Lynda Young Spiro Guest Post

Lynda has stopped by at The Book Corner today to share how she got into writing.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Lynda Young Spiro is a mixed media artist whose love of textiles, found objects and recyclable materials are incorporated into her colourful work. Lynda was born in 1959 in Hampstead, London, where she now lives with her husband and two sons. Lynda’s previous book Latch-Hooking Rugs is published by A & C Black. There is Always More to Say is her first novel.



SYNOPSIS (BRIEF DESCRIPTION)

Soho 1984: Two people meet and their worlds are changed forever. An unexpected meeting – a look that means their lives will never be the same again. In “There Is Always More To Say”, the narrator chronicles the lives of the couple through friendships, marriage, fleeting moments and snatched time. It is a passionate account about a connection between two people that never dies even when tested by distance and when life throws the unexpected at their feet. ‘There Is Always More to Say’ is a heartfelt novel about an intense connection. A never-ending story about an everlasting friendship.

“The meeting of two personalities is like the contact of two chemical substances. If there is any reaction both are transformed.” C G Jung



HOW I STARTED WRITING

Thanks so much Sam for having me at the Book Corner and for asking me how I got into writing. I’d love to tell you. Apparently I did tell a friend thirty years ago that one day I was going to write a novel and include them in it. I actually don’t remember having said that. But they do!


But for me the experience all started about two years ago when I began to channel my creative energies into writing. The end result being my recently published first novel, a never-ending story about an everlasting friendship called ‘There Is Always More To Say’. Because as we know there is always more to say!


I’m a mixed media artist mainly working with fabrics, colours and recyclable bits and pieces which are all incorporated into my work. My passion for colour, my fascination with texture and my love of recycling have all found expression in a large body of work that includes textile design, latch-hooked rugs, needlepoint cushions, mosaics, painting and sculpture.


In April 2013 I saw an advert in the local paper the Ham&High for a part time examination invigilator. When I saw the advert, I don’t know why, but it appealed to me. And I applied for the job. It was nothing like anything I had ever done before. Both of my children were now at University and I was interested to know what they had gone through as students whilst taking exams. I knew that times had changed since I had been examined! What I didn’t know was in which direction this part time job would lead me. I didn’t know that the invigilating would lead me to expressing myself through a new and different media. I didn’t realise that whilst watching the candidates writing their papers so enthusiastically that it would get my own imagination going. And that it would be during these periods of silence whilst the exams were being written that I would be able to think and reflect about so many different things.

I started to write my thoughts, feelings, reflections and emotions down. I had very recently turned fifty-five and I realised that I had been married for over half of my life. I wasn’t sure where the time had gone. It made me think about my life before I was married and after I was married. The silence was really lovely in the examination hall. Very peaceful. There was a lot of time for me to spend thinking. And when I got home I started to write my thoughts and reflections down. Over time I realised that I had begun to accumulate a significant amount of writings and thoughts on various different scraps of paper. But I had no idea what to do with them. One afternoon sometime after the end of the summer exam period I chose to read and share some of these thoughts that I had written to a very close and old friend of mine. This friend immediately suggested that I consolidate them and suggested that I should write a book based on what I had written so far. The problem was that I had no experience of writing fiction. I didn’t know how to do this. Although the challenge did appeal to me.

So in September 2014 I enrolled onto a local writing class to help put these thoughts, observations and feelings into order to make a logical and interesting story. I left the class after three terms because it was too autobiographical. I was encouraged to continue writing after having gone to the class for that short amount of time. The positive feedback I received by reading passages to the other people in the class really encouraged me to continue writing.

I didn’t write the story in order. It never came to me in order. There was never a beginning, a middle or an end. I just started writing down my thoughts, my reflections and feelings about certain subjects which I then wove together to create a story. And although I have drawn on personal experiences this is not my story. I have drawn on a combination of my own experiences as well as those of my friends. I created this story from the ideas that were running around in my head. Ideas that had materialized from my imagination.

I never thought too hard about what I was writing and how I was writing the story. I just went ahead and wrote it. It just came to me. I wrote what I wanted to write and not what I thought I should be writing. I hope my readers will enjoy reading ‘There Is Always More To Say’ as much as I enjoyed writing it. I know this sounds like a cliché but it’s absolutely true. Opening the door of my story will hopefully show my reader the mirror of their mind.

I really enjoy hearing from my readers. I can be contacted at:

My own website: www.thereisalwaysmoretosay.com

Twitter: @lyndaspiro

Instagram: @lyndaspiro

Thank you so much Lynda for stopping by, I have really enjoyed reading how you got into writing and I am sure my readers will too. :)