A Great Day in a Not-So-Great Week
In the words of Julie Andrews’ Maria in the 1960 classic “The Sound of Music,” “When the Lord closes a door, somewhere He opens a window,” and on this fine Thursday morning in the middle of November 2023, God had certainly opened up a 30-degree, double-hung bay window to me.
The week had begun like most weeks one never hopes to have. And while my partner and I burned with questions and uncertainty, a quick email dropped into my inbox that came with much more hope than the sender could have imagined.
Hello Ronnie,
We have had a cancellation for the Faringdon Writers Book Fair on 25th
Nov and so a table has now become available. I wondered if you would be
interested in taking it despite the short notice.
Would I?!
I was something like 13 years old when I realised I wanted to become a writer, but I was much younger when the words first found me. And yet, it took me 18 years before I sold my first book at 31.
It feels surreal even saying that, and I almost want to correct myself because can I call it a book sale if it was self-published? But by all intents and definitions, the ink had been printed on paper, money exchanged hands, and a product was delivered to the consumer. Sale done. Transaction completed. Ka-ching!
It took a full year to put “Words that Flow from the Heart” together. And before then, I had been struggling to write, not to mention publishing, promoting, and then selling something I had written. There was a time when I thought writing was what I wanted to do as a full-time career, and in many ways, I am doing exactly that as a communications professional. But before getting to this point in my career, I struggled with being able to do my 9 to 5 in brand/corporate comms while still doing creative writing.
I’d like to think I wasn’t forced to “sell out.” My day job as a communications professional is still closely tied to creative and copywriting, and I have seen and read many stories of people who have juggled creative writing alongside a 9 to 5 that wasn’t even related to the industry. But I’ve never been one to write well under pressure, and I shouldn’t even have to tell you what the pressure is like when you’re living alone in a big city with bills and rent looming down your neck like a ticking time bomb.
I “sold out,” focused on justifying my monthly salary, and forgot all about my writing, until 2021 when time and chance met and allowed me to do something new, somewhere new. First, I paid some money for this writing challenge with the hope of getting my writing mojo back. It worked, but not in the way I expected. Instead of endless pages of prose, I wrote 15 poems in the style of the Japanese haiku.
I have always been drawn to alternative forms of writing. The writing style is as unique as a human’s fingerprint. A basic literature student could tell you which literary icon penned what paragraph just by the words, language, and style used in the writing. It is truly a fascinating thing, and I have consistently, in all my years of writing, found myself enthralled by certain forms of poetry and prose. Haiku is one of such forms.
Unlike the endless lines and freedom for poetic and structural licenses that longer-form poetry like sonnets and spoken word poems allow, haikus have a strict adherence to the written form. It is a poem of three lines; not more than 17 syllables, following a five, seven, five syllabic structure. Of course, because a haiku is a form of Japanese writing, when using it in English, a lot of poetic license is allowed.
However, I wanted to give myself the challenge to write something meaningful with only 17 syllables. And discovered that while there’s nothing wrong with longer forms of writing, fewer words can carry just as much, if not arguably more, power.
The most encouraging thing about exhibiting my collection of haikus at the 2023 Faringdon Writers Fair was the opportunity to find myself around books and book lovers once again after many years. It finally felt like I was where I belonged. After many years of moving and changing and struggling to survive, for the first time, I could focus on doing this thing that I loved without weighing the cost and time spent on the scale of balancing work and life.
The second most encouraging thing was knowing that all the effort I had put into writing, designing and developing this book — which is not only a collection of haiku-style poems but a writing/poetry journal — was appreciated. The feedback was so encouraging, and I took away lots of thoughts and ideas for the future.
This leads to the third most encouraging thing that happened; I’ve felt so motivated and inspired, that I’ve decided to make this a yearly thing. I had printed fifteen copies to display and sold ten, which is a little over 65% sales, not so bad on a first print run! (The funny thing is the softcover copies were a mistake from my first print order but ended up being the option everyone wanted!) What’s that the Bible says about the rejected stone?
This story feels like it is about not selling out on your childhood dream, or perhaps something on better late than never, but the moral of these words from my heart to you is; that no matter how horrible, devastating or life-altering a moment you have had or are having, look out somewhere for a glimmer of a window or skylight opening.
It’s not always guaranteed that there will be a light at the end of the tunnel, but if you squint and look hard enough, you just might make out a flicker of something like a firefly in the darkness.
