This week I made the decision to sell my car. Anyone who knows me, knows how much I love driving but now I live in the city I simply can’t justify it anymore. The recent fuel crisis really brought it home that it was a no-brainer to get rid of it. Also, with all the climate change issues, I don’t need to be adding to our planet’s problems. I can easily hire a car if I need one or grab a taxi if my legs are aching from cycling or walking.
It has been a few days now, but so far so good. I wasn’t using the car much anyway. I already feel fitter and check out my new wet weather cycling gear in the video below!
I grew up in Cambridge so cycling is second nature to me. Norwich has gone a long way to improve the cycle paths so that helps, I can cycle almost anywhere barely having to hit the road.
Exercise certainly seems to help creatively, my mind already feels clearer. My current work in progress is another book of short stories. I’m hoping to publish in March 2022 so keep an eye out for updates. In fact, I’ve really plunged myself into it this week so this blog has been a little neglected. Not for long though because soon I will be featuring more authors. If you are an author (indie or otherwise) and would like to be interviewed here, please email me at myriadlifebooks@gmail.com. I’m not quite as crazy as I appear in the video so don’t worry…
The other thing I had to make a big decision on this week was to buy a new pc. My old one has given up the ghost so I am typing this on my laptop. This has slowed down my progress designing notebooks, but I will be back in action with that early November when the new computer arrives. In the meantime there are plenty to choose from here on this site or head to Amazon, you can find them under MyriadLifePhotoArt, MyriadLifeBooks, GavintheGull. Go fire up your creativity, they are beautifully tactile. For UK only
It’s about time I did another giveaway too so please subscribe to be in with a chance of winning a notebook or a copy of The Isolation Sex Stories. Visit my writing site PetraKidd.com to find out more about them.
If you have any comments, questions etc, please do get in touch. Until next time… dance like no one’s watching 😉
Norfolk UK is my home, I live in Norwich by the River Wensum where everyday there is something different to see and learn.
I feel a big affinity with the river as I grew up in Cambridge, another great river city. My childhood and teens involved many walks along the Cam where we would watch 'The Bumps,' raft races and as we grew older we enjoyed adventures on our punting pub crawls.
Growing up in a multi cultural university city definitely influenced my reading choices, I am a big fan of Japanese fiction, love French literature and enjoy Shakespeare. As a young teen I entertained myself with Jilly Cooper and Dick Francis and then became quite obsessed with Henri Charriere's Papillon. At school all I cared about was English, Art and French, in that exact order. When I finished with school I went to live and work in Greece for a wonderful year before returning to study English Literature and Sociology. At this point I read more classics like the Wyf of Bath, Wuthering Heights and Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man plus poets such as Wilfred Owen.
My first UK full time job was with Heffer's Paperbacks where I devoured several books at a time, excited by the fact I could borrow what I liked. Bizarrely for me I remember reading The Zurich Axioms, I have no interest in the stock markets but it had me gripped. I can't remember why I picked it up but I have never forgotten it. Heffers introduced me to so many authors, via their books and sometimes in person. It was here I learned about all the genres, it fascinated me that science fiction and horror were so popular, I tried reading it all.
Aside from writing letters, it didn't really ever occur to me to write anything myself for many years as I worked my way through a variety of interesting and varied jobs. Then on a visit to the London Aquarium I became struck by an idea so powerful I sat down and wrote my first novel. It went nowhere as really I wrote it because I wanted to. I wrote another novel and again, didn't have the persistance or determination to take it further, I simply enjoyed the process of writing and my characters.
Then years later another idea struck me and during a severe bout of Pleurisy where I couldn't do anything physical for months, I wrote the Eight of Swords and The Putsi. This time I published them as ebooks and they became pretty popular. When I fully recovered, I had to concentrate on my business and looking after my mother who has various health issues and the writing went adrift again for many years until 2020 when the Coronavirus pandemic hit the world.
March 2020 I moved to my apartment alongside the Wensum to live alone for the first time ever. During the first lockdown I began to write a diary and then the idea for a new set of short stories came to me and in February 2021 they will be published. The Covid-19 Pandemic is not simply a scary virus, it is a historical time and here we are trying to live through it. To many it will feel like a punishment but to me as a writer, in some ways, it came as a gift.
Please stay as safe and as well as you can. I hope to entertain you with my stories as we all try to get through this together, even though we are apart.
Petra
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