Andrew Critchley's Blog - Posts Tagged "dublin-in-the-rain"
Life is for Living
Being an independent author is the most fun I’ve had in life with my clothes on.
The simple pleasure of creating – characters, dialogue, a story – was a glorious state of unrestrained and uninhibited creativity that I found both liberating and empowering. It’s a Wonderful Life is my favourite film of all time and its basis was a short story, The Greatest Gift by Philip Van Doren Stern. The possibility of being able to take my favourite film as inspiration and a spiritual guide and build a full length novel, rather than short story, around it was exciting beyond words.
At the heart of the book is romance. Although stated many times before, probably most notably in Eden Ahbez’s song Nature Boy immortalised by Nat King Cole, I do believe that the only thing that really matters in life is to love and be loved.
In my book Dublin in the Rain, the two lovers are Sophia and Jonathan. Jonathan is haunted by his past – a legacy of being abandoned by his mother and the subsequent suicide of his father – and so stubborn and anal at times that readers want to leap inside the book and physically shake him. Sophia on the other hand is well-read, outwardly confident and sexually expressive but struggles to relate either to her own family or the world around her.
Their relationship is redemptive for them both and they fall in love, marry and have a child. However, as often happens in life (and I can speak personally from my own experience of my wife dying at 42), tragedy changes everything in the book as the baby dies from cot death. Jonathan is distraught, unable to cope and their marriage disintegrates.
Within this is the second key theme of the book – namely that it’s how one deals with difficulty that’s important and not the difficulty itself. Tragedy is sadly a fact of life and often totally unavoidable and beyond anyone’s control. What is controllable however is how one responds to tragedy. The old adage that the glass is half full or half empty is very true. Jonathan’s problem with his life is that not only is the glass half empty but that he neither likes the glass itself not what is contained within it. Change, as is invariably the case, comes from within but sometimes we need help.
With that in mind, underpinning the whole book is a sense of spirituality and destiny. I have always loved D.H. Lawrence’s quote ‘The dead don’t die. They look on and help.’ My belief in the quote has been strengthened still further following the death of my wife. It is this essence that also acts as a catalyst for Jonathan’s annus mirabilis in Dublin in the Rain as he finds reconciliation, forgiveness and ultimately true love.
I have a smile on my face as I sit here writing this piece my book sits beside me. Receiving my published copy was one of the best moments in my life.
Being an independent writer meant that I could resist suggestions, pressures even, to leave the book open ended, turn it into a duology or even trilogy, or to further cut it so that was below the ‘industry standard’ of 110,000 words. It is truly the book that I wanted to write.
It is still early days for me as an author but initial feedback from many readers who have bought the book quite simply fills my heart with joy. And of equal pleasure, I will be starting my next book very soon. It is a very different type of redemption story to Dublin in the Rain and no doubt it will be another joyous adventure as part of my journey as an independent author - full of challenges and learning.
As Molière once wrote, ‘The greater the obstacle, the more glory in overcoming it.’
In life, very often the greatest obstacle that we have to overcome is ourselves – for we are most commonly the people who stop ourselves from doing what we truly want to do with our life. Although she died in 2007, my wife Nadine is still looking on, still helping me overcome the obstacles.
Life is for living. Embrace life, love life. It’s often not what you do; it’s the energy and passion that you do it with!
Many thanks for taking the time to read this piece.
The simple pleasure of creating – characters, dialogue, a story – was a glorious state of unrestrained and uninhibited creativity that I found both liberating and empowering. It’s a Wonderful Life is my favourite film of all time and its basis was a short story, The Greatest Gift by Philip Van Doren Stern. The possibility of being able to take my favourite film as inspiration and a spiritual guide and build a full length novel, rather than short story, around it was exciting beyond words.
At the heart of the book is romance. Although stated many times before, probably most notably in Eden Ahbez’s song Nature Boy immortalised by Nat King Cole, I do believe that the only thing that really matters in life is to love and be loved.
In my book Dublin in the Rain, the two lovers are Sophia and Jonathan. Jonathan is haunted by his past – a legacy of being abandoned by his mother and the subsequent suicide of his father – and so stubborn and anal at times that readers want to leap inside the book and physically shake him. Sophia on the other hand is well-read, outwardly confident and sexually expressive but struggles to relate either to her own family or the world around her.
Their relationship is redemptive for them both and they fall in love, marry and have a child. However, as often happens in life (and I can speak personally from my own experience of my wife dying at 42), tragedy changes everything in the book as the baby dies from cot death. Jonathan is distraught, unable to cope and their marriage disintegrates.
