More recently, in a I don’t know what to do with myself moment, I rescued an actual gooseberry bush. Not because I wanted a baby but because it was being suffocated by an exuberant sage plant. Normally when I feel wound up, I write. In fact, with a novel started, I should have been feeling conflicted - knowing that gardening had to be done yet wanting to catch up with characters who were waiting for me to get on with things.
But I had become too anxious to write.
Over the last few months, I’ve read a great deal about the impact of coronavirus on creativity. Some found that lockdown helped them discover, refresh or indulge their creative skills. ‘Try it!’ they often said. ‘It’ll help you feel better.’ Others felt so overwhelmed by the impact of Covid-19 that even with extra time on their hands and when normally creativity was the one thing that helped them cope, it just wouldn’t come.
Whichever way you feel, be you. Normally, making art (good, bad, indifferent) is a great stress reliever, but the pandemic is affecting every aspect of everyone’s life in a way no-one could have imagined. ‘Normally’ means nothing just now. Everyone has to cope the best they can.
Personally speaking, coronavirus added to other major issues. I don’t want to underestimate what anyone reading this has had to go through in the last months, much of which will have been worse than anything I’ve endured, but this is what’s happening to me and hopefully explains why I wish the best to anyone struggling to ‘feel better’ in the surreal world we’re living in just now and know there’s no easy solution.
Writing is ‘normally’ my main outlet for stress and as my current books are historical mysteries, there’s always plenty of scope to bury myself in them while forgetting events in the ‘real’ world.
Even as someone who works full-time, I’m not someone who plans out my writing year in detail, but I have a realistic idea of what I can definitely achieve, and my plans for 2020 involved local marketing in Dorset of Murder Durnovaria (it’s set in Roman Dorchester), publishing The Wrong Sort to Die (the first in a new series set in pre WWI London) and finishing the third book in the Murder Britannica series.
But even before coronavirus was really in the news, my plans for 2020 were shot.
The last moment I remember feeling no more anxious than usual was November 2019.
In early December, my 82 year old mother mentioned in passing,‘something odd’ which turned out to be grade four ductal breast cancer. A mastectomy in mid January went perfectly but then she developed sepsis. We were told repeatedly to expect the worst, but someone ought to find out what she's made of and use it as building material, because she came through pretty much as strong as she was before.
Meanwhile, I alleviated my anxiety by cookery, gardening, cleaning and reorganising. But not writing. On top of worrying about my mother, like everyone else, I found Coronavirus an unnerving, invisible stalker and my mind was whirling more than my characters’ minds before I’ve edited them.
Then shortly after lockdown, I found a lump in my own breast. I was shocked. Mum’s breast cancer wasn’t the hereditary sort. Much thanks to our local NHS, I was quickly diagnosed with grade two lobular breast cancer and long story short, had a lumpectomy in mid June. (Breast Cancer Symptoms to look out for.)
Thoughout all this, I generally found it hard to focus on anything except hacking away in the garden and aggressively cleaning the house. I felt as overwhelmed by life as that poor gooseberry bush was by a massive sage plant.
Despite everything, I eventually got to grips with the novel in progress (although I have to say it’s extremely hard to describe a river frozen solid enough to walk on during mid-summer) and my latest book The Wrong Sort to Die is now published.
So going back to gooseberry bushes and babies: The Wrong Sort to Die is a spin-off from The Caster & Fleet Series which I co-wrote with Liz Hedgecock.
The main character, Dr Margaret Demeray works in a hospital for the poor, and spends a fair amount of the book in the East End of London. I wanted some authentic slang and had a great time getting side-tracked with various fascinating books and websites as I dug about for words to add extra colour. Some of them, (for example ‘mutton shunters’ - a derogatory phrase for the police) were a little too colourful. Another was that odd horticultural explanation about babies. As I read, the penny dropped. It’s not really suitable for children at all.
I suppose the reason why the expression was used for where babies come from was obvious really. To give you a hint, just in case you don’t like gooseberries, that element is optional. A mulberry bush will do just as well. I’m sure you can work the rest out for yourself!
And in case you’re wondering, I ended up with enough gooseberries for a little gooseberry fool for one and still have plenty of sage rolling up its sleeves to engulf the rambling rose. There’s a moral in there somewhere but I’m not sure where.
The Wrong Sort to Die London 1910. A time of change? A time of peace with no wars to worry about? Fighting for respect in a man's world, Dr Margaret Demeray is approached by a stranger called Fox to help find out what’s killed two impoverished men. How can a memory she’d buried possibly be linked to the deaths? And how come the closer she gets to Fox the more danger she faces herself?
ABOUT PAULA HARMON
Paula Harmon writes chiefly but not only historical mysteries. She was born in North London but her father relocated the family every two years until they settled in South Wales when Paula was eight. She later graduated from Chichester University before making her home in Gloucestershire and then Dorset where she has lived since 2005. Paula is a civil servant, married with two adult children. She has several writing projects underway and wonders where the housework fairies are, because the house is a mess and she can’t think why.
https://www.paulaharmondownes.wordpress.com
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MURDER BRITANNICA SERIES (2nd Century Roman Britain)
Murder Britannica
Murder Durnovaria
MARGARET DEMERAY SERIES (1910s)
The Wrong Sort To Die
THE CASTER & FLEET SERIES (1890s London) with Liz Hedgecock
The Case of the Black Tulips
The Case of the Runaway Client
The Case of the Deceased Clerk
The Case of the Masquerade Mob
The Case of the Fateful Legacy
The Case of the Crystal Kisses
SHORT STORIES
The Cluttering Discombobulator
Kindling
The Advent Calendar
Weird and Peculiar Tales (with Val Portelli)
NOVELLAS FOR YOUNGER READERS
The Quest
The Seaside Dragon
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