From today and two weeks onwards I will be house-sitting - well actually this time it is appartment-sitting which included looking after two indoor cats. I do this once in a while for family and friends, doesn't pay me anything but I will have some time away from my own little appartment and the noisy next door neighbour, and I still have to go to work every day.
Just after Christmas, I bought a book on sale "Twelve Days of Christmas" by Trisha Ashley, thought I would save it for holiday read later this year. However, when I grapped some books to keep me company on my latest travel, I had grapped this without knowing - and once I started reading it, I could not put it down until I reached the last page. The main character, Holly Brown, was housesitting - only difference between her and me: she gets paid to do it.
Half a year ago, I started a draft on a novel, where the main character would be a house sitter, who earned her living doing that + crafts. After having read Trisha's book, I stopped writing it, as she had already written was I had imagined for my own little novel. Discarting my own idea does not make me sad, as I could not have done it better than Trisha - in fact: I would not even have come close to her writings.
Maybe my comfort in travelling and housesitting actually come from a sense of being without roots? That I have not yet been able to settle down and said: "This is what I want!" I like my job, and yet I have this feeling that the job is not truely, who I am.
Where thou art, that is home.
Emily Dickinson
4 comments:
I read that same book, over the Christmas holiday....loved it! Please don't give up on your book....I read similar books all the time, they have enough differences to keep me hooked....so why not finish yours? There are books about women who are quilters, for instance, but they become embroiled in the goings-on in their neighbourhoods, and get involved in the mystery/murder/love affair....see what I mean? Go for it! Maybe being a novelist will be the "true" you.....xxx
Legs, I am with Anne-Marie - never give up on what intrigues you. Each person has their own slant on life and a book is the best way to share your perception. Now I'm going to have to find that book. Must be good if two friends of mine liked it so much.
I am going to make it unanimous, write your story. Your story will be just that, yours and still unlike the author's book you read. That's the beauty of your perspective. There are only so many types of story frameworks out there but millions of ways to tell the story - know what I mean?
I agree, write your story. House-sitting is an occupation that I did not think of before
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