Welcome back. Now where was I?
1999 should have been your answer had you read part one. If you haven't it's just up there ^^^. I'll wait for you.
OK. Good. Let's crack on...
The turn of the Millennium turned out to be not such a great time for me personally. I was a post-grad student at Sunderland Uni for the first part on a computing Masters course, and I had a great time. Too great a time as it turns out...I fell behind with the course work through my insistance on being first into and last out of the bar on any given occasion. If I wasn't hacking code I was boozing, and frequently doing both.
It shouldn't have came as any great surprise that my health suffered and I one day in 2002, not long before my 30th birthday, I had my first cardiac scare. Initially it was diagnosed as a simple arrythmia, but the attacks became more frequent and severe, eventually landing me in hospital for a week attached to all manner of machines and scanners and whatnot. After all this prodding and testing we finally got to the root of my heart problems and I was really relieved to find out the episodes were being caused by nothing more than an intolerance to caffeine! My eight cup a day coffee habit had to end, along with the vodka and Red Bull cocktails which had become my poison of choice.
Of course during this time I wasn't writing at all, not even handwritten scribbles. Five years of constant study had worn my brain out, and the other health bother had left me feeling bone tired. All I could bring myself to do was read and play video games. Even watching regular TV was a chore to be avoided, and it was around about this time I became absorbed in the medium of radio.
By this time I now had internet access in my computer area (bedroom corner) and struck up several 'virtual' friendships with folk around the world. It also provided an instant link to my local BBC radio station which one night asked for opinions on some news topic of the day.
I typed out a quick paragraph and to my utter astonishment I heard my word being read out not 30 seconds after pressing 'send'. I was hooked, and pretty soon became a regular correspondant, almost to the point of being a Program Producer. As quickly as that I was in love with writing again...not only did I have a purpose to write, I also had an audience! I volunteered at my local hospital and soon had a show on their internal radio network once a week, too.
Good fortune was smiling on me then. Reading through one of the newspapers I saw a course in Radio Production being advertised at Sunderland University leading to a Master of Arts qualification. Could I go back to school for a 3rd time? Nothing ventured, nothing gained, so I applied and with a little help from the BBC (who provided me with a glowing reference) I was one of 18 people accepted onto the course.
It was brilliant. I was reasonably au fait with the technical aspects of production so concentrated on the nuts and bolts of copywriting and drama scripting (even a little bit of dramatic radio acting and commercial work). Yes, I can safely say 2005 was one of the better years of my life, and not least because Doctor Who returned to the TV screens!
I was churning stuff out like there was no tomorrow for my new preferred medium of radio (or 'The Wireless' as I affectionately call it), and I didn't care if nobody was employing me 'properly' as it was enough just to here my words being used on air.
Then reality sets in. They were getting my stuff for free...surely a little payment would be in order...a little freelance contract somewhere along the line?
SLAM!
Did you hear that door being shut? As soon as payment for my services was mentioned I became a pariah. How dare I expect to be recompensed!
I should clarify that this didn't just happen at one institution, it was four or five. Just covering my legal arse there!
Maybe it was the fact I was older and less hot-headed but this didn't lead to my falling out of love with writing for what would have been the third (and most likely final) time. No, 'f*** it', I thought, 'I'll do this myself'. And then...
Illness struck me again! The aches and pains I had been suffering for a few months were diagnosed as psoriatic arthritis and within just over a year I went from being a fit, active man about town to being a virtual cripple who couldn't walk more than a few yards without help and fingers that twisted so out of shape I had to give up playing guitar.
Anyone who is unable to get out of the house much will tell you how invaluable they find the internet. My daily routine (I was no longer fit for work and had to give up teaching) revolved around pain medication and long conversations on various chat sites.
Then I found Facebook. And from Facebook I found a girl who was to become my fiancee and, in 2009, my wife. The fact that she was Canadian and lived in Ontario was besides the point...I took the plunge, upped sticks, packed my spotted hanky and jumped on an aeroplane. And that just about brings things up to date.
My journey to this point has been, shall we say, interesting but after it all I am still writing and still awaiting that 'big break', the magnum opus, the Pulitzer prizewinner.
I suppose my ultimate massage here is to not give up and don't give yourself an excuse to fail. Just do it. And keep doing it!
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