A Life in Words

My 2024 Goals

~ ChanAtkins ~ 4 Comments
Image by Quốc Hùng Hầu from Pixabay

It’s hard to believe it, but here we are again, tumbling wearily towards the end of yet another year with a brand new one just peeking over the horizon. The world does not seem to be getting better sadly – there seems to be more at stake than ever. But I will distract myself from that for now by following my yearly tradition of setting out my goals for the year ahead. I find it keeps me on track, feels good to write them down and it is fun to revisit them a year later and see how many I achieved! In my last post I wrote about my 2023 goals vs the reality. I achieved 6 out of 8, which I’m happy with. https://chantelleatkins.com/2023/12/09/my-2023-goals-vs-the-reality/

Here is what I hope to achieve in 2024, writing related and otherwise:

  1. Publish the next two books in The Day The Earth Turned Series – with the first two books ‘Summer’ and ‘Autumn’ already available, it will be perfectly doable to stick with my plan of releasing book 3 ‘Winter’ in January and book 4 ‘Spring’ in April.
  2. Publish At Night We Played In The Road – this spin off from The Boy With The Thorn In His Side series has been a long time coming. I first got the idea about four years ago, when enjoying the shows Supernatural and Breaking Bad. Those two shows gave me the idea of two co-dependant brothers (Supernatural!) trying to navigate and survive the criminal drug world they are growing up in. (Breaking Bad.) At the time I was working on The Boy With The Thorn In His side series and suddenly figured out a way I could add these characters, Alfie and Tom Lane to the series. I thought that might be the end of their story and introduced them in book 5 of the series where they find themselves entangled in main character Danny’s fight to escape the clutches of his own criminal past. However, I fell so in love with Alfie and Tom, I had to know more about them, and started writing notes in a notebook, even whole chapters, in order to explore their back story. The book was a tricky one to write, especially because towards the end the timeline crosses over with book 5 of The Boy series and I had to make sure the scenes were not too repetitive for anyone who has read that series. My editor has played a huge part in helping sculpt this book into something I am really excited about. I will be tackling her final edits in the new year and plan to release the book around June/July 2024.
  3. Publish The Mess Of Us – This sequel to my 2013 debut novel The Mess Of Me has just come back from my wonderful beta readers. They’ve been tremendously helpful and overwhelmingly positive and I can’t wait to dive in and do another edit of the book with their valuable feedback in mind. I’ll get to this once I’ve gone through my editor’s comments for At Night They Played In The Road and once that is done I’ll send it to her, bringing it one step closer to publication. I don’t foresee any structural edits for this one, so hopefully it will be minor edits and I can plan to get it published for autumn/winter 2024.
  4. Republish The Mess Of Me with updates and new cover – Before I started The Mess Of Us I reread and updated The Mess Of Me and arranged a new cover. I would have set it up for an update but I have not had the time this year, however waiting to coincide its update with the release of its sequel is probably a good idea!
  5. Send The Dark Finds You to beta readers – this book is now ready for beta reader feedback. This book wasn’t meant to happen, but writing The Mess Of Us, and At Night We Played In The Road gave me ideas for a crossover book and I just couldn’t resist. Many of my books are linked in the same universe, with characters and places reappearing in different books, and writing these two books which link up with previous books, led me to an idea that would neatly tie up everyone’s stories. Bill Robinson from The Holds End trilogy was already linked to Elliot Pie from Elliot Pie’s Guide To Human Nature as they are neighbours on the same estate and are briefly mentioned in each other’s books. In The Dark Finds You, Elliot’s mum is now with Bill’s dad and they are expecting a baby together, making Elliot and Bill almost brothers. The main story-line involves Elliot’s best friend Finn being missing. Leah (Elliot’s other friend) and Laura (Elliot’s mother) are also in the book and have chapters from their points of view. Bill is on a downwards spiral as his addiction problems from The Holds End trilogy are still an issue, but he cares about Elliot and promises to help him find Finn. Bill’s band have a regular slot at Chaos, a nightclub owned and run by Danny, from The Boy With The Thorn In His Side series… He also makes a small appearance in the Holds End trilogy and gets drawn into the search for the missing Finn, as a favour to Bill, who he has a lot in common with. Meanwhile, at the end of The Mess of Us, Leon (the main antagonist in The Mess of Me) has somewhat redeemed himself but is in debt to the drug dealers he used to work for. His brother Joe joins Bill’s band, and Leon is instructed to circulate drugs at Chaos, putting all these characters together in one book. It was so addictive to write because I knew all the characters so well! I don’t plan to publish it in 2024 but hope to at the start of 2025. It will be the final book in that universe.
