03 Sep 2009, Posted by Cat in News, 16 Comments. Tagged dad, life, writing

13 weeks

Speaking to Dad on the phone last night was kind of weird. He sounded so normal, so much his old self aside from being tired. It was almost as though the past 13 weeks had been a dream. In the background, Mum was serving dinner. Around 6pm, my parents’ traditional dinner time only it had become Dad-update-phone call-to-mum time for the weeks he was in hospital. When he put her on, she was all ‘great, we’ll see you on Saturday’. We had nothing pressing to talk about because the world had reverted back to the way it used to be.

Yesterday I had a kickarse idea for a novel. Yes, another one. A novel with a distinct literary bent to it, in fact. Yesterday my boss confirmed that there is no need for me to go back to a 4-day working week as we’re managing very well with me working 3. Suddenly I’m full of writerly enthusiasm, something that had leached from my soul across the past few months. I’d been feeling that the ship had sailed. Many of my friends were scoring book deals and there was me, still standing on the bank with a head full of nothing and even less to offer.

The world isn’t quite the way it used to be, of course. But it’s something I can cope with and contribute to.