When did you know you wanted to be a writer?

Even today, with three books published, I am not sure I want to be a writer when I grow up!  However, my book always wanted to be written.  It wanted legs, to move itself around in the world and to be shared.
My story of Life in the Camel Lane was carved into my soul, and not written by my conscious self. Those fifteen years spent in Saudi Arabia changed me at depth and the book was my tool to demonstrate some of the processes by which I changed.
Living in Saudi Arabia for over 7100 days left me with a library of stories, all longing to be told.  The impulse to share them, and for others to learn from these intercultural lessons in the midst of a fractured world was a huge motivation.
I felt like my life could not move forward. It was as if some sort of spiritual bypass would occur if I did not write the book.  LITCL was in many ways either a gift or an obstacle in the road that I could not avoid, depending on the day you asked.
The title of “author” was one I grew into somewhat reluctantly, although I am watching a part of myself becoming eager to write the next book – so I guess the identity part of the process is on-going for me.
Like most writers, many of their stories have never been told, but they remain installed inside our brains ready to pounce when someone pushes the right button.
Occasionally something will prompt me to think about an event, a feeling or a memory and when I reflect back I realize “ah, there’s another one I didn’t put in the book”.
This is my third attempt at publishing.   The identity of “author” still feels knew, like a pair of high heels that are a bit wobbly, but I know I will eventually master and get the hang of it!
Thanks for asking!

Who were the authors that influenced you as a youth, and in what ways?

Growing up in Scotland I was influenced by traditional and classic authors. I was always encouraged to imagine, to envision and to read.
I was the kid with the torch reading under the blankets at night.  Somehow these secret assignations with books made life as an only child more bearable.   My bedroom was on the landing, my parents could look up and see the door closed and the light gap appear darkened, thus the clandestine nature of my early reading.
My younger childhood favorites were by Enid Blyton, her adventure series about the Famous Five, four kids and their dog Timmy, plus the classic Railway Children by Edith Nesbit.
At school I had to read Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, C.S. Lewis, Lewis Carol, J. R. Tolkien, Shakespeare etc.   Ultimately, I fell in love with writers who wrote travel books and adventure stories like Ian McEwan and P.G. Wodehouse.
Somewhere between High School, University and my first job I fell in love with reading Graham Greene who was a travel writer.  He wrote about crossing Europe and beyond.  Journey Without Maps (1936) talked about traveling by walking.  He fell in love with remote and exotic places, and through his writing I fell in love with travel.
In my late teens and early twenties, I fell in love with female authors, Isabella Bird, Freya Stark, then Margaret Atwood, Margaret Drabble Joyce Carol Oates filled my early twenty-year-old self with joy.
Although at one time I would have called myself fanatical, when I moved to the US, I started to read less,.   Nowadays my reading is quixotic, although I particularly love biographies and self-development theory.  I do my best to keep up with iconic cultural books which describe the culture of the place I am living in.

How did it feel when you got to hold your very first advanced copy of your book?

 
It felt surreal, satisfying yet slightly saddening to hold the first copy of my book.  My sadness came from the circumstances surrounding Covid which stranded us down in Mexico for four months, feeling a bit adrift.
We ended up in San Miguel de Allende for eighteen extra weeks, marooned by borders closing, a pandemic pulsating through the Mexican culture and economy.  Our choices to return home systematically closed day by day by day over a period of about three days, and it became clear I would be publishing into what felt like a void. Covid-19 had arrived, the world shut down rapidly; we were what I called “misplaced” in Mexico.
We had a box of books shipped down from Amazon in the US to Mexico, which arrived just two days before the virtual book launch on Zoom.  I immediately launched into reading the book in preparation for the launch meeting with friends and family, men and women I knew from Saudi, and people from around the globe.
Like most authors, I dreamed of the day when I would celebrate the launch with my friends in Denver, Colorado.  I had imagined having a camel, a belly dancer and possibly a henna person painting beautiful middle eastern patterns on women’s hands during a party with Middle Eastern food, dancing and music – in fact a grand party – but this was not to be.
None of that could happen due to Covid.   However, as it turned out, Zoom was a terrific advantage because people from eight countries attended the launch. Over 80 people attended over a one-hour period, and that was simply delightful.  It felt like a homecoming as many of us saw each other for the first time in a over a decade.
I was reminded of the story of the Velveteen Rabbit, all of a sudden,
I was for real. That moment of tearing into the box, pulling out the top book, will rest inside me along with the stories included within its covers.
It was exciting to finally feel like an author, while holding that physical manifestation in my hands and I cannot wait until the next time!

What was the inspiration behind your book(s)?

