The Children are Revolting

'Who is your audience, who are you talking to?' CC# 2 is getting exasperated with the blog, a guy who reads nothing but sports pages and only watches David Attenborough, is querying why I lack a theme, and basically says I'm only writing for myself.

'I mean, you're just writing about anything, that's not a blog, you don't know anything about blogging,' he goads.

At this point, his lovely girlfriend joins in, 'you never read magazines,' she chides him 'the blog is that kind of thing.' Alarmed that for once there are two women on his case, instead of the usual one, he lies on the sofa and sandwiches his head between the cushions, while focussing on the France v Wales match. Well, he did bring it up at the beginning of the game…

Apparently, I'm supposed to keep to the same topic in a blog. Well, in this new style blog, I have a basic theme of being a rookie landlady, a hitherto unwanted and undreamed of prospect, sharing my house with strangers. Within that new role, I want to find some sort of humour in the changes wrought in recent years in me, my family and my business. Perhaps it's about trying to put a brave or smiley face on adversity and the speed with which we must adjust, and if it brings a smile to any reader, I’m happy to have shared in that.

Change comes in for a lot of bad press, people get paid to manage it nowadays, transformational directors they're called. I'm beginning to come to grips with the big surprising change, when children leave school, leave home for long stretches and take on university life. This time three years ago I was still doing the school run, very involved in school rugby and angsting about the Leaving Cert. Suddenly finding you have more time and less work is the holy grail for many. But not when you like your work and like being busy, its alarming when it disappears overnight. So, with a background in research and report writing, I bought lots of books on how to write fiction and knuckled down to try my first novel (none of the books were any help, I only found the good ones when I'd finished writing, top tip: Stephen King 'On Writing'). Soon, the writing took on a fierce necessity, the story forcing me onwards, having its own purpose.

They say you should never write for money. I can't believe any writer ever sat down and said 'I don't care whether this is published and doesn't do well.' Maybe they did, anyway I wanted to write the best book I could, one to be proud of, and if it sells, all the better, but sell it must! And that's a story for another day. In the meantime, my sons will have to get used to being called Cost Centres # 1 and 2, and their respective girlfriends taking an eager interest in the mother-in-law's blog.