About me...
Unfortunately not the Netflix superhero!
Here we are then….hello Substack.
Until about a week ago, I really didn’t understand what on earth Substack was. I love following and listening to the author, Beth Kempton. She totally inspires me and I feel like I really get her ideas and her ethos. She has mentioned Substack a few times, but I didn’t really take much notice.
However, last week she ran a free course on book proposals, which I randomly signed up for without even really knowing why. It was a massively interesting course and I really enjoyed it. During her last session which was a Q&A, she talked about Substack and explained how it worked and I thought Ah! thats what its for!
In 2017 I started a blog called infertility and life on wordpress (www.infertilityandlife.wordpress.com). I loved my blog, I wrote through IVF cycle after IVF cycle. The support I got was incredible, the way the writing helped me cope and balanced my mental health was something else. I don’t think I would have survived without that blog, off the back of which I did some writing for various fertility related websites.
In 2019 I finally gave birth to my daughter and life got flipped on its head. I was no longer welcome in the infertility community, because thats just how it has to be for the women still protecting their hearts and I totally understood that. But I didn’t really fit in with the new mums either, I was 40 and my road had been a lot different to any of theirs. I didn’t fit anywhere.
I was struggling with a newborn, who had a few health issues, I was overwhelmed and totally lost. I had no time to write at all and my days were a blur of survival.
Fast-forward five years. My bundle of joy is at school and loving life, meaning that I have a little bit of time back for myself - after working part time and maintaining a house and family. But how to incorporate writing into this, has been puzzling.
I don’t have a ‘regular’ writing time, I can’t promise to post every week or every month. I tried starting a new blog, but because it wasn’t a consistent story and didn’t really have a theme, it didn’t work for me. When Beth spoke about Substack, I thought maybe….this is the place for me?
So I’m just going to write, without agenda, but with hope, that I will find myself once more.
Thank you xx