Travel.  Together with the invisible gifts or lessons travel bestows, were my inspiration.
Have you ever heard the phrase “some people live the same life year after year”?
Well, I was never destined to be that person.   I am the person who has lived multiple lives in eight countries (perhaps nine if you count living in Mexico for almost eight months in one year, and ten if you count being an au pair in Italy for four months during college)!
I grew up believing in adventure, seeking it out, and then living with the consequences.  As part of the petroleum business, expatriate women have travelled and moved to Saudi Arabia since the late 1930’s and there are literally libraries of their experiences that remain untold.  I had to tell many of those stories.
As one of the women who shared her story in LITCL mentioned, her mother, from the time she was little, told her that their family had “gypsy feet”, in that they were willing to pick up and move easily.  This gal shared that those messages and early programming had a lot to do with her willingness to pick up her husband and two young boys and move across the planet to a distant land where she knew no-one, was clueless about the language and where she was prepared and programmed for adventure.
The country of Saudi Arabia is exactly one hundred percent different from the many faces we see projected onto our minds by the media.   Saudi people are distinctive in their approach to life and the expatriates who moved with their families, lock, stock and barrel, got to look inside the nature, good and bad, of the Saudi Arabian culture.
I was inspired by the people I met in Saudi Arabia, both expatriates from around the globe and the nationals.  I was inspired by the country and the land itself.  Saudi is of the most magical and diverse countries on the planet, the sea, the dessert and the infinite sky-filled treasures overhead are wonderous – how frequently do you read that story?
Mostly, I was inspired by the lessons, the broadening of my horizons and the possibilities that lodged in my mind, body and brain.  The lessons, while unique to me, were also universal in that almost all of us can learn something about how to live lives full of adventure and wonder right where we are, without traveling the globe.

What was your publishing journey like?

It took me several years to publish LITCL, mostly because I refused to focus the book in one specific lane.  I also spent the first few years listening to men tell me what a book about expatriate women in Saudi Arabia should be about!   Yes, the lessons keep coming.
Ultimately, for the last two years I worked with a book coach who provided more structure, and led me on the journey I, as an author wanted to take.
The publishing part seemed really easy.   I self-published under a hybrid system with a support crew.  My artistic consultant and I worked well together on the cover, the layout and the Arabesque words which I chose for the Chapter divisions.  I found that to be thrilling and relatively easy.
My publishing partner, Polly Letowsky, from My Word Publishing, did a great job of walking me through the step by step process of getting the book on Amazon etc.  While it took longer than I had expected, I must say it seemed seamless, very organized and natural.   I am deeply grateful for all the support I enjoyed through the process.
I actually look forward eagerly to creating enough new material and pages full of travel and cultural commentary.  Specifically, I want to help people widen their lives to move, travel and live into adventures like I did.

What advice do you have for aspiring young novelists?

 
Never give up.  No matter how long it takes, the winding path that you are on nor the complications of life along the way, keep the faith and write everyday if you can.   Writing can be a process of emptying out so that new ideas constantly flow in.  The process of keeping your channels clear, more than the practice itself is key.
If I were to give aspiring writers some tips, this would be my list:

1. When the muse or the inspiration strikes you – sit down right away and do so.
2. Move – a lot. New environments, different weather and changing circumstances all promote the brain to think in new ways.   Use that and take advantage of it.
3. Record your ideas when they emerge, someone famous said “gaff them like a fish”, because our ideas become slippery when not nailed down.
4. Sit beside moving water. I discovered that waterfalls, rivers, streams, oceans and lakes all provide the movement together with a sense of flow that all writers seek.
5. Meet with others to write. I belong to a long-term writing group called Shut Up and Write for professional speakers and writers.  It helps to know that you are doing this alongside someone.
6. Keep a loose writing schedule some way and somehow. Write it down put it in your diary and prompt yourself to write on schedule.  After many years of Shut Up and Write on Monday and Thursday mornings, I am somewhat programmed to start my days at least thinking about my writing, where it is and what the goal is for the week.
7. Tell people you are writing something – therefore you have to! Unless you want to be known as the person who does not keep their word – because that is who you will become, if you tell people you are writing and then don’t!!!!
8. Create your cover first and then write all the material to fit between them. It’s a very clear form of visualizing your book completed.
9. Do not beat yourself up when you fail – because if you are any sort of writer, you will fail. You will have down days, slow days, just plain sad days – that’s life.  Work towards the energy and love yourself by demonstrating massive patience and self-care.
10. Celebrate the small wins, the large wins, the chapter completions, the editing, the publication process – all of it.
11. Start early in planning the publication process
12. Hire experts to guide you through the writing and publication

I hope that these might inspire you to apply yourself to your craft, to fall in love with your writing.   I am guessing that writers who write every day, who love themselves into the work, do so with great gusty and enjoy a commensurate amount of success!!!

If you could have any superpower, which would you choose?