Within this is the second key theme of the book – namely that it’s how one deals with difficulty that’s important and not the difficulty itself. Tragedy is sadly a fact of life and often totally unavoidable and beyond anyone’s control. What is controllable however is how one responds to tragedy. The old adage that the glass is half full or half empty is very true. Jonathan’s problem with his life is that not only is the glass half empty but that he neither likes the glass itself not what is contained within it. Change, as is invariably the case, comes from within but sometimes we need help.
With that in mind, underpinning the whole book is a sense of spirituality and destiny. I have always loved D.H. Lawrence’s quote ‘The dead don’t die. They look on and help.’ My belief in the quote has been strengthened still further following the death of my wife. It is this essence that also acts as a catalyst for Jonathan’s annus mirabilis in Dublin in the Rain as he finds reconciliation, forgiveness and ultimately true love.
I have a smile on my face as I sit here writing this piece my book sits beside me. Receiving my published copy was one of the best moments in my life.
Being an independent writer meant that I could resist suggestions, pressures even, to leave the book open ended, turn it into a duology or even trilogy, or to further cut it so that was below the ‘industry standard’ of 110,000 words. It is truly the book that I wanted to write.
It is still early days for me as an author but initial feedback from many readers who have bought the book quite simply fills my heart with joy. And of equal pleasure, I will be starting my next book very soon. It is a very different type of redemption story to Dublin in the Rain and no doubt it will be another joyous adventure as part of my journey as an independent author - full of challenges and learning.
As Molière once wrote, ‘The greater the obstacle, the more glory in overcoming it.’
In life, very often the greatest obstacle that we have to overcome is ourselves – for we are most commonly the people who stop ourselves from doing what we truly want to do with our life. Although she died in 2007, my wife Nadine is still looking on, still helping me overcome the obstacles.
Life is for living. Embrace life, love life. It’s often not what you do; it’s the energy and passion that you do it with!
Many thanks for taking the time to read this piece.
It's That Time of Year again
It is indeed that time of year again.
For many, the Christmas and New Year festive period is such a challenge if one is single - but I’ve always been fortunate to have good friends and family that help make it joyous rather than difficult period. Similarly, for others, Mother’s Day and Father’s Day can be very sad and painful days where the loss of a loved one is perhaps most keenly felt.
But for yours truly, the day I have come to most dread over the past over the past 6 years has been St. Valentine’s Day. From mid to late January, it’s almost impossible to avoid the sea of red that seems to consume the planet. Supermarkets, every restaurant touting for business on the 14th, florists, coffee shops selling heart shaped chocolates and cakes – the list is seemingly endless. All reminding me that yes, I am categorically single.
To some couples, 14th February is not that important. It’s not that they’re not in a good relationship – just simply that they are not that romantically inclined. Either that or they reject the consumerism that increasingly seems to invade every aspect of our lives. But for my late wife and me, it was THE day of the year and in a storage box somewhere is every card we ever sent each over the 23 years we were together.
Rather like the old adage that a dog is for life and not just for Christmas, the same should hopefully apply to romance. For us, romance was for life and not only for Valentine’s Day. But that notwithstanding, it was simply wonderful to have one day of the year as a focal point for romance – overpriced flowers, humungous cards, ridiculously cute cuddly toys, frivolous foundation garments et al…and of course, badly written and clichéd poetry.
‘If snowflakes were love, I’d send a blizzard to you’ maybe clichéd and with decidedly limited aesthetics. But that’s not the point…when you’re in love those ten words or so bring a big smile to one’s face and the warmest of warm glows to the heart.
Personally, at the heart of romance is my unshakeable belief that the only thing that really matters in life is to love and be loved. This has been stated many times before, probably most notably in Eden Ahbez’s song Nature Boy immortalised by Nat King Cole and in Sebastian Faulks inspirational Birdsong. If anything, repetition only adds to rather than dilutes the fundamental truth of the comment.
Without doubt, it is better to have loved and lost than never loved at all but where does that leave us social lepers that are the single person? As with most things in life, it is that wondrous thing that was the last to exit Pandora’s Box, hope. With that in mind, I have a short tale (and a true one at that) to recount that may bring a smile to people’s faces.
It is 1976 and a young man kisses a young woman. He, truth be told, is a smitten kitten but it’s an unrequited smitten-ness. A few months later, he stares across a river to where she lives and makes a wish just to see and talk to her one more time. Finally, he turns his back on the river and makes his way home. In time, he finds love, success, fulfilment and happiness – travelling the world and experiencing the best things that life can offer.
Fast forward to 2013 and the young man is now a widower, in what can be most optimistically called the Indian Summer of his life. He finally finishes his first book and on November 11 it is released to the world. To his great delight, the book has not insignificant commercial success and is indeed loved by many – and perhaps most notably, even though he tries to have the same affection for all fans of the book, by the young woman from 1976.
