Someone enquired the other day as to when I started writing my novel '209 A Story'? ... I immediately replied 1977!
The look on their face could not have been more telling so I explained...
When I was in year three I was reading a child's encyclopedia and I was drawn to a entry about a ship called RMS TITANIC... the visiting teacher at the time asked me what I was doing and so I told him what I was reading. It was at that very moment that I had originally thought how, one day, I would like to write a novel about the most famous ship in the world.
As with most childhood dreams ... reality takes over and one moves on!
However, when I was at high school I signed up to be part of the school play for that particular year. Not that I had visions of winning an Academy Award or anything of the like, however, I loved the quality that my former school tried to instill in each of their students... 'Challenge Yourself'.
Like most teenagers I was incredibly self conscious and as opposed to when I was playing sport where every move you made contributed to the success of the team (...more pressure), to get up on a stage and play a role as someone else allowed me to do just that... be someone else.
So, sign up for the school play I did...
I landed the role as Mrs Astor, first class passenger on RMS TITANIC in the TGS 1984 production of 'The Ship of Fools'! ...(a pitfall from going to an all boys school!)
Later in 1994, when I was living in England, I went to Greenwich to stand on the line where time begins! I look up and see a poster advertising an exhibition of 'Artifacts' that had been recovered from RMS TITANIC... and then spent the next 4 hours enthralled.
Roll on to 1997... and the release of THAT MOVIE!
By 2004 I had completed my 'latest' novel - a collection of four books collectively titled THE FOUR SEASONS... each one titled a different Season and each one based on a different emotion (ie. Autumn-Loss, Winter-Greed, Spring-Love, Summer... REALITY!)
and then it was time...
My latest project would be a book about RMS TITANIC.
It would have been easy for me to have written a novel about the journey as there is so much information about it. 'Challenge Yourself' came flooding back every time I sat down to write...
'209 A Story' is not about the voyage from Southampton to its date with destiny. It is about a voyage of one of its passengers prior to boarding the ship and how, throughout everyones life, there are people who will play a part. One may know these people and then there are others whom one will never meet. It is what inspired me when I was teaching and inspires me every day when I write... That each part we play in this life can have an enormous impact on others; even if we don't know it at the time.
Four years later and now the novel is in 'final edit' stage...
I often think back to that day all those years ago... to a naive child whose imagination was sparked by an event so horrible that it made history. In ways, my efforts are in memory of all of them...
Have a nice week everyone
Thanks for your emails
Cheers Steven
PS... Challenge YOURSELF!
