A Letter To Myself – Page 3 – Jenn J McLeod

Posted on 09/08/201609/08/2016 by Jenn J McLeod — 1 Comment

Author, Rowena Holloway gives advice to her 35 y.o self

Hi there Rowie,

It’s me, your fifty-year-old self. (Yes, I know. I can’t say that without swearing either!)

Listen, I know you are in a very dark place right now. I’m here to tell you that you will overcome this.

In fact, this is the best thing to happen to you. Truly.

Now, don’t roll your eyes. Remember, I’ve been there too.

Ahead of you are some difficult months. You will question everything, particularly your self-worth. There will be dark thoughts and tears. Many tears. Tears are okay. Even these dark thoughts are okay because they help you discover inner strength and renewed purpose.

There are those who don’t understand, who tell you to ‘get over it’, who think you are making a fuss about nothing. Ignore them. Those people have their own lessons to learn. Let them go. They leave room for some wonderful people coming into your life. People who share and encourage your passion for creativity. And though it doesn’t seem like it, you do have some special people in your life right now.

The best advice I can give you is to trust your instincts. You’ve been bullied so long you’ve lost confidence in this, but your instincts are good. Listen to your gut. Trust yourself. And believe in your passion. Your passion will help you find your path.

Right now you feel like a failure, like everything you’ve done, everything you’ve achieved, has been wasted. It hasn’t. Everything you’ve learned throughout your life is going to converge into a very useful skill-set to support your passion for writing. Nothing is wasted. All roads lead to the right path, and that path, when you find it, is amazing. Believe that.

I’d love to reach back and wipe away some of those difficult days you’re still to face, but they are necessary. Without them, you won’t discover your strength. Without them you won’t know what you can survive.

So keep moving forward and don’t waste energy looking back. I guarantee your forties are going to be great.

Love from your fifty year-old self

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Rowena Holloway considers herself a reformed academic. After being bullied out of a career she loved she now pours all that passion into writing stories of fractured families and killer secrets. As the middle child of four siblings, she knows a thing or two about secrets—as to what she knows about fractured families, she’s keeping that to herself although some clues might be found in her fiction.

Her short stories have been included in the Stringybark anthology Yellow Pearl and the 2011 Anthology of Award Winning Australian Writing. Her novels Pieces of a Lie and All That’s Left Unsaid have each been nominated for the Ned Kelly Crime Fiction Award.

Her third novel, Ashes to Ashes, is due for release in 2016.

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/rowenahollowayauthor/
Twitter https://twitter.com/RowenaHolloway
Website http://rowenaholloway.com/

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To see the list of authors taking part in this letter-writing blog series: CLICK

Wanting to honour the lost art of letter writing through this blog series, I also opened my fourth novel with a character writing a letter. And not just any letter. It’s a story — perhaps the most important he’ll ever tell.

The Other Side of the Season

Life is simple on top of the mountain for David, Matthew and Tilly until the winter of 1979 when tragedy strikes, starting a chain reaction that will ruin lives for years to come. Those who can, escape the Greenhill banana plantation on the outskirts of Coffs Harbour. One stays—trapped for the next thirty years on the mountain and haunted by memories and lost dreams. That is until the arrival of a curious young woman, named Sidney, whose love of family shows everyone the truth can heal, what’s wrong can be righted, the lost can be found, and . . . there’s another side to every story.

BUY now from Amazon, Kobo, iTunes, or

Posted on 10/07/201619/07/2016 by Jenn J McLeod — 3 Comments

Author, Maggie Christensen writes a letter to her 25 y.o self

Dear Maggie,

It’s 1970, you are twenty-five and about to set off on the adventure of a lifetime. You’ve been teaching primary school for three years, your friends are all married – you’ve already been a bridesmaid three times – and you’ve grown up on stories of the mad Australian side of the family visiting during the war. You have family in Melbourne, but being independent, you’ve decided to go to Sydney where you know no one.

You’re not sure what you’ll find there, but have read lots of Lucy Walker books and it’s only for two years, so it can’t be too bad. You’ve seen the ad with a half-naked man in gown and mortarboard inviting you to ‘Come and Teach in the Sun’. Right now, you may not be living the beach lifestyle you imagined when you stepped on the plane, but it’s waiting for you. You just need to be patient.

What you don’t know is that, initially you’ll feel you’re on permanent holiday, the sky will look like a picture postcard and you won’t be at all homesick. Don’t be too disappointed when you hate teaching in state schools, which you’ve discovered are very different from those in Scotland. Things will improve and at the end of two years, you won’t be ready to go home.