And on the day the book briefly makes it into the Amazon Top 40 best sellers, the woman now also in the Indian Summer of her life contacts him. What follows are magical mails full of magical words. Thanks to the book, the wish finally comes true 37 years after it was made. The man can finally again visit card shops in February rather than shuffling past them grumpily and best of all, he can once again enjoy the delights of a trip to a florist. “Bloody hell, a rose costs how much?” he says before smiling to himself joyously.
He walks into the street happy. He had almost forgotten just how good happy felt.
“It takes a minute to have a crush on someone, an hour to like someone, and a day to love someone...but it takes a lifetime to forget someone.”
Magical words from Kahlil Gibran that seem somehow to capture the essence of the story perfectly - as also are the following words from the truly brilliant and sumptuous The Shawshank Redemption,
“Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies.”
Happy Valentine’s Day everyone!
The only thing that really matters in life is to love and be loved.
For many, the Christmas and New Year festive period is such a challenge if one is single - but I’ve always been fortunate to have good friends and family that help make it joyous rather than difficult period. Similarly, for others, Mother’s Day and Father’s Day can be very sad and painful days where the loss of a loved one is perhaps most keenly felt.
But for yours truly, the day I have come to most dread over the past over the past 6 years has been St. Valentine’s Day. From mid to late January, it’s almost impossible to avoid the sea of red that seems to consume the planet. Supermarkets, every restaurant touting for business on the 14th, florists, coffee shops selling heart shaped chocolates and cakes – the list is seemingly endless. All reminding me that yes, I am categorically single.
To some couples, 14th February is not that important. It’s not that they’re not in a good relationship – just simply that they are not that romantically inclined. Either that or they reject the consumerism that increasingly seems to invade every aspect of our lives. But for my late wife and me, it was THE day of the year and in a storage box somewhere is every card we ever sent each over the 23 years we were together.
Rather like the old adage that a dog is for life and not just for Christmas, the same should hopefully apply to romance. For us, romance was for life and not only for Valentine’s Day. But that notwithstanding, it was simply wonderful to have one day of the year as a focal point for romance – overpriced flowers, humungous cards, ridiculously cute cuddly toys, frivolous foundation garments et al…and of course, badly written and clichéd poetry.
‘If snowflakes were love, I’d send a blizzard to you’ maybe clichéd and with decidedly limited aesthetics. But that’s not the point…when you’re in love those ten words or so bring a big smile to one’s face and the warmest of warm glows to the heart.
Personally, at the heart of romance is my unshakeable belief that the only thing that really matters in life is to love and be loved. This has been stated many times before, probably most notably in Eden Ahbez’s song Nature Boy immortalised by Nat King Cole and in Sebastian Faulks inspirational Birdsong. If anything, repetition only adds to rather than dilutes the fundamental truth of the comment.
Without doubt, it is better to have loved and lost than never loved at all but where does that leave us social lepers that are the single person? As with most things in life, it is that wondrous thing that was the last to exit Pandora’s Box, hope. With that in mind, I have a short tale (and a true one at that) to recount that may bring a smile to people’s faces.
It is 1976 and a young man kisses a young woman. He, truth be told, is a smitten kitten but it’s an unrequited smitten-ness. A few months later, he stares across a river to where she lives and makes a wish just to see and talk to her one more time. Finally, he turns his back on the river and makes his way home. In time, he finds love, success, fulfilment and happiness – travelling the world and experiencing the best things that life can offer.
Fast forward to 2013 and the young man is now a widower, in what can be most optimistically called the Indian Summer of his life. He finally finishes his first book and on November 11 it is released to the world. To his great delight, the book has not insignificant commercial success and is indeed loved by many – and perhaps most notably, even though he tries to have the same affection for all fans of the book, by the young woman from 1976.
And on the day the book briefly makes it into the Amazon Top 40 best sellers, the woman now also in the Indian Summer of her life contacts him. What follows are magical mails full of magical words. Thanks to the book, the wish finally comes true 37 years after it was made. The man can finally again visit card shops in February rather than shuffling past them grumpily and best of all, he can once again enjoy the delights of a trip to a florist. “Bloody hell, a rose costs how much?” he says before smiling to himself joyously.
He walks into the street happy. He had almost forgotten just how good happy felt.
“It takes a minute to have a crush on someone, an hour to like someone, and a day to love someone...but it takes a lifetime to forget someone.”
Magical words from Kahlil Gibran that seem somehow to capture the essence of the story perfectly - as also are the following words from the truly brilliant and sumptuous The Shawshank Redemption,
“Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies.”
Happy Valentine’s Day everyone!
The only thing that really matters in life is to love and be loved.
