Hello,
I often wonder whether my writing is art imitating life or life imitating art. I use my own life experiences a lot in my writing. It isn't like I go out of my way or try super hard to imitate my own life, but it just sort of happens. Writing my latest book, one of the biggest themes happened very organically, and I only just realised that it's on my mind too.
I can't go into details about the book yet, but one of the themes is the changing family. How children and parents get older and the changing dynamics that brings and also the sadness we feel as it happens. I was looking at some photos of my own family this morning from two years ago. It was a holiday to England and my daughter was 3 and my son was 1 (they're now 5 and 3), and I suddenly got this feeling of sadness because I'll never get those little kids back. They're gone. The thing is, I don't know if I was thinking that because of the book or whether I started writing about it in the book because I was already thinking about it with my own kids.
It's so difficult to disassociate life from art because to me they come from the same place. I write about things I know or have felt. Obviously there are things in my books that haven't happened to me, but I can usually relate a feeling to it. So here I am, writing my new book, and feeling sad about my kids growing up, and unhelpfully listening to Passenger, who is quite sad and reflective, and I thought I'd write a blog about it. This is what happens to people like me - I don't want to say artist because that makes me sound like a pretentious fool - we have to get all of these feelings and ideas out somewhere. I can't imagine my life without it. Maybe one day when I'm even older and my kids are adults and they read my books, maybe they'll understand a part of how I felt when they were growing up - and why I would suddenly need to hold them so tightly and cover them with kisses.
Until next time.
Hugs,
Jon X
