A room of my own … with thanks to Virginia Woolf

It can be hard, being a working writer, sharing an office or space with your significant other.

Until August 1, 2019, I worked a large portion of each week as a general practitioner.

I loved being a doctor but had to retire for medical reasons while I was well below the usual retirement age.

Once, I’d been a writer, and loved that too; the act of placing words next to one another to make meaningful sentences and patterns and to evoke emotions. Knowing that I would need to abandon my medical practice I began writing classes. In 2018 I completed some writing courses through NorthTec – the polytechnic college that serves the top of the North Island. I learned how to write articles – and had one published. Also how to review writing, how to sling words together and how to structure a writing life.

In 2019 I completed a Diploma in Creative Writing, producing a manuscript called Mila and the Bone Man. All this while still working 3 or 4 days a week as a doc.

Now the doctoring is over, and I sit in my office for forty hours each week, competing for space with my very supportive partner Graham. We don’t mean to, but we get in each other’s way. I have long dreamed of a private, quiet space where I can write and read and be in nature. And now it’s happening – my room of my own – and I am so excited!

Here are the first looks at the hut as it develops. It is going where a dead puka tree stood tall and held the space at the bottom of our garden. We’ve had to prune a few limbs from healthy trees and remove some pest plants to prepare the stage. We will underplant with ferns and rengarenga lilies. Soon there will be a floor, then walls, windows and a roof. I’ll let you look at this physical work in progress as I create the next textural one – in our shared office!

Life has taught me that blessings are often wrapped in live wires, in pain and loss. The end of my medical career has given me sadness but also the opportunity to return to some other loves of mine – writing and reading.

I’ll let you know when my books have passed through the editing and – hopefully – publishing stage.