by being as naughty as possible and pixie seems to be on a musical journey, she has just started ballet at school and is taking great delight in practicing at all times as well as trying to play the piano because Hpops does and the violin as both the  other two do. It makes me realise how far we have come already – how much they have learned and are still learning. I have also discovered that it is never too late to start a new journey, if someone had told me that I would ever run consistently for a marathon I would have laughed, but here we are! Having got here I can honestly say I am feeling better for the exercise and think even after the marathon I will continue to do some running, but without the time and effort pressure!

Firsts

So today was an exciting day for Imp, his very first tooth fell out.  It was a very different experience from when Hpops first lost one With Imp from the moment he discovered he had a wobbly tooth he has taken every opportunity to point out to whoever happened to be listening. Hpops went into denial and didn’t want it to ever come out! Imp wobbled with his finger and flicked with his tongue until today whilst playing a game he suddenly went very still.

‘I think,’ he said, then nodded, ‘My tooth has come out but I might have eaten it!’

He hadn’t it was on his tongue and duly rescued and awaiting collection from the tooth fairy! He was very excited about this turn of events and fussed a lot about his new gap! Hpops when presented with the same even a couple of years ago had burst into tears!

Pixie has some new experiences today as well.  She attended a birthday party where she was able to handle animals and had no problems holding a snake, lizard and most impressively a tarantula. She also got to pet a variety of other animals and seemed quite happy to do so! How different my children are turning out to be!

We are all back to school tomorrow, and I am hoping that I can get back into some training and writing. I have been re-connecting a bit with the writing in communication in preparation for unleashing new work soon. I have also managed to run just over 8 miles in marathon preparation which is pleasing as it is nearly a third of the way round!

Imp did have another little gem for us, he was talking to us about football and came out with;

‘Now it’s cold, we have to wear long sleeved trousers!’ I did manage to ask him what he wore in the summer and he gave the logical answer – ‘short sleeve trousers!’ Of course – silly me!

New Year, new (ish) blog

Soon all my old posts will be disappearing to be archived in my private files. Instead here will appear my random pearls of wisdom, tales of my adventures, or lack of in the publishing world, marathon training, (yes really!) and parental fears, failures and successes. As the kids are getting older I have decided to keep the tales of their formative years for myself and maintain their anonymity.

So I guess I need to make a few introductions. I have three children the eldest and youngest are girls (Hpops and pixie) with my poor son (imp) sandwiched in the middle of a world of pink and fairies. I have a husband who works very hard but also sometimes has to travel, sometimes at short notice which can make life difficult as I try to juggle the social life of the three kids – they definitely have a better social life than me. I taught in a primary schools for five years before the kids and since then have been dabbling with my other passion – writing!

My novel Tumbling Through Life was published a few years ago and since then I have been working on several projects – some for adults and some for children without really reaching the end of any of them, the kids schedule hasn’t helped and my talent for prevaricating means that I am able to make things that should take half an hour last for several! This year the youngest is off to school full time in September and so the time for prevaricating must come to an end and the time for serious writing must begin. My aim is to keep things ticking over until  then and from that moment on write for 4-5 hours a day and maybe actually finish off some of these half done projects and get somewhere. While it would be nice to be the next J K Rowling or Stephen King my main hope is that I can write something that will entertain people for a few hours. When I read I want to connect with the characters and place, no matter how outlandish the world set before me I want to be able to believe in it and forget myself for a while – if my writing can do that, even for just a few people then I will have considered myself to have achieved my goal.

Before I get to September I have a marathon to run! For the last few years I have applied to participate in the London marathon and  this year I was successful in gaining a place in the public ballot. Initially I was overjoyed then reality set in! So far I have been very lucky with the weather and have largely been able to keep up with the training schedule. I started proper training back in September and went from struggling around for 2-3 miles to running over 7 miles and feeling as if I have some left in the tank. As the date draws nearer training becomes more intense I hope to go a mile further each week and have done a few 20 mile runs before the big day!

I am sure the summer will be spent watching the Olympics, football and kids on various climbing frames as the summer holidays hit. Through this blog it would be great to hear from new people, hopefully you can check out some of my book/film/theatre and toy reviews as they appear as well as examples of my writing work. Most importantly wishing everyone a happy and safe 2012!

Review of Baby Be Mine by Paige Toon

This book was entertaining, compelling and emotive. The lead characters, especially Johnny, Meg and Christian as well as the supporting cast, particularly Dana, Lena, Bess and Joseph make up a world that is believable and interesting. They are well developed and the reader often takes side. The first person narrative makes the story more immediate and it is seen though the lead character, Meg’s eyes making us privy to her varied emotions and helping us to side with her. My one criticism of this book is that at the start it seemed to take a long time to get going. Whilst I expect it to take me a couple of chapters to get to know the characters and work out their motivations I felt that establishing Meg’s feelings of guilt and worry about the paternity of her child got in the way of the plot.

Having said that once the plot got going it was brilliant and I found it very difficult to put the book down, often sneaking upstairs to read a few more pages while the kids were busy as I wanted to find out what happened next. The storyline is fast moving, takes in France, LA and Oxford and the pace suits the story and the complications in the characters lives will make you cross, happy and move you all at the same time. I won’t give too much of the plot away as that would ruin it for you, if you read the blurb you know that there is going to be emotional upheaval and difficulties for all involved. The settings are convincing and the first person narrative really helps to involve the reader in the story. The ending is convincing and fitting.

I hadn’t read a Paige Toon book before but on the strength of this one I shall be sure to seek out more.

Review of The House by the Sea by Santa Montefiore

I received this book as a review copy, I admit I was worried I wouldn’t enjoy the story. I needn’t have been. The books 2 main protagonists Floriana and Marina are both well drawn and the reader can identify with them. The two settings, Italy and Devon, are vivid although I preferred Floriana’s Italy as this seemed more evocative.

If there was one criticism to make it would be that perhaps some of the minor characters in particular those in the estate office are a little stereotypical. Having said that the plot on the whole is kept quite tight. The two settings do mirror one another to some extent but not so that the reader is fed up. The sub-plots are intriguing and all the characters have their own ideals and motivations which then impact on the lives of others.

The anguish of Marina can become a little wearing as can the vileness of Clementine but it needs to be accepted that both these characters are behaving in the ways they behave because they are well developed characters not just plot devices. The use of Rafa, the artist in residence as a cure-all for the hotels problem is a clever way of uniting the problems of the various characters. The sub-plot of Baffles will keep you guessing.

All in all a book I would recommend, it has a little bit of everything, love, forbidden love, mystery and intrigue.