  6. Continue to publish and grow on Medium – I joined Medium in April and I am so glad I did. I am extremely pleased with the earnings I’ve made from this writing platform and I find it to be a very warm, friendly and inspiring place. At the moment I am trying to submit 3-4 pieces a week and I’ll aim to keep that up in 2024.
  7. Launch the website for Chasing Driftwood Books – Chasing Driftwood Books is an indie collective started by myself and Sim Alec Sansford. It’s basically our own publisher! We published our Fortune’s Well trilogy under it plus our collaborative lockdown book, Stay Home. At the moment there are eight of us in the collective. Our plan is to support and promote each other and eventually let other authors join if they’re a good fit. The website will have all our books available to buy on author pages for each of us. I really hope 2024 is the year we push this forward as its been a long time coming!
  8. Tackle the third draft of Black Hare Valley – this won’t be a priority and will only happen if and when I get gaps between editors and beta readers getting back to me on the books mentioned above. Black Hare Valley was an idea I got about five or six years ago. My son helped me design the town with a huge map we drew together. I wrote some ideas and some character bios and that was it. Then, almost two years ago, we had a long power cut and an even longer time without the internet so I couldn’t work on the books on my laptop. I suddenly had the opening chapter to Black Hare Valley so grabbed a notebook and wrote it. Of course, this led to the next chapter, and the next and so on. I ended up writing the whole thing into five notebooks by hand and then put is aside to go back to the other books close to publication. Just recently, I was waiting for feedback from beta readers and my editor so decided to type up Black Hare Valley. This was technically the second draft but didn’t feel like it as I didn’t make too many changes. I just finished this a few days ago and will now leave it alone while I get all the other books ready for release. I have had some extra ideas for the plot though, so I added them to the end in note form and I am so excited to get back to this at some point!
  9. Add paid and free writing resources to the Chasing Driftwood Writing Group website – The site is now split between my writing group which provides writing opportunities to young people, and Chasing Driftwood Books which aims to support our group of indie authors. I’d like to add free resources to the writing group side. Regular prompts and challenges, as well as blog posts and tips and advice. I’d also like to add some paid resources such as some notebooks we have designed and some non-fiction books we are working on to encourage writing. I’m not sure if I will get time for this but I had to add it to the list to try and keep me on track!
  10. Get into hiking – We recently bought a caravan in Ilfracombe, Devon, which is close to the South West Salt path and Exmoor. It’s a beautifully wild and rugged coastal environment and I’ve had a strong urge to get into hiking for a while now. I just bought myself hiking boots with some Christmas money and I am so excited to get started! I am longing for adventures and keen to explore the area more as its just so beautiful.

That is a challenging list and I might not achieve them all but I always find it helps me to write my goals down so that I can refer back to them and try to stay on track. I’m excited about all of them and looking forward to a brand new year of writing, publishing and adventures.

What about you? Any hopes for the year ahead? Are you setting yourself any goals?

My 2023 Goals Vs The Reality

~ ChanAtkins ~ 4 Comments

It’s a yearly tradition for me to lay out my goals for the year ahead just before New Years Eve, and then almost a year later, refer to each goal and see how well I did!

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

So, here are the 8 goals I set myself for 2023 and the results.

