Welcome back to my second stop on the tour for The Good Enough Mother. Today I am lucky enough to have a guest post from Anoushka, and there’s still time to enter the giveaway to win a signed copy of the book, of which there are 10. Before we get to that though here’s a little reminder of what the book is about.
Gatlin – a leafy, affluent town: Chelsea tractors and ladies who lunch. However, all is not as it seems.
Drea, a most unnatural mother, struggles to find private school fees for her step-daughter Ava after her boyfriend leaves her for another woman.
Watching the yummy mummies she becomes inspired, hatching a daring and criminal plan…unleashing all hell in the quiet town of Gatlin.
Can Drea survive the fallout and the wrath of the PTA?
A satirical and hilarious black comedy about love, motherhood and the human condition.
Amazon UK | Goodreads | Waterstones | Foyles | Amazon US
If you want to see what I thought of it you can check out my review, but now I’ll pass over to Anoushka…
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The Life of a Writer
People are often astonished that I wrote a book. It is very humbling to have achieved something that regularly brings about such genuine admiration. They are shocked I found the time to write. We live in a fast and furious world and it takes some discipline to write a book. I have a strong commitment to Netflix, I exercise with reluctance and go for months without opening a bank statement. I would not describe myself as disciplined! Cue more astonishment when people discover that I found this time whilst being a stay at home mother to three kids, one of whom was a toddler at the time and not at school. So I began to think, were there other forces at work here? Was there something trapped?
I am a public introvert and a private extrovert; fifty, fifty. But rather than feeling an evenness I live with a constant, low level, tug of war. It has always confused me why friends described me as the outgoing, social, party animal when there was a terrified, unconfident, quiet librarian on the inside. Over the years I clearly felt comfortable in the zone of my private extrovert but less so when in the body of my public introvert so I learned to wear a mask. The guise, carefully honed over years, covered up the introvert and I felt more acceptable. We fill in gaps we think need filling in. In art, negative space is the space between the subjects of an image. Musicians will describe the periods of silence within a piece of music as negative space. But why negative?
I found that writing allowed me to take off the mask. The relief! The sheer, childlike giddiness of being quiet, introverted, alone to write in my positive space. It gave my introverted nature a place to be. To be heard, to be seen and to be free. This is possibly the reason why I am able to find the time. It is a most pleasurable part of my day, not hard at all as it allows me time to nurture a part of me not easily tolerated in the outdoors. “The Power of the Introvert.” “The Introverts Advantage.” “How to make friends as an Introvert”. These self-help books and many more point to the crisis one can feel embracing their introvert self or part-self and the very real disadvantage society bestows on introverts who are out of the closet.
Still, it has taken time for me to accept that the lonely life of a writer, and it is one of arctic solitude, can have silver linings for us introverts out there. Especially for those introverts who have not yet announced their introversion to the world. When people ask, ‘how do you find the time to write?’ I suppose the answer is ‘Writing feels like I’m being myself. It’s easy to find time to be myself.’
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As I mentioned there’s still time to enter this amazing giveaway to win…
one of ten signed copies of The Good Enough Mother.
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Anoushka Beazley has a film degree, an acting diploma and a masters in creative writing. She is a full time novelist, lives in North London with three little witches, a lawyer and a Maine Coon.
You can connect with her through Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and her Website.
everywhere-and-nowhere.com 