Welcome to the M C Taylor – mum2author Blog.
I’ve always had a passion for writing and remember spending hours as a little girl trying to out beat my class-mates by writing the longest and best stories in my school exercise books. At the age of about 10, I would sit in my bedroom two-finger typing a ‘newsletter’, which would be distributed to my neighbours. As a teenager and young adult, I continued to write and had poems and a travel article published. Life took over though and despite trying out various careers, I still managed to dip in and out of writing, here and there.
Whilst on my first maternity leave, I needed a challenge (to keep my sanity) and having just turned forty, I referred back to my bucket list and thought lets tick off ‘write a novel’. So I began work on my first novel, Chaperones- Grace’s Story mainly during my daughter’s nap-times. It was a labour of love because limited to only 1-2 hours a day, it was obviously difficult to ever get into the flow but persist I did and finished it.
The time came though for me to return to work and the completed copy sat on my computer for a further 3 years as life returned to normality.Although I enjoyed my work-life, I never really felt truly fulfilled and there was always something nagging in the back of my mind that this wasn’t really my destiny. It was only in my forties after my second maternity leave and having worked at a part-time role for a few years whilst the kids were young that I began to question what I should do for the next forty years of my life. I knew that having spent time out of the corporate world, I had moved on from that and could never go back.
In the meantime, I decided to explore self-publishing and slowly step by step I managed to self-publish Chaperones – Grace’s Story onto the Amazon kindle store. I promoted the book to family and friends but had no idea really where to start with marketing the book to a wider audience.My part-time role reduced to 8 hours a week and it felt like the right time for a life change. The kids were getting more independent and were at preschool and school, my husband was doing well in his own business and it felt like it was now my time.
I began work on my second novel, Chaperones – Carla’s Story (I’ll be keeping you updated on that one!) Then, one evening whilst looking through a local college’s prospectus, I spotted a creative writing course ran by a local author and immediately, something clicked. Of course, this should be where I’m focusing all my time and energy. After all, I’ve always loved writing and people tell me that they enjoy reading it and that I have a natural talent. Once I’d experienced the epiphany, I couldn’t believe it had taken me so long to get there and I was chomping at the bit to get started. This is how my blog came about. I’d like to think that it will help me to connect with like minded people, other aspiring authors or writers and those that are already published, agents or anyone who is simply interested in my blog and my books.
I know there will be peaks and troughs, highs and lows and bumps in the road ahead as well as many sacrifices to be made. Please join me on my journey of self-discovery as I take this leap and change in identity from being a full-time mum to established author. I’ll be keeping you updated on my own writing career and books of course, as well as providing useful information and articles for other aspiring authors and writers and hopefully, sharing my overall love and passion for reading and writing.
M C TAYLOR 