  1. Start releasing ‘The Day The Earth Turned’ series – Achieved! As planned I released book 1: Summer in June, and book 2: Autumn in October. Book 3: Winter is all set up and ready to be released in January, hopefully followed by book 4: Spring in March or April.
  2. Finish ‘At Night They Played In The Road’ (working title, I still can’t quite decide) and send to editor – Achieved! In fact, I recently received the edits from my wonderful editor and will start working on them very soon. I hope to release it around June 2024.
  3. Publish ‘Days End’, the third book in the Fortune’s Well trilogy – Achieved! The whole trilogy is now published and available in ebook, paperback and hardback!
  4. Keep adding to my new short story and poetry collection – Achieved! I haven’t added a lot and this collection is nowhere near ready for publication but I have managed to add a few new poems to it this year.
  5. Launch Chasing Driftwood Books – Achieved! (Sort of) While we are not ready for any kind of official launch, Chasing Driftwood Books is a thing in motion. There are now eight authors in our indie collective and we are currently taking part in a Christmas calendar countdown together. The website is in progress and our mission is clear. Hopefully this time next year we will have fully launched!
  6. Keep improving my vegetable plot and self-sufficiency in general – Failed! Well, mostly. Unfortunately, my vegetable plot ended up being very neglected this year, despite my good intentions. I have realised and accepted that I just don’t have time for it. I made the decision to take down the fence and start clearing it all away at the end of the season. I felt too sad looking at it. I’m not giving up entirely and I still plan to grow things out there. I am just going to be a bit more realistic about what I have time for.
  7. Keep Up with dog training –Achieved! I had no choice, really. A year ago Ada was a sweet little puppy who was only just starting to go for walks after her jabs. It soon became very obvious that she had a deeply ingrained fear and mistrust of the outside world and just about everything in it! Her reactivity as a puppy was absolutely terrible and I was truly stunned, wondering what on earth I had done wrong. We have done constant training since then, at home, on all our walks and with our wonderful dog trainer. She has been enjoying Hoopers, Trick Training and more recently Future Stars which is teaching her the basics for agility later on. She adores training. She is desperate to learn and please you; she just finds a lot of things very worrying. She is a lot less reactive now, thankfully. She generally won’t react anymore to previous triggers, such as cars, bikes, motorbikes, scooters, children, buggies, men in hi-vis jackets, men in helmets… It was a lot! Now it is mostly just other dogs and not all of them. Just the ones that worry her!
  8. Get fitter and stronger – Failed! I haven’t gotten worse, I just wasn’t able to keep up the pilates. I’m happy with my body and my fitness but its hiking I really want to get into next year!

I think six out of eight is not too bad and the two I didn’t achieve were not total fails. All in all it has been a good year in terms of writing and family life. Look out for next week’s post where I will set out my goals for 2024!

Isn’t It Nice To Be Excited?

~ ChanAtkins ~ 10 Comments

Excited:a feeling of great enthusiasm and eagerness.

If you ask another adult when was the last time they felt excited, I wonder what they would say? I wonder how far back they would have to think? If you ask a child, on the other hand, they will more than likely say today, or yesterday. One of my favourite things about children, and working with them, is how excited they always are. It’s like some kind of natural state for them, and the younger they are, the easier they are excited.

Us adults seems to lose this as time wears on and life wears us down. There is little room for excitement in getting up on a dark Monday morning and trudging to work. We get a bit excited about the weekend, but it always goes too fast. We get excited about holidays and time off. Maybe our birthdays and Christmas too, but that’s usually more to do with other people than ourselves.

It is so easy to forget how this feels. That fizzy breathless giddy feeling inside of you. Smiling spontaneously, smiling alone, breaking into laughter or giggles. Jumping up and down, clapping hands.

I’m also lucky because I am a writer and writing excites me. If I have a story on the go I am excited every day that I work on it but lately I’ve had other things to feel excited about and it made me realise how long it’s been since I’ve felt that heightened and blissful emotion.

Not to say, at all, that life is not generally very good to me. But days tend to roll into each other, I feel tired, a bit weary, a bit bored. It’s hard to get excited on a daily basis living in this strained old world, but lately for me, that has changed.

