Month: February 2021

Categories
Adulthood Non-fiction Observations

SPRING has almost sprung and so has our gloominess

…out of the way!

Let’s face it, the past year has been full of doom and gloom. Everywhere. It has been relentless. Keyworkers are on their knees without much energy left to continue. Those who have been shielding long to see the outdoors. People on furlough are praying they still have a job at the end of it all. Dogs are praying that their owners never have to go to work again.

News. We can’t get away from it. It is the main topic of every day conversations because we don’t have much else to say. It is hard to plan because we must rely on data that we currently don’t have. We are still very much living through the pandemic.

Not only has Boris’ announcement on Monday brought a wave of optimism into this otherwise shit show, but the weather seems to have brightened with the news. Working last Saturday was almost like a spring day and I nearly didn’t take my coat with me for a dog walk after.

We all know having lived through a number of lockdown situations now that staying home in the summer is a lot more pleasant than during January and February. They are the worst months of the year in normal circumstances let alone lockdown during a global pandemic.

I think usually we aren’t aware of the sluggish feeling that comes with getting through these two months. March arrives and we instantly feel better unaware that we were feeling bad before. This year that feeling has been ever present and the thought of March and spring and sunshine and birds and being outdoors feels like heaven on earth.

Well. I’m pleased to say that this feeling certainly came a week early and the weather has boosted the country. It’s brighter, lighter, the birds are louder, people’s smiles are bigger, everyone is outside.

Long may it last!

All blog posts can be found at https://www.harrietmills.co.uk/ and to read my published work visit my portfolio. My debut novel, Dear Brannagh, is out now.

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Categories
Adulthood Non-fiction Observations Seasonal

Happy Love Day

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Valentines day can be lovely. Huge bouquets of flowers, champagne for breakfast and a celebration of the many strong relationships out there. #couplegoals

It can also be sad, lonely and make you feel sick to the stomach. I have heard people in long term healthy relationships wretch at the gushy messages they see or extravagant presents for this commercial celebration.

I’m pretty chill about being single because for the past few years I’ve been working on myself. I now can say I feel I’m better at being me than ever. I’m happier in my own skin and not relying (too much) on others to make me happy – the healthiest way to be. Yet on valentines day afternoon I found myself avoiding social media due to the constant stream of soppy status’ and displays of perfection.

While scrolling and inwardly weeping – mostly due to the fact that my car battery was flatter than a flat thing and I had spent my entire weekend trying to fix it – I found a few gems hidden among the gush. One was from Fearne Cotton. Another from Dawn O’Porter. A third from Charlie Mackesy and all were expressing the same, wonderful idea.

‘Today I’m celebrating all the love in my life,’ said Fearne. ‘The family, the friends, the special people who turned up later down the line, the ones I can’t see or hug.’

This is just it. Everyone has a little love in their hearts. Some more than others but everyone has something. Even, heaven forbid, those who are ‘on their own’ at valentines. And this year this notion is more important than ever. I’m going to celebrate love on valentines day for years to come. Even when I’m in a relationship I will continue to think of it as a day to celebrate treasured relationships that portray, Charlie Mackesy’s words, love in all its forms.

Happy Love Day for a week ago to you all. Love wins, always.

All blog posts can be found at https://www.harrietmills.co.uk/ and to read my published work visit my portfolio. My debut novel, Dear Brannagh, is out now.

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Categories
Adulthood Non-fiction Observations Stories Writing

How my subconscious influences my writing

So far I have been receiving great feedback after my debut novel, Dear Brannagh, was released. In fact, so many who I least expected to enjoy it have phoned me with glowing reviews. Men and women of all ages have become gripped into the life of Mary Carter. This is everything that a writer asks for.

One particular piece of feedback that is cropping up on loop is how I have written about so many different life experiences. Ones that I’m not meant to know about aged twenty-five.

“If you were fifty,” one man said, “then fair enough. You might have been through events that you describe or know of someone close to you who has. The fact that you are only twenty-five years old makes it so much more remarkable.”

I think I just absorb. I’m a huge listener. Much like my dad. If we’re sitting at a bar we would much prefer to be listening to those telling stories rather than the spotlight being on us telling them.

