If I Knew Then... by Victoria Chatham

Ah, yes. Hindsight is wonderful. If I knew then what I know now, I would never have listened to the naysayers – those people who didn't take my writing ambitions seriously and joked about the stories I produced. My earliest audience was my family and I know I don’t need to go into details here as I’ve met many writers whose paths have been similar to mine.

The results, however, have differed. In my case, I simply did not have the confidence to persist. Never mind that I had been awarded prizes for essay writing at school, but an essay is a very different beast to that of a work of fiction. I was always a reader and when I discovered romance in my teens I thought I was in heaven. There were times, even then, when I thought I could do better but there was always that gremlin on my shoulder whispering ‘no, you can’t.’ It wasn’t until I had children that I started writing again but I still lacked the confidence to pursue it as a career.

Roll forwards a few (many) years and, now married to a Canadian and living in Calgary, I heard an interview with author Gail Bowen (Joanne Kilbourne mysteries) in which she stated (as closely as I can recall) that ‘people who have lived exotic lives often make the best authors as they have so much material to draw from.’ It was at that point that I took good at my life and decided I did have a lot of material to draw from. I also now had support for my writing ambitions as my Canadian husband (now my dear departed as he passed away in 2001) signed me up for a writing course and I joined my first writers' group.

Groups don’t and won’t work for everyone, but I finally found my fit and gained the confidence in my writing that had been so sadly lacking. For the first time in my life, I was surrounded by people who ‘got it’ and understood the quirks and foibles that make writers who they are. In 2012, at age sixty-nine, I self-published my first book. Since then I’ve written seven more. I look at young writers today and so admire their apparent fearlessness, their willingness to jump right in and write whatever they like.

So, what would I tell my younger self? Ignore the naysayers, brush that gremlin away, and go for it. Take that workshop, go to that conference, learn the craft but then cut to the chase and write the damn book!

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One Thing I Would Change by Victoria Chatham

 Each time I’ve started to write this blog, I’ve had to stop and think. What would I change, if I could? I’ve virtually run my life before my eyes and considered many milestones but have come to the conclusion that I wouldn’t change anything. Not. A. Thing.

Do I wish some things could have been different? Yes, for sure. I would have loved to have grown up in one place, instead of moving every year because of my dad’s military service. I would have loved to have had more contact with my cousins instead of the annual visit to my grandmother’s house. I would have loved to have had more opportunities to be with horses.

Not having had those things made me come out of myself and look at what I did have. New homes and schools meant learning about new places and their environs, most of them in South Wales, the most exciting being Pembroke with its castle and the Sunderland flying boats based at Pembroke Dock. 

Spending those summers with my cousins made me appreciate them the more and I got quite inventive about finding people with horses and then helping out where I could – including on the baker’s cart drawn by a chestnut mare called Lizzie. I did the rounds with him on Saturdays and even got a free loaf of bread to take home with me at the end of the day. Although my parents could never understand from where my interest in horses originated, that loaf of bread was always appreciated.

As an adult, I would have preferred to not have two divorces in my personal history, particularly the first one for the effect it had on my children. But what I learned from both of those relationships set me up for a third marriage which, although that husband passed away sixteen years ago, continues to sustain me with so many happy memories. I would also have preferred to not have had breast cancer twice. But because I did, I met many wonderful people and benefitted from them in so many ways. I really cannot imagine what my life would have looked like if I had changed anything along the way. All my life’s experiences have molded me into the person I am today, someone who is healthy, happy, and looking forward to whatever tomorrow brings.

Not long after I came to Canada I heard the author Gail Bowen being interviewed on CBC radio. She commented in the interview that people who lived a varied and exotic life often make the best writers as they had so much material to draw on. I’m not sure if I could say my life has been exotic, but it has certainly been varied so, if Ms Bowen’s comment holds water, then I guess I’ll be writing for a long, long time.

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