In a few years the government will declare university study free and with the encouragement of the headmistress in the private school you now teach in, you’ll complete the degree you dropped out of in Scotland. You’ll enjoy study so much you’ll continue to further study and eventually gain a PH D. but that comes later.

Your study will lead you to the achievement of your long-held goal to improve teacher education and this will take you to country New South Wales, first to Goulburn, then to Wagga Wagga. It’s there that, at the ripe old age of 37 when, after several disastrous relationships and having almost given up hope of finding your soulmate, you’ll meet the gentle giant of a man who will become your husband and you’ll become stepmother to three teenagers.

Remember to never give up on your dreams, and it’s never too late to try something new. The positive attitude you inherited from your mother will always stand you in good stead, and when you’re facing redundancy in your sixties, you’ll decide to fulfil your childhood dream of writing fiction.

Signed,

Your seventy-one year-old self.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Maggie lives on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast with her husband of over 30 years and, when not writing or reading, loves to walk along the beach in the early morning and have coffee by the Noosa River. She writes contemporary women’s fiction celebrating mature women and the heroes worthy of them. You can find out more about Maggie at:

http://maggiechristensenauthor.com/

Connect with Maggie of Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/maggiechristensenauthor/

Madeline House is Maggie’s fifth book and the third in her Oregon Coast Series:
Buy link: myBook.to/MadelineHouse

If you’ve read this far … lucky you! Maggie is giving a copy of Madeline House away, so before you go, leave a comment. NOW CLOSED

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Wanting to honour the lost art of letter writing through this blog series, I also opened my fourth novel with a character writing a letter. And not just any letter. It’s a story — perhaps the most important he’ll ever tell.

The Other Side of the Season

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Posted on 23/06/2016 by Jenn J McLeod — 3 Comments

Author, Kathryn White, writes a letter to her 18 y.o self

Dear Kathryn,

I know that things are pretty rough right now. 1999 has been a tough year for you. One of your closest friends passed away, your grandmother remarried against your mother’s wishes and then Grandma broke her hip and had a stroke all on the same day. (The day before your eighteenth birthday, no less.) You’ve had some trouble at school—and you’ve caused plenty of it in return—and now some of your friendships are beyond repair. On top of this, you’ve just completed year twelve, your biggest and most important year of schooling, and you are awaiting your final results.

I’m not surprised that you are feeling a little emotional right now.

I would also like to tell you something, and I think you need to hear it.

You are good enough.

You have always been good enough.

It does not matter that some people do not like you. It will not matter if you do not get perfect scores in all of you exams. Those things don’t matter. When you get older, you’re going to look back at that time in your life, and you’ll think differently about it. You’ll think about all the strange and wonderful people that you met, every Tuesday afternoon when you volunteered at the local soup kitchen. You’ll think about school, and you’ll think about little things like how Mr Carlson always kept a copy of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance on his desk and you’ll think about big things like the time that the Prime Minister visited your school. You’ll think about how you went to the Royal Adelaide Show with Flamy, and how you both walked along Hindley Street after dark without your parents knowing (and how you didn’t get killed.) You’ll think about the closing ceremony that your school had for the West Campus and how out of three hundred kids, you were chosen to lead years eleven and twelve in a special parade. You’ll think about all the good times you shared with Mel and that will help you cope with the fact that she’s gone.

Mum and Grandma will patch things up. The story will have an unexpected twist, and one day, when you get home from uni, Dad will be waiting at the bus stop just so he can tell you all about it.

Love, your 35 yo self

PS. You were right about the Y2K bug being a load of nonsense.

PPS. Stop listening to that bloody Savage Garden CD. It really isn’t that great. And take all those celebrity posters down and put something inspirational on the wall instead.

About the author:

Kathryn White was born in 1981 and grew up on the south coast of Adelaide. A passionate writer, she was first published at age 17 and later graduated from Flinders University with a BA (Hons.) Kathryn has independently published a variety of novels and is happiest when she is using her writing to explore new concepts, dysfunctional relationships and to view life from the perspective of people who do not quite fit in with their world in one way or another.

Kathryn also runs a book blog titled Kathryn’s Inbox, which is updated daily. http://kathrynwhiteauthor.blogspot.com.au and connect on Facebook

Thanks for playing, Kathryn. I love that letter. (And Savage Garden was okay!!)

Speaking of letters…

Wanting to honour the lost art of letter writing through this blog series, I also opened my fourth novel with a character writing a letter. And not just any letter. It’s a story — perhaps the most important he’ll ever tell.

The Other Side of the Season

BUY now from Amazon, Kobo, iTunes, or