It is a pleasure to introduce you to Liz Pacey this week. While Liz's journey is at an early stage I hope her thoughts will encourage those who want to start such a journey to have the courage to start. Over to you, Liz.
Thank you, Val, for inviting me to your blog. Here is my writing journey…so far.
My story ‘Holiday Cottage’ is my first memory of a piece of writing that I produced. I was in Mr Parker’s class at primary school and must have been about 10. I was in deep trouble because when the school inspectors’ visit was due. Mr P wanted to display it and I’d thrown it out… Well, he did tell us to tidy our desks. I should have treasured it as life was to be very different at grammar school.
Flights of Enid Blyton type fancy were to be no more… I was reprimanded for having too vivid an imagination. And my marks went right down.
Also, in Mr Parker’s class I discovered the joy of penfriends. Janice Love was my first – ironically, she was from his former school, all of two miles down the road, and I was at Sunday school with her…
Then there was Sally in Kent, through the Gibbs toothpaste Ivory Castle Club. We had special notepaper with the outline of a fortress, and I used to write page after page after page. I’m sure they must have thought I was using it as loo paper or something when I kept asking for more. Norbert, Mechthild and Fatima (all German) came and went. As did many more… I still love writing and receiving snail mail letters.
My husband, Norman, and I had our first holiday together at a creative writing course. It was at Grange over Sands. So, I married someone with a love of words. We were both involved right at the beginning of the Association of Christian Writers’ East Yorkshire group. Its setting up coincided with our marriage in 1991. Another founder member, Julia and I, shared weeks on Radio Humberside doing Pause for Thought. Not hugely successful for me because nerves got the better of me and I sounded as though I was either running for a bus or going to burst out crying.
We both joined our church magazine team in 2001, Norman quickly rising to the role of editor. I had to mind my p’s and q’s then. The romance between Ramon Pecan and Cizy Aple was soon the talk of the town.
I never expected I’d be on the radio again but was catapulted into it by the Comic Relief knitted phone box cosy story. My knitting group, St Columba Knitwits, was asked to ‘paint’ one of Hull’s iconic white boxes red! Secular and religious newspaper reviews followed.
Suddenly I found myself training to be a Reader in the Church of England and pretty much all I wrote was essays and sermons. Yet, it was then, especially as later assignments were rather more practical, like producing a course for a Mothers’ Union group, that the penny started to drop that writing was becoming ever more important. It was what I was meant to be doing.
At the time I was working two days a week as a home visitor at Hull and East Riding Institute for the Blind. I talked over giving up the day job with quite a few people. Some, my husband included, were more supportive than others. Some thought I should write round the day job (and it’s probably the advice I would have given anyone else in that position).
But I already had such a full life with church commitments etc I knew that wouldn’t work. So, after quite a lot of prayer and heart searching, I handed in my notice at the end of 2008.
From that point things went a bit pear shaped. Two days after I said my fond farewells to the job Norman had a heart attack. I was so grateful to have the time at home with him. Thankfully he made a full recovery but of course the writing had to take a back seat for quite a while.
During the next few months there were times when I wondered if I’d misread the signs. Despondency set in, and embarrassment followed as people asked me how the writing was going. I had “put it in writing” in my journal and was able to go back to that for reassurance.
Habakkuk 2:2-3
Good News Translation
2 The Lord gave me this answer: “Write down clearly on tablets what I reveal to you, so that it can be read at a glance. 3 Put it in writing, because it is not yet time for it to come true. But the time is coming quickly, and what I show you will come true. It may seem slow in coming but wait for it; it will certainly take place, and it will not be delayed.
And even words jumping at me from the cover of my copy of Writing Magazine: “you can be a writer” and “A little skill,,, a little talent… and a LOT of determination” kept me going.
My first accepted piece grew out of one of my essays. I had an article published in The Reader magazine about the Mothers’ Union. Commissions for various Christian publications followed. Scripture Union’s Daily Bread and Roots lectionary guide were among the first, and I am so grateful that I am still asked to write Bible notes and prayers for them.
So, where am I now? Of course, life gets in the way sometimes. I lost my lovely Norman nearly two years ago to Alzheimers’ disease. During his illness I gave up my ministry and have recently taken that back up. I’ve moved across the city, moved churches. Life is very different, but very good!
Since writing a spirituality project about knitting, and delivering a day course to Hull Deanery Mothers’ Union, as part of my theology and ministry degree, I have been passionate about prayer shawl ministry, knitting for charity and knitting as a means of connecting with God.
I give talks to groups and clubs (on a variety of subjects!), am a member of our local U3A creative writing group, and… am finally… writing the book. Working title: Knitspiration… more than just a good yarn. Watch this space…
And I cannot close without a big shout out to all the wonderful writers I met (take a bow, Val) when earlier this year I first dipped my toe in the magical waters of Swanwick. Life will certainly never be quite the same.
The Author
Liz Pacey studied at the University of Dundee and now lives in Kingston-upon-Hull. She is sought after as a public speaker, a keen writer and a dedicated knitter. Liz may be contacted on FaceBook at https://www.facebook.com/liz.pacey.75/about
Well done Liz!