Being Braver

It doesn’t seem a minute since I made my New Years resolution for 2014, and yet here we are in March. Although I can honestly say I haven’t yet broken my resolution, until recently I hadn’t really done much about keeping it either.

I know you are going to find this hard to believe- but I’m rather shy, and self confidence and I have never really seen eye to eye.  (I can hear you disagreeing with me from here- but I promise you, it’s true!) The result of this is that I’m not terribly brave. This means there are lots of things I’d love to do, which I haven’t done because I live in fear of looking stupid, being laughed at, and basically failing in some way.

So, what was my resolution for 2014? Quiet simply, I need to be braver.

This year I am determined to stop being such a coward- because frankly, cowards miss out on stuff!

I don’t want to do anything major- there will be no scaling of Mount Everest or jumping from an aeroplane at 40,000ft. I  just don’t want to look back on my life in 20 years and think, I wish I’d at least had a go.

So what was the first thing I did to take me out of my comfort zone. Well- last night I went out for a meal. How unremarkable you may think- but as I only go out about twice a year in a non writer capacity, this was something of an event. Especially because I went out with one friend, and 10 other people who I’d never met before. I was really nervous- but thought I could hardly moan about never going out or not knowing anyone if, when an opportunity to go out and meet people comes up, I chicken out.

Of course, I needn’t have worried- a more lovely group of gals you couldn’t wish too meet, and I’m sure they’d be amazed to know that I was so nervous – especially after my friend quickly announced what I do for a living! Within half an hour several copies of The Perfect Submissive had been downloaded onto their phones, and the first few lines were being read out across the restaurant table!! Thanks girls- all support very much appreciated!!

So what’s next on the being braver list?- EROTION 2014 of course!!

I am so looking forward to getting together with all my writing peers and friends for this years conference in Bristol. (7th-9th March).

I enjoyed every second of the last two “Eroticons”- this year however, I won’t be confined to the safety of the audience- but will be crossing to the front of the room to talk!!!

The lovely Ruby Kiddell, conference organiser extraordinaire, has asked me a few times to talk for her- but I’ve always opted out. One of the reasons I gave up being a University tutor all those years ago, was that I lived in fear of my students knowing more than I did. I’d put myself through hell every time I had to give a talk! So when I was asked by the wonderful Lucy Felthouse if I wanted to do a co-run talk with her, my instant thought was- ‘No way- too scary’ Then I thought, ‘Hang on a minute- writing erotica you can do- so why not try- just try….’

If you fancy hearing Lucy and myself giving you all our top tips on how to go from writing short stories to taking the big step into novel writing, then we’d love to see you there. And if that wasn’t enough- I’ll be leaping around with a bag of inspirational bits for Victoria Blisse…you’ll see…

It isn’t too late to get a ticket- all the info and the schedule can be found here- http://writesexright.com/

I’d better go now- that’s quite enough being brave for one weekend…I need to go and practise (a lot) for Eroticon!!!

Happy reading.

Kay xx

See you there…