We recently inherited some money and it was not quite enough to do anything really wild like buy a house (we’ve rented our entire lives) but it was indeed, a potentially life-changing amount. It left us with serious dilemmas and a lot of thinking to do. We have never had money before, not in any substantial amount, and with this strange new reality came a lot of fear, guilt and sadness. Someone we loved very much had passed away so it didn’t feel right to delight in this money or celebrate it, but at the same time, we knew we had to honour them if we could and not waste the opportunity we had been given.

Over several months we thrashed it out, going back and forth, looking into every option available and weighing up the pros and cons. Our biggest fear was doing nothing. We feared that if we sat still and didn’t do something with it, it would get eaten up by rent and bills before we knew it.

We looked into several options including these;

Saving it, putting it away in an ISA or a pension pot

Using it as a large deposit and trying to get a mortgage to finally buy

Buying an eco-friendly tiny home and trying to find a small plot to rent and live on

Starting a new business

Buying a campervan and having adventures

Buying a park or mobile home

One by one we went through the options. One of my favourites was the tiny home idea. I’d been following tiny home pages on Facebook and Instagram for some time and I think they are a fantastic solution to the housing crisis in this country. They are built with sustainable and off grid living in mind, can be towed like a touring caravan and are affordable, unlike mortgages and rents these days. I even had a video consultation with a company who make them and it seemed like a really good solution, however, the biggest obstacle seemed to be finding a plot of land. We did ask around but kept getting told no. If we bought the tiny home we would not have had any money left to buy our own plot and even then, you still need planning permission to be able to live on it full time. It’s a shame, because the tiny home movement is growing and I fully support it. Imagine the difference we could make to low-income families and homeless people if land-owners were more open to this idea!

For a while we settled on the campervan idea. We have always dreamed of owning one. I’ve always liked the idea of living in one when there are less kids and pets to care for and I also follow lots of van-life accounts on Instagram and Facebook. Again, I think the whole van-life movement has grown out of the housing crisis. People are fed up of being ripped off with ever-spiraling rents and mortgages and living in a van instantly means your wages will go a lot further. Imagine living in a home with basically no rent or mortgage to pay and minimal bills? Imagine how much wealthier you would instantly feel! We liked this idea and thought to start with we would just have holidays and adventures in it and then maybe, when it’s just us, my husband and I would live in it.

I was also quite into the getting a mortgage idea for a while. It’s always been my dream to own my own home and I have always had an image in my mind of what that would be. Essentially, it wouldn’t be too different to the place we rent now. A large garden, not too many neighbours, fields and woods and rivers close by. Unfortunately, even with such a large deposit, and our wages being higher than they’ve ever been, we still would not be able to afford the kind of home we would like in Dorset, where we live. We could possibly have got a mortgage for a flat, or a terraced house in a less desirable area, but even then, at a stretch. It was really depressing looking. So, we looked further afield and instantly saw we could get a lot more for our money if we crossed over into Devon, or went as far as Somerset, Cornwall or Wales. These are all places we know and love having been on many caravan holidays over the years.

The mobile home or park home option seemed enticing too but sadly, every single caravan park in our area (and there are tons…) is either for holidays only or for old people only, no children allowed. It was so frustrating as we could have afforded some of these homes in beautiful locations.

The idea of leaving Dorset seemed more and more enticing. Yes, after nearly fourteen years of living in the same house, and having lived in the county our entire lives, it would mean a big change, changing our lives entirely. That felt scary, but also exciting…

At one time I never would have considered it.

But now we felt like it was time to start living and actually enjoying the wages we earn, instead of watching them all get eaten up by rent and bills.

Then, one day, I was scrolling Facebook and came across a caravan park in Devon that had recently been taken over by new owners and was now a 12 month park. You do need to list somewhere else as your permanent residence but essentially, you are free to live on site 12 months a year and make it your home. Pets are allowed. Children are allowed. There are no age restrictions. It’s in a beautiful setting with sea and meadow views, just a short drive from the outstanding natural beauty areas of Ilfracombe, Woolacombe and Barnstaple.

