Paraphernalia

A striking difference between writing a book and having a baby is the amount of specialised equipment needed.

Whilst it’s true that our baby could sleep in a cardboard box lined with something soft and have a bath in a bucket, it’s becoming increasingly obvious that she will need a great deal of kit in her first year. Guarding against gathering too much that we won’t ultimately use, I’ve paid attention to the lists of basics that our pregnancy book suggests and scanned online forums discussing the worst purchases parents have made for their babies. Despite this, there is world of new products that we will need to borrow, bid for and buy before she arrives.

The aim for January is to clear the study ready to be transformed into a nursery. We have moved from a stage of getting used to the idea of being pregnant to thinking seriously about having a baby in the house in a few months time. Earlier in the week, I began bidding for a buggy on EBay, which led to me wondering about car seats, which led to me wondering about a bigger car, which led to me thinking about our holiday in France, which led to me thinking about travel cots, which led me to wonder if the Moses basked attachment of the buggy I was bidding for would be suitable for sleeping in for a night, which led me back to EBay, which led me to a baby bath…





Wild Rose in notebook form and a complete first draft



Writing, on the other hand, is delightfully simple. When I first started writing Wild Rose I bought myself a notebook from ‘The Kite, Koop and Bookstore’ on Chincoteague Island and took it to the beach with a biro from my hand luggage. I found the same notebooks on my return and kept writing in coffee shops or in the garden. Writing in longhand meant that I could edit as I went along and I felt less committed to the text than when I was typing onto a laptop. Even when I printed off my first full draft, all I needed was paper and bulldog clips.

That is not to say that there isn’t a similar pleasure in buying stationary as there is in gathering cute baby kit. But while all I needed to write a book could fit in my satchel, it won’t be long before our baby has a whole roomful of paraphernalia waiting for her.