Ila Golden's Blog, page 7

Writing with Pride

In honour of Pride Month, I want to highlight some of my LGBTQ+ characters.

Toby’s life has just changed forever. Fourteen, alone, and unsure what to do with himself, an unavoidable encounter gives him a fresh start in a new home.Exam nerves suck. Exam nerves that cause dog brain, even worse. Rowan would never wish away his species dysphoria, but at times like this he definitely wishes it didn’t cause him so many problems all the time.There’s nothing wrong with being different, it’s wrong that people think there is.The doors which should protect us can also confine us.

My imagination

What’s your favorite thing about yourself?

Obvious answer is obvious for the writer lol

Adventures of a Non-Binary Author – The Story So Far…

In September of last year, we accepted an offer on my flat and had our offer accepted on a maisonette.

After months of back and forth, the sellers of the maisonette had failed to give adequate responses to several outstanding enquiries. This included an updated Fire Safety, and establishing why the Building Safety Act for High Risk Buildings didn’t apply. In February these two outstanding enquiries left us in a position where the maisonette was realistically unmortgageable without resolution. Our sellers also couldn’t afford to keep the property empty much longer and laid down an ultimatum. 1 week to resolve the issues or they’d have to pull out and put the property back on the rental market. Their solicitor made a good effort at the start of the week, to establish why the BSA didn’t apply in this case. Their argument was rejected by the 2022 update to the BSA. They made one last attempt, which came through too late on their part. This was also rejected, and by Monday the shape of our future drastically changed.

We didn’t want to lose the sale on my flat, so we rallied and managed to find an unusual setup that would accept us. We were upfront from the start about our plans. And there were no issues with Zelly the Gerbil. We moved and the sale went through without a hitch.

That weekend the property search was back on. After a few weeks of disappointing pickings, we eventually found a house that we both loved. We also found it’s cookie cutter sibling, with a bigger garden. We put in offers for both. The one with the larger garden had a lot more offers on it, and we lost out. The one we saw first, which had a new kitchen and bathroom, had a stubborn owner. We stuck to our guns though, and didn’t budge on our final offer price. Eventually the owner caved and we had our offer accepted.

The solicitor process raced through.The whole thing was a lot quicker and smoother than last time. Before we knew it, we were talking completion dates. The one hold up, our tenancy. We’d agreed a plan for leaving in July, but this would put us earlier than that. We tried to get a date for the end of June. That way we could have a couple of crossover weeks. This was initially agreed to, then the seller changed their mind. We had to bring the date forward or they would pull out. The prospect of having to pay two months of rent and mortgage wasn’t exactly welcomed. But with our savings we could afford to do it. So we agreed to move the date forward.

Before we knew it, contracts had been exchanged. Completion date had been locked in. Now we just had to figure out the rest and wait to pick up our keys.

Sorting the insurance was the first hiccup. We’d hoped to move the start of July, because of our tenancy terms. But in order for the insurance to be valid we needed to move within 30 days. So we looked at dates at the end of June, and agreed a date in July for returning the keys. The idea being, on the day we move, we move. Then on a later date we go back and clean. Not necessarily on the same day we returned the keys.

We are currently just a few days past completion date. We have our keys. We’ve stood in our new home, cleaned it, tackled the garden. (Or at least my partner did an amazing job tackling the garden). We are counting down the days till we move. Sorting as much as we can in the interim. But we have our house. We are out of limbo and looking towards the future…

To be continued…

Probably the TV

What’s the oldest thing you own that you still use daily?

Since I’m pretty sure the word ‘use’ doesn’t cover sharing a bed with a ted, the best answer I have for this is probably the TV. I can’t remember when exactly I got it, but I know I had it before I moved from my first flat into my second. So it’s probably 14 – 15 years old at this point. The handset for it has been replaced more than once. And one of the letters of its make has fallen off. But it still works. And it gets used almost daily.

The little moments

Describe one of your favorite moments.

Any time my gerbil appears. The jokes of my parter that actually make me laugh a lot. Setting up surprises I think the recipient will love.

Little moments were joy is found.

Today has only just started for me, but…

What notable things happened today?

Today we complete on the purchase of our house. Today we get out of the limbo we’ve been in since putting my flat on the market last February. Today we can start the countdown to moving out of the temporary accommodation we’ve been in, since selling my flat. Today we get the keys to our future home. We get the access to sort out white goods, clean, move boxes in ahead of the furniture.

Today we move out of limbo and into the future.

I write, therefore I am

Most of the time it’s just a quiet passion. A part of my everyday passion. I don’t talk about it a lot because I worry about boring others. But I write every morning. Every morning my current work of fiction gets longer. Sometimes by a little. Sometimes by a lot. But that doesn’t matter. If no words have been put to the page, then I feel as though I haven’t lived that day.

Since starting uni when I was eighteen, I have written every day except one. With everything that happened that day, there just wasn’t the emotional or mental space to fit it in. But not writing that day still felt wrong.

I write because I love my characters. I love the stories they have to tell. I want to see where they will go next. I want to know where their stories will end. I like the ups and downs. I like the challenges they have to deal with. I know I push my characters through darkness, to see how it changes them. I like exploring the cause and effect. I like not taking the easy way out so my characters can have a perfect happy ending. Life isn’t perfect. Perfection doesn’t exist anyway. Change is a way of life. We shouldn’t ignore that. We shouldn’t assume a change because of negative circumstances can only be negative itself. I like exploring the nuances. Life isn’t black and white. There are many shades of grey. And those shades can create a beautiful and complex picture. A complete whole made of many imperfections.

That is writing to me. That is why I write. If I can write things that connect with others or inspire others, that’s a bonus. If I can write things which show others that complex nuance of life, even better.

I write for the love of it. For my characters. I write because I am a writer. A writer is who I am.

Spring or autumn

What is your favorite season of year? Why?

Both have the right kind of temperature and weather for me. Though spring has a slight edge, because my birthday is in spring.

Chocolate

What’s the one luxury you can’t live without?

That was the first thing which came to mind with this question, so I’m going to go with it. I’m not a chocolate addict, you are

Imaginative, organised, free spirit

If humans had taglines, what would yours be?

Probably. Hard to say for sure. Taglines are hard.