Struggling to write? In a panic about sending your next project out into the world? Now that she has 'been there, done that' Natalie Ann Holborow offers up frank wit and kind advice to other writers in her new blog post:
'I haven’t posted in over a year, but I figured launching my first book is something worth noting down now, while it’s happening, because your first time will only ever happen once (ahem).'
'I suppose people will expect me to gush here about the elation, the excitement, the surging rush of ecstasy at finally seeing five years’ of work and a dream I’d nurtured since I was writing two-page ‘novels’ in felt pen in front of The Powerpuff Girls finally come to life. I’d envisioned it and doodled it into the diaries I kept stashed in my pillowcases for years – me at a table in Waterstone’s, no longer the shy, sad mousey girl in secondary school but happy and signing books in front of a line of people who didn’t think writing was ridiculous or uncool. And you know what? Yes, it feels amazing.'
[...]
'Strangely, there’s a flipside to it too. Shortly after returning from India, after an unforgettable launch at Kolkata Book Festival, I found myself spending days just sitting vacantly at my laptop, my newly-published collection staring up at me from the desk as I sat there feeling like an utter failure. Empty. I couldn’t explain it. Partly it was the comedown from falling in love with India and then returning the mizzling grey haze filming the windows as I sighed heavily for hours, my sari bagged and stashed at the back of a wardrobe. For every congratulatory message, I felt like a fraud...'
Read Natalie's post in full on her A Girl Mad as Birds blog
Buy And Suddenly You Find Yourself from our online shop
See Natalie on tour:
18 May
Howl, 8pm
The power music of Natalie Ann Holborow's poetry can be heard at this regular poetry night at Mozarts, Swansea where Natalie will be the guest feature. Open mic slots are also available.
22nd May
Camarthen Poems & Pints
Natalie Ann Holborow is the guest feature at this regular poetry night at The Queens, Carmarthen. Open mic slots available.
25th May
High Street Social, Treorchy, 7-9pm
The Wales Mela 2017 leg of our Valley, City, Village project begins with an Opening Reception and Reading. A free event and the nearest train station is Treorchy and there's also a bus stop almost directly outside the cafe, for those travelling from further away.
26th May
Cardiff Central Library, The Hayes, Cardiff, 12-2pm
Official Welcome Reception for the visiting Bengali writers as part of our #IndiaWales project. Readings in English, Welsh and Bengali. In association with British Council, Wales Arts International, Literature Wales, Cardiff Library and Wales Arts Review. Free entry.
31st May
Hay Festival - Starlight Stage, 5.30pm
Natalie Ann Holoborow, Sophie McKeand and Siôn Tomos Owen,
who collaborated in the India/Wales cultural project, the Valley, the City, the Village
project, will be at Hay Festival with Indian writers Srijato Bandopadhyay and Arunhava Sinha. Tickets are £7.30 and are available here. This will also launch Sophie McKeand's poetry collection Rebel Sun.
