My name is Yvette Carol. I’m a children’s writer, with three kids, living in New Zealand. 

It was Elizabeth Gilbert who said, “Creativity is a crushing chore and a glorious mystery.” Never a truer word was said.

When I started out as a young adult trying to come up in the world, I tried to ignore the impulse to do something as silly as write stories for a living. That artistic drive belonged in “la-la land,” was “away with the fairies,” and needed to be firmly wedged down deep inside myself. I worked all the usual part-time jobs that you do when you’re young, at supermarkets, delivering things, waitressing, bartending, while I tried my hand at learning a number of things, at which I thought I could make a living: dress designing, photography, and journalism.

But, the call to write a story was too strong.

One day when I was about twenty-five years old, my sister introduced me to an idea she’d picked up from a book she was reading. Sorry, I forget the authors’ names, but the central tenet was that the key to what we should be doing – to finding our purpose in life – can be found in that which gave us joy in our childhoods. The idea was to look back and identify which talents and skills came to us the most naturally when we were children.

As a child, I loved making up stories. I had a seemingly endless fount of stories inside. That was always my thing – so much so, a friend I knew at five years old would remember that about me forty-something years later. So, yes, it was after hearing this idea of harking back to what you were best at as a child that I gave up the struggle to not write. They say, an idea has the same voltage as electricity. One idea can change everything, yes, and then there are a whole lot of dominoes that must fall.

I quit my job. I gave up my flat in the city. I sold my car. I moved back home with my ever gracious, aging parents when I was aged twenty-nine. That was when I began writing in earnest. That was when it all began for me.

I have been a slow-burn cake thirty years in the baking. I don’t say that as if I’m proud. I know there are countless numbers of writers just like me, who have been writing without getting published, for just as many years as I have. So the length of time does not make me special, or any more worthy of being in print. However, this article is about recounting my personal journey to becoming a published author. I state for the record, that I started writing children’s fictional stories and submitting them from the age of seventeen, and I’m fifty now. You do the math.

I remember when I was twenty year old, taking a course with my first writing tutor, Maria. At the end of the course, this vivid image is emblazoned on my mind of Maria urging me, in no uncertain terms, to put down my pen and paper. She said, “Stop writing! You’re too young. Go out and live your life…then write!”

Some people have lived a life in their first five years on the planet, but not me. My particular winding path has taken half a century, two marriages, two divorces, and three children. My middle son was born with Down Syndrome and multiple health issues. My youngest boy was born with a huge ASD – Atrial Septal Defect (a hole in the heart), life-threatening allergies and fragile health. We’ve been through a lot. And, I’ve raised them the last seven years on my own.

Writing my stories has been my sanctuary, and my haven, and has helped me stay sane. Most of all, my writing has given me joy, where sometimes there was not much in supply in my day-to-day life.

At any rate, here I am, at the age of fifty, and I’m pleased to say we all survived. Thankfully, the boys are both into the double digits and their health is better. Things are on the improve. And I’m so proud to be close to publishing my debut novel, ‘The Or’in of Tane Mahuta.’ It’s the culmination of a lot of living. You’d be proud, Maria! I know you’re looking down from heaven, and nodding your head wisely, as well as cheering me on.

‘The Or’in of Tane Mahuta,’ is the first book in a planned fantasy series, The Chronicles of Aden Weaver, which I’m currently writing for ‘tweens, 9-12 year olds. I get to work on Book Two in the series, ‘The Sasori Empire,’ next!

I have also had an article published in 2014, in the book, The Insecure Writer’s Support Group, ‘Guide to Publishing and Beyond’

And I’m helping to produce a soon-to-be-released childrens’ anthology, all proceeds to benefit the Sturge-Weber Foundation. The book is called, Kissed By An Angel, and I’m sharing the credits with a group of truly talented authors. The anthology is expected to be out hopefully in October, 2015.

Thanks for reading!

Talk to you, soon,

Yvette Carol

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