‘How the blogging community at Starts at 60 inspired me’

I am an avid reader and in recent months I have enjoyed the news updates and blogs published by Starts at 60. I’ve found them to be both entertaining and tear-jerking and I’ve been inspired by the many wonderful contributors in the community.

My passion is writing and I’ve been fulfilling this with a new project since returning from overseas last July. My husband and I went on a long overdue trip to Ireland, London and parts of Europe for five weeks. It was my overseas experience; the one I should have had 40 years ago.

I’ve been a writer for some time. I’ve had three of my novels published and I’ve continued to write short stories for my daily newspaper. Towards the end of 2019 I started writing my memoir, tales of the fabulous times we had overseas. I started by sharing our adventures with family and friends on social media, but quickly found there wasn’t room to provide much detail. It’s when the idea of writing about them struck!

All I’ve ever wanted to do is write. When I’m in the writing mindset I become something of a social recluse. I juggle my writing with work, so my daily goal is to get 1,000 words written. When December arrived last year I had to find the headspace to acknowledge the festive season.

Writing a memoir has been a challenge, but one I’ve enjoyed and I can now say I’m feeling closer to the home stretch. The thing I’ve enjoyed about this project as opposed to my works of fiction is that I’ve not had to invent characters, work out a plot, or find the twists, turns and curve balls. Everything I’m writing about happened; I couldn’t make it up if I tried!

It was during this project that I decided now was the time to start blogging and as a regular reader of Starts at 60, why not here?! I’ve enjoyed reading the personal stories of other over-60s and I thought why not share the memorable moments and crazy anecdotes that go to making up my life?!

From my time spent living in the windy capital of New Zealand to my husband and I moving to south-east Queensland to settle, there are many stories for me to share. I can’t wait, and I have the Starts at 60 community to thank for getting me started on this new journey!

Do you have a story to share with Starts at 60? We want to publish it. Sign up as a contributor and submit your stories to Starts at 60. Stories written by over-60s go into the draw for some great weekly prizes. You can also join the Starts at 60 Bloggers Club on Facebook to talk to other writers in the Starts at 60 community and learn more about how to write for Starts at 60.