We made contact and decided to go and have a look. We enjoyed our visit so much. The park was wonderful, the choices of static caravans and wooden style lodges were gorgeous. The location was perfect and while there, I felt so at ease, so invigorated. We explored the nearest town, Ilfracombe, a seaside town that feels like it is stuck in time, in a good way! The people were friendly, the views spectacular, the possibilities for exploring and hiking endless. We all felt at home. We came away and discussed it and we were all agreed. We wanted to live there. We wanted to buy a static caravan and live in it. We wanted to change our lives completely.

Mullacot Park, Ilfracombe, Devon

And that’s the reason I am so excited right now. We recently purchased the caravan and our plan is to have lots of holidays and weekends away for the next two years while our sons finish in their current schools, plus rent it out to holiday makers in hope of making a little income from it. Then, we will up sticks and leave and it will be our home. If we ever tire of the park, we can move the caravan anywhere we like. It was by far the cheapest option, leaving us with a respectable amount in the bank if we ever need it, or possibly to try and purchase a bit of land one day. But for now, we all feel exited to be on the park.

Our caravan on the new plot on the park – road and parking space to come!

I have fallen in love with the area its in and on a recent weekend there we explored more of Ilfracombe and visited the magnificent Woolacombe beach. There are lots more places on my list to explore and I am ready for adventure, ready to embrace this feeling of being excited again.

View of Ilfracombe from Hilsborough Hill

It might not be everyone’s idea of a dream come true, but for us, going from £15,000 a year in rent plus bills, to £3,000 in ground rent and minimal bills, is a no-brainer. Our lives will be instantly easier and more relaxed. We will have more time – surely the most precious thing of all and the thing we all want more of?

Ilfracombe harbour

I have plans to get into hiking, to be outside as much as possible. I won’t have a garden anymore but these days it just stresses me out anyway. I have always loved this house and garden but its so expensive now, it takes all our time and energy paying for it and we have none left to actually enjoy it. That has to change. We have one short life. One shot.

I want time. I want space. I want to breathe, wander, dream and ponder. I want to slow down.

This is our plan to change our lives and this is just the start.

I hope we stay excited.

Woolacombe beach

My Experience On Medium So Far

~ ChanAtkins ~ 16 Comments

I first became aware of the writer’s platform, Medium, a few years back when an author I follow on Facebook started posting about it. This author would share pieces he had published on Medium and suggested it was a worthwhile platform for writers to invest in if they fancied getting paid for their work. At the time, I thought, good for you and moved on by. So often in this industry, authors are bombarded with ways to make money out of writing and it often becomes too much. There are only so many hours in a day, and most of us have full time day-jobs and families to contend with too.

Image by Engin Akyurt from Pixabay

Over the next few years I noticed a few other authors I respect had started publishing on Medium. They too often mentioned how good it was. Again, I thought, good for you, but I don’t have time. Too many books to write and promote and not enough hours in the day was my excuse.

Then, back in April, one of these authors messaged me privately to urge me to give it a go. He had just enjoyed one of my blog posts and pointed out that similar types of articles, essays and personal pieces could be making me money on Medium if I gave it a go. He told me he was on average earning around $200 a month which made a nice little side hustle and finally, I was intrigued. I decided to sign up and give it a go. I went all in, rejecting the free option for the paid one. You pay $5 a month to be a member on Medium and that gives you access to all the work published on there, plus it gives you a chance to apply for the partner programme. Being part of that, I was told, was how you eventually started earning money.

To start with, I set up my profile and on the advice of my friend, wrote an ‘About Me’ article. This is apparently the best way to begin to get follows. Life took over after that and I neglected the site until a few months later. By now, I was aware that another author friend of mine was also doing well on Medium, making an average of £200 a month to supplement her other income streams. There are, of course, many writers making even more than that per month, and this knowledge gave me a new determination.