Well, first of all I believe that we really do have super powers, ones which we overlook, dial down and negotiate ourselves out of every. single. day.
Those are primarily our mental super-powers including but not limited to imagination, intuition, memory, will, reason and perception.   Several years ago during my coaching recertification I had the opportunity to think and consider each of these, how they function and how to help others use them more effectively.
However, if I have to choose, there are two super-powers which I would prefer more of:
One would be the power of focus.  I believe that power of focus could change my world, help me become a more proficient author, a better wife, mother, grandmother, friend, writer, blogger and cook.
I am also becoming a big fan of the power of living by necessity, and I might consider including this in the category call super-powers.     When I say living by necessity, I mean living my day to day life with a higher sense of urgency, at a frequency and velocity that is compatible with daily miracles and spontaneity.
If life is truly to be lived as an adventure, then each and every day is a precious experience, one that we can never repeat, re-run or relive.   I spend a serious amount of time considering how I would be grabbing the day and where I should be tripping over myself in the process of writing, publishing and delivering how-to books into the world just like a real super-woman.

Where is your favorite travel destination?

Honestly, my favorite destination is the one I find myself in at the moment you ask the question.
I have been very fortunate in that I have lived in 8 countries, been traveling overseas for over four decades and am still traveling as what I now call a “jetsitter” that’s an international petsitter who travels to take care of other people’s pets!
Let’s just look at the flip side of the question.   Where is my least favorite destination?  Having lived in the Middle East for two decades I would love to go back for short visits, but doubt that I could fall head over heels in love with the experience like I did in my 20’s and my 40’s.
For the last four or five years we have travelled the Western hemisphere from Mexico to Canada and Europe focusing on several countries we wanted to understand better and spend more time in.
Last year we set off on our gap year during “rewirement”, because how can one re-tire if you are not tired? We left initially for five months and returned to the US for two weeks to handle medical appointments and change our clothes. (I have discovered that I can manage six months traveling with one suitcase and a roll-on – that’s about my limit, then I start to crave different outfits for changing weather conditions).
We spent a month each in Spain, Belgium, England, France and Scotland, my home country.   It was a long and complex journey filled with flights, rental cars,  languages, borrowed cars, housesits, one manor house, one historical mansion,      dogs, cats and hotels.
This journey also happened to provide fodder for the next book:  Life in the Pet and HouseSitting Lane, What You Need to Know Before You Set Out on This Adventure!

When you’re not writing, what are your favorite hobbies?

Here’s the short answer:   house and petsitting!
Here’s the long answer:  my hobbies are dependent on where I am in the world.
Because I am globally mobile writer, my writing frequently has taken a backseat to the travel.  I am now managing to find my lane more frequently and easily while I am on the road.  Writing about travel while on the road makes my writing more visceral and brings it more present.  In the last year I have spent a month in each of five countries, then seven months in Mexico, four of them stranded by the Covid-19 pandemic.
This time last year we were living in a five-story townhouse in the north of Brussels, Belgium.  Near the Royal palace and parks and close to the Atomium, we were caring for Patci, whose family were on vacation in Peru.   Patci, is an enormous Australian shepherd puppy who at eight months old was over 70 pounds packed with energy and enthusiasm for life.
We spent hours in the Royal park, meeting other dog owners, struggling to communicate in their language of choice.  French, German and Dutch are the official languages of Belgium, while normal day-to-day business is conducted in French and Flemish.   Most locals speak some English, many are fluent, the dog owners who frequented the park were eclectic and represented many nationalities, lifestyles and cultures.
Since my husband retired, we have added international pet and housesitting to our activities and have just returned from more than a year away.   Is it a hobby?  Yes! But it’s also a new lifestyle which both of us thoroughly enjoy.
Since writing is a relatively still pastime for the body, I find balance is best created by both sitting still and thinking, inter-mingled with plenty of movement.   My thoughts, ideas and inspiration come from not only moving my body through exercise, but also by transporting it somewhere by bus, train, plane, car or boat.  Leaving, arriving and departing contain terrific life lessons in leadership and culture which we can apply anywhere we find ourselves.
My home base is Colorado, in the US and while home I love to play pickleball, hike, bike and my new personal passion is now time spent paddleboarding.  Just a few days ago I managed to sustain two different yoga poses on my paddleboard, that’s a huge personal milestone for me!
Since my lifestyle is frequently portable or nomadic, I need to have activities that are also portable.   Since my feet carry me everywhere, I make it a priority whether in Scotland or Mexico, to take the time into every week to walk, hike or just generally explore.
We make a concerted effort to build some exploration into every week.  This practice seems to widen our ideas and contributes to keeping me feel like life is an adventure not a chore.

Where can people find you online?

Website:  http://www.doreenmcumberford.com
Linked In: https://www.linkedin.com/in/doreenmcumberford/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/doreen.m.cumberford
Facebook Groups: https://www.facebook.com/groups/RockYourReentry
https://www.facebook.com/groups/HousesittingLane
Amazon Book Links: Life in the Camel Lane
Arriving Well

Thank you for joining me for Writer Wednesdays!

If you are a writer/author of any genre and would like to pitch yourself for an interview, please email me at info@alexismariechute.com

Catch you next week!

Happy writing,

   –   Alexis Marie Chute