Please give a warm welcome to Heidi Swain, who is here to tell us all about her lack of writing cave! It’s quite inspirational. Over to you, my lovely …

When lovely Georgia Hill asked if I would like to write a post about my writing cave I jumped at the chance, simply because I don’t have one. ‘What?’ I hear you cry. ‘Why would you write a piece about something you don’t have?’ Well, read on and all will be revealed and I promise I do have a good reason.

Throughout my twenties and early thirties I promised myself, along with half of the rest of the population, that one day I would take my writing seriously, I would settle down and write that book. I was so convinced that I would do it that I even began to gather together a collection of magazine clippings and photographs of the sort of spot where I would sit down to write this tome that the world was patiently waiting for.

Invariably an old scrubbed pine desk featured, along with a gingham cushion or two, an obligatory cat and a stack of stylish fabric covered notebooks. It was all country cottage perfect and I couldn’t wait until I had the perfect set-up overlooking acres of gardens which would enable the words to flow.

Thankfully I eventually came to my senses and I irealised that it didn’t matter where I was getting the words down, the key to beginning was simply picking up the pen and getting on with it. Without further ado, I packed away the wallet off clippings, sat myself down at the kitchen table and began to write The Cherry Tree Café.

Three years on and I now have five books published and another on the way in time for Christmas and although the table has changed, and the house, I’m still typing away on my bargain basement netbook which is propped up on an Oxford mini dictionary and thesaurus and surrounded by sheets of scruffy A4 scribbles. I won’t deny I have some lovely cushions and an even lovelier cat, but the writing cave of my dreams is still exactly that, a dream. Happily however, the pile of books all bearing my name are very real indeed.

So you see, the point I’m trying to make is that if you really have a story you want to write and a burning desire to see your name in print, then don’t wait for the perfect set-up to make a start, just pick up a pencil and get cracking. These days I find I can write anywhere – when I was working as a teaching assistant I even managed some longhand in my car during my lunch hour on the bleakest winter days – and if I can manage without that fantasy writing cave I know you guys can!

Happy writing folks.

H x

Wise words, Heidi! Thank you so much for coming on. If you want to find out more about Heidi Jo’s books, here’s the Amazon link:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Heidi-Swain/e/B00YNN3LDI/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1?qid=1499685504&sr=8-1