Moving is a time-consuming and stressful experience. From ‘What
if it all falls through?’ to ‘Will the cats settle ok?’ to ‘Which room does
this box go in?’ to ‘Where did I put the torch?’ it’s great to know it’s all
behind us now and things can start getting back to normal.
But one of the oddest things is realising just how much the
subject of moving house seems to have crept, quite subconsciously, into my
stories in recent months, even when they are supposed to be about something
else – bereavement, childhood, friendship, romance. So, when I tell you my
stories can sometimes be quite moving, moving house wasn’t exactly what I meant
- although it looks like that’s what you’re going to get!
First there was ‘Pictures of Yesterday’, written just as we
were putting our own place on the market back in November, and which appeared
in The People’s Friend on 26 March. Janet is staying at her gran’s house for
the weekend, getting it ready for sale after the old lady’s death. Of course, she
is curious to know who will buy it and what changes they will make, although she
knows she doesn’t want to witness any of it, preferring to remember things just
as they always were. Enter a young and dishy estate agent (mine didn’t quite
fit the bill, but this is fiction!) who has come to photograph the rooms. He loves
the original features of the old house almost as much as she does and, because
this story is more about moving on and accepting change than it is about the
sadness of moving out… cue romance!
The next issue of Woman’s Weekly, dated 10 May, will include another of my stories, ‘Fitting’, this time about a woman remembering a childhood friend as she clears out clothes and photos before handing over the keys to her mother’s home to the estate agent. Not so much about the moving process itself this time - but all that packing up, sorting things for keeping/throwing away/charity shops, and coming across keepsakes you haven’t seen for years (and the memories they evoke) certainly rings true.
Coming very soon, in the next People’s Friend Special, number
123, will be another story of mine, at the moment called ‘The Right Move’, but
the editor may well change the title before it’s published, as she often does.
This one is about a married but childless couple searching for a more suitable
home now they are living with two very large dogs. All my own worries about
whether to start looking for a new house before or after your own home is sold,
and whether you could lose your new ‘dream’ home because nobody wants to buy the
old one, come rushing to the surface here, but luckily all ends well, just as
it did for us – and our pets!
And, lastly, a story called ‘A Chessboard Garden’ that I
wrote right in the middle of the unpacking process and submitted just three
weeks after moving in. Once the boxes have been dealt with, and a screwdriver
and bit of paint have been put to good use inside, there is often a tangled
mess of neglected garden and unmown grass waiting for attention, and some new
neighbours to get to know too. The two come together in this story, a
particular favourite of mine, which hasn’t even been accepted (yet!)… but I do have
high hopes for it!
Last night I re-read and re-wrote an old but as-yet-unpublished
story, ready to send it off to a magazine. Although largely a romance, it does involve
re-marriage, a teenaged daughter and a house not quite large enough to
accommodate them all, so when I tell you its title is ‘Room For Three’ you
might just get an idea what theme has managed to creep in, yet again!!
 |
| NO PLANS TO MOVE AGAIN.... EVER! |
