Looking back, looking forward

2007
2007 was good. In January I completed the first draft of a two act play. In February/March I re-drafted the play and worked on editing along with Maura, the director/actress who commissioned it. I also added some good chapters to my novel.

April I spent writing an assignment for my MA in creative writing, attacking the prescribed topic creatively rather than writing a dry report. I was pleased with the completed piece even though I spent a whole month working on 3000 words.

In May I learned to surf at the Wet and Wild Women's Weekend in Enniscrone. I also walked daily on Breecy mountain and saw springtime spread across the landscape.

June - September were spent writing and polishing a large segment of novel for MA thesis, 20000 words.

In October I went gardening and planted 500 daffodil bulbs so that when spring comes, the world will be slightly more lovely than it was last year. October was also the month in which my play, written in late 2006 and early 2007, was presented in conjunction with the Donegal Blue Stacks Festival. A wonderful production with superb acting and I was there on opening night when the audience rose to give it a standing ovation.

In November I wrote with Nanowrimo, developing my novel and receiving good feedback from my nanowrimo buddies. Hi nanowrimo buddies - how are your rewrites going? I also learned to blog in order to share some writing with my journalist daughter. Plans were laid for my play to go on tour in 2008 and the Louvain Institute invited the production to Louvain for 2 nights in May 2008 because the historical context of the play relates to seventeenth century Louvain.

In fact November was also the month when many threads of the year's activities came together. I was awarded my MA with distinction. The Irish Sport Council decided that a photo taken of a chubby 60-something surfer at that Wet and Wild Women's Weekend in May was just the thing to inspire women and or/60-somethings to be involved in sport so they made me their Calendar Girl for May 2008.

Now it is December. The year draws to a close. For the first time since 1970 I neglected to make Christmas cakes and puddings. Which proves that I'm only about 97 per cent perfect. Was I just too busy, graduating, flaunting myself in a masters gown while feasting on strawberries and cream? Or is this a symptom of an identity crisis. What exactly am I? A sporting icon? A calendar girl? A playwright? Or novelist? Or a gowned academic?

Actually, all of them, I think. And here is the list for 2008:

2008
1 Complete the novel in Jan/Feb so that I can relax and enjoy the Daffodils in March before
2 April when I will writing a new play with Script frenzy. Then in3 May, I'll dead head the daffodils, dead head my novel also in readiness for submitting to my agent.
4 June - September I will enjoy a holiday at home in the creek. Watch the tide ebb and flow. I will also research and write, in a desultory manner, the biography I have promised to write about Ireland's first lady jazz trumpeter, Sandra Mitchell. Sandra led an interesting and intriguing life. The paper ephemera of her life and her account of it are all being put at my disposal.
5 I will attend all of Ransom Productions scriptwriting workshops and monthly sessions. Also my local writers group. It is stimulating to mix with other writers. The ivory tower is destructive of creativity. I must avoid it at all costs.
6 Continue the usual daily 2 mile walk across the beach and back. Even during gales and high seas like today's. Go get those boots on. Now.