Jaye Marie and Anita Dawes

I had an idea the other day, but didn’t make a note of it at the time. I think it was a good idea and remember thinking, “Wow, that would be good to write about,” but nothing else. And it doesn’t matter how long I take to try and retrieve it, it won’t come back.

The other problem I have, and this can be just as annoying, are all the cryptic sentences I do managed to jot down. Looking back at them, it’s almost as though an idiot wrote them and I have no clue what I meant to say.

My desk is awash with all the things I find useful, post-it notes, notepads and scraps of paper, and on all these things, I have undoubtedly scrawled something that was to be brilliant, memorable or interesting. Trouble is, I look at what I have written and it means absolutely nothing to me.

I suspect that more often than not, what I have jotted down is the most important detail that would lift our careers out of the depths of anonymity. You know what I mean, that little known secret that will make people notice you and want to read all of your books.
We all want to find that, don’t we?

Well, for all I know I might have done that, just couldn’t understand a word of what I scribbled down.

Before I stuck a hesitant toe into the World Wide Web, I had no idea how hard it would be, thinking it must be easy to become involved, to blog, to establish a presence. After all, there were so many interesting people out there all making it look so effortless.
How wrong I was to assume that all you had to do was switch on your PC and away you go! Nothing could have been further from the truth.

Over a year ago, I had no intention of becoming a writer. I started our blog at http://anitajaydawes.blogspot.com for the sole purpose of promoting Anita’s books. I am, and always have been, her editor and general dogsbody as she will not touch a keyboard on pain of death and I’m sure there are a lot of writers like that out there.

I have always loved the process of transforming a pile of handwritten notes into what I think is a masterpiece. Back in the day, we have posted off many a manuscript to countless agents and publishers, only for them to be returned in various conditions. Once a copy of “Bad Moon” came back in tatters with coffee cup rings all over it!

We have had some very encouraging rejections letters (if that’s not an oxymoron!) which is why I am still trying to get these books to fly.
What I didn’t know, back then, was that you have to be something of a writer to do this in the first place, as you won’t keep coming up with even half decent posts if you cannot string more than a few interesting words together.

I have gradually learnt the discipline of writing, learnt that I write best first thing in the morning and am fast learning the necessity of writing legible, more detailed notes.
I am sure there are so many things still to learn, and one of them just has to be the secret of flying…