If you’re not aware of how Medium operates, I will try and break it down for you.

You can sign up to the free version, post anything you like and read other posts that don’t have a paywall in front of them. This is not a bad way to get started and get a feel for the place.

Or, like me, you can sign up to be a member. You can then start posting whatever you like. Poems, stories, flash fiction, articles, essays, personal pieces and more. You can post by yourself or you can submit to write for publications. Luckily for me, one of my friends was already an editor on several publications that were a good fit for me, so I joined all of those, read the submission rules and got started. The aim is to get to 100 followers, as that is one of the criteria for being accepted onto the partner programme, which will then enable you to get paid.

I found it really easy to get 100 followers. I started following, reading, commenting and clapping on other writer’s work and they would do the same for me. I found people were following me after reading and responding to my About Me piece, and again, whenever I posted something, I’d get a new little burst of followers. It was exciting and felt a lot more worthy of my time than other social media platforms. Plus, I was really enjoying following and reading the work from other writers!

Once I got my 100 followers, and had posted enough articles, I applied for the partner programme and got in. A month after that I got my first payment! I was thrilled to bits. It was for just under $3 so didn’t quite cover my membership fee, but it spurred me on. This was starting to look really doable. And I was enjoying it!

I still am. I think Medium is a great platform for all kinds of writers. I just got my second payment the other day and it was just over $8 dollars. Again, I was absolutely thrilled. I’ve made a little profit and covered my membership fee. I now feel even more determined to write and post more quality pieces to up my earnings again for next month. In fact, I now have a goal in mind of £200 a month. That would be a really nice extra income stream for writing things I would have written anyway.

If you are interested, here’s a short breakdown of the pros and cons I’ve found so far!

Pros

  • you can post anything, though of course there is guidance and some rules so make sure you read these first. Some writers only post poetry, some only political articles, some lifestyle pieces and so on. It’s totally up to you.
  • There is a publication for everything! I am currently a writer for 7 publications which gives me a good choice of who to submit it to whenever I write anything. Some of them are really niche, so you will definitely find one to suit your writing style and topics.
  • people are overwhelmingly positive and supportive. I’ve only had one critic on there which was a bit odd but we’ve unfollowed each other now. Everyone else has been absolutely lovely. Writers are keen to support each other as it increases the chance of the favour being returned
  • it’s like a co-operative of writers all helping each other and I love that!
  • editors can pick pieces to ‘boost’ which gives you even more visibility. This happened to me recently!
  • publications offer lots of prompts and challenges so you will never be without something to write about
  • Medium promotes the writers with ‘daily digest’ emails tailored to suit you. I try to read this every morning, a bit like reading a newspaper. I read as many as I can and clap and comment as much as I can too. It is a reciprocative platform so make sure you are helping out other authors too.
  • It’s super fast to gain genuine followers, unlike other social media sites!
  • You can get started by reusing old blog posts. Medium doesn’t mind if something has been published elsewhere before, but some of the publications do, so check first.
  • There are some very talented writers on there and I genuinely enjoy reading the Medium Digest each day!

Cons

  • It can be time consuming but I have managed to fit it in. In order to be supportive to others, you do need to follow, subscribe, clap, comment and share as much as you can. You can’t expect to help no one and still gain followers and views.
  • Like all internet platforms there are going to be some trolls, and some people who let you know they don’t like your writing, but overall, it is completely the opposite.
  • It leaves you with less content for your blog! I like to post on here weekly if I can, but it’s been less lately because every time I have an idea, I choose to put it on Medium instead!

That’s it. I can’t think of any other cons so far, but perhaps, further down the line I’ll feel differently. I think I will write an update post maybe six months from now and let you know how close I am to my payment goal and whether I have come across any other negative aspects to the site.

For now, I’d definitely recommend it. Facebook and Instagram have become such an echo chamber lately. Social media can be very depressing at times but so far, I am thoroughly enjoying being a part of the Medium community!

If you want to follow me, I’ll gladly follow you back: @chantelleatkins_17828