Until dad gets drunk and starts with the wide mouth frog joke!

It might sound odd because I write for a living (almost) but I really do listen to everyone in all walks of life. My day job involves conversing with so many different people every day. On my travels and during university I met all sorts of people from all sorts of backgrounds. My subconscious, as with everyone, is alive and I find it fascinating how much of this comes out when writing a novel.

Of course, I interviewed people and literally asked their experience but I think that a lot of it comes from the conversations I have had in the past unknowingly being stored within my subconscious brain.

Amazing.

So often I am reading back over my work and I can pinpoint where certain phrases or analagies come from. For example, I can remember giving my fingers a break once while writing about Mary struggling over the loss of her mum. She twiddles her ring on her finger as I did but for a very different reason.

It is very fascinating indeed.

All blog posts can be found at https://www.harrietmills.co.uk/ and to read my published work visit my portfolio. My debut novel, Dear Brannagh, is out now.

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Categories
Adulthood Non-fiction Observations Recommendations

My Lockdown day

I haven’t really experienced lockdown in true stay-at-home-for-days-weeks-months-on-end style. I go to work six days a week, try to lay in on my one day off and usually wake up at 5 a.m. due to my body’s inability to break the routine. Today (it is a Sunday, I am writing this on a Sunday but when I post it most probably won’t be a Sunday) I questioned whether I would have enough time if I were to experience true lockdown. Enough time to fit everything in.

I say this partly in jest as I do realise that many people out there are seriously struggling with the endless hours during the never-ending weeks of lockdown 3, but today was an example of me adoring some time to myself.

I had already decided, having sent off my second novel to the publishers mid-week, that I wasn’t going to pick up my laptop and do anything regarding further editing of said novel or writing of the third. In fact, I wasn’t going to do any writing at all and here I am…

Blogs are fun and the ideas buzz around my head like an irritating fly so sometimes I just have to get them down.

I digress.

Today was going to be a day for me. I finished work at around 5 p.m. yesterday evening and chilled out with beers and Saturday night TV. Just before bed, as is often the case, my head began to spin with ideas of things to do on my Sunday off.

Throughout the week I always see things on social media etc that I note down to watch or listen to. It might be a podcast, a video interview, an article, a book, a film, a TV programme… I rarely find the time in the week and if I begin watching in the evening I have usually had too many wines to stay awake and finish watching/ listening/ reading anyway.

My list for this Sunday went something like this:

  • A video interview by Dawn O’Porter with Kate Winslet (Conversations at home SAG-AFTRA Foundation, I found on her Patreon channel)
  • A video interview by Dawn O’Porter with Jason Segel (Conversations at home SAG-AFTRA Foundation, again on her Patreon channel)
  • Finish reading Demi Moore’s Inside Out, a memoir
  • An interview with Marian Keyes on Laura Whitmore’s BBC 5 Live show (Found on BBC Sounds App)
  • An hour on the exercise bike (needed)
  • Two walks

I mean, I’ve done it! I loved every single moment of it. Yet when walking with my sister this morning and listing aloud all that I planned to do that day, I never thought I would complete it. Chill, I kept inwardly telling myself. Chill out and stop cramming so much in.

I love days like this becasue I consume lots. I learn lots. Even if I’m not consciously listening or watching I somehow take it in. Exercise makes me feel good especially when I have the time. And none of it – NONE OF IT – is work or pandemic related. Everything is removed from my life but also enhances it. It gives me such a sense of meaningful escape.

I have no other reason for writing this post other than to give others some good suggestions of material to consume while in lockdown. That and the idea for this post was running over in my head on loop so I needed to get it down.

During this week, in my continuation of listening to Laura Whitmore’s podcast, Castaway while on the exercise bike, I have also added Emma Gannon’s Ctrl Alt Delete (podcast) and In Writing with Hattie Crisell (podcast) for all my fellow writers.

You are welcome.

All blog posts can be found at https://www.harrietmills.co.uk/ and to read my published work visit my portfolio. My debut novel, Dear Brannagh, is out now.

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