Magical Tulsa times

Greetings from Oklahoma!

I’m writing this to you from my cousin Rachel’s house in Tulsa, where I’ve come to visit for a few days.  

Rachel and me in Tulsa

My grandma and Rachel’s grandma were first cousins. Our great grandma’s were sisters, who came to America as young women from Scotland in the early twentieth century.

Sadly, my great grandma died when my grandma was just 18 months old, and my grandma returned to Scotland to live with her grandfather when she was about eight years old.

But she stayed in contact with her American cousins and throughout my childhood she always urged me to go to America as she thought I’d prefer it to the UK. ‘You should marry an American man,’ she said to me on more than one occasion. ‘Then you’d get to live there!’

my grandma

I first went to America when I was 23 years old, six years after my grandma passed away, and as soon as the plane touched down I had the strangest sensation of having come back home. 

I first met Rachel and her grandma, MaryBelle on that trip. Marybelle was so like my grandma it took my breath away and I had to be careful not to stare at her too hard and seem like a weirdo! But it was like getting to see my grandma again, and it felt like such a gift.

A few years later, I got married - to a Brit, but in America, as a nod to my grandma and her wish for me - and her cousin Marybelle very generously organised and hosted the wedding.

I met my cousin Rachel again at my wedding and several times at family get-togethers over the years.

But this week has been the first time I’ve stayed with her and we’ve spent a good chunk of quality time together, just me and her.

It’s been absolutely magical. Just like our grandma’s before us, we’ve discovered a true and deep connection. And although we’ve grown up thousands of miles apart, there have been strange parallels between our lives and we’ve encountered and overcome similar challenges.

We’ve spent hours looking at old family photographs, studying our huge American family tree, and sharing stories about our grandmothers. And maybe it’s because we’ve been talking about them so much, but every so often I’ve felt the presence of our grandmas, watching over us and laughing with us, and celebrating the fact that their grand-daughters are becoming so close.

Tulsa pics and pie!

In other news, this week marked the end of my first ever stay at a Writers Colony. In a previous edition of Wonderstruck I talked about how I’d never gone on any kind of writers’ retreat in my entire 23 year career as an author because I could never afford it or justify spending money on something I could do at home for free.

It was a wonderful experience and I met some amazing writers from all over America but in the interests of keeping it real, which you know I love to do (!) I didn’t get any more writing done than I would have done back when I was writing my books from my kitchen table.

So, if you’re in the same position that I was for all those years, unable to afford to go on retreats or to pay for expensive writing courses, I’m here to tell you, 40-something books into my career, that although helpful, they really aren’t essential to writing success.

I feel so passionately about making the writing industry a level playing field for all, and while there have definitely been some big steps made by the publishing world in recent years to increase diversity, I feel like there’s still a long way to go.

While I was holed up in the woods for two weeks at the Writers Colony I had a lot of thinking time, and instead of thinking about my novel-in-progress, as I’d planned, I ended up thinking loads about how I could spend the next chapter of my career helping other writers.

Until this past year, I spent twenty years  helping other writers through my editing, coaching, workshops and talks, but then my historical fiction took off, and I had to focus solely on my own books due to time constraints.

I’ve been trying to figure out a way I can help as many people as possible, and in a way that is super affordable for them, and slowly but surely, a plan is coming together for a project I hope to launch early next year..

So if that sounds like something that might interest you, keep watching this space!

Wishing you a wonder-full week.

Siobhan