How Endingen Mole? And What next?
I want to talk about how my writing journey that started, way back in 2012 or 2013.
At the time I was living and working in Switzerland. Our home village was Lengnau and just along the road was another village called Endingen.
One Sunday, we were out on a family walk and on Sundays in Switzerland it is polite to be as quiet as possible.
My beautiful Daughter Leyna, who was very young at the time, decided to have the biggest ever temper tantrum.
I think she woke all the neighbours and wildlife up. But fear not!!, Daddy to the rescue!!
I tried to distract here by pointing at a manhole cover that I knew was carrying water from the local streams.
We spoke about what Mrs Mole was doing, of course she was busy running Mr. Mole a lovely hot bath to soothe his aching paws after a very hard day of burrowing.
To my surprise this story calmed her down nicely, and the next day Callum, her older Brother, was asking me for stories when we were walking in Endingen, hence the name of our wee hero and some many of the book’s characters are based on the wildlife in this part of Switzerland!
I must have spent about two years writing the story before I self-published it through amazon. It was reviewed by Kirkus and received some really favourable words.
For the next few years, I had been totally engrossed in poetry writing and so my children’s book writing was put to one side.
Last year though, I started to think about a sequel and possibly a trilogy (you never know!) and very soon plotlines, characters new and old started to come quite quickly.
I have decided the book will be called “Bran – White Raven”
So here we are in 2025, and I have completed 6 full chapters, and so far, this is proving really enjoyable, apart from occasionally waking at very odd hours having to note down a plotline or two.
Over the coming weeks and months, I will be adding some teaser text and maybe a character bios to my blogs so that you can feel part of the journey with me.
Stay safe and happy!
Stephen’s Journey
As far back as I can remember I have always suffered from stress related illnesses, As a child growing up in the ’70s and ’80s I was quiet and shy, keeping myself to myself. Anxiety always got in the way of things I wanted to excel in and to make my mother proud.
I joined the RAF in 1985, and the sense of comradery and family meant I was always supported, grew in confidence and excelled in both my service and private live.
A messy break up with my then wife, and the subsequent battles to get access to see my son took its toll on me over many months, and years, and I reverted into the quiet, shy character of my youth.
I remarried and had three beautiful children, travelled the world, and saw more of my eldest son. All seemed rosy until my life totally changed in 2019 when my 27 year-old eldest son, Stephen took his own life.
I stood tall for months trying to support everyone dear to Stephen but then crashed. I am not proud that I turned to alcohol to drown out the pain, and this lead to the separation from my second wife.
I reached out to SoBS (Survivors of Bereavement by Suicide) who signposted me to support from SAMH (Scottish Action for Mental Health) and other organisations. I knew then that this would be a path I had promised Stephen I was destined to take; making sure I gave all of myself in the pursuit of supporting people who are suffering in their own headspaces.
I became a group volunteer for SoBS, and started to self-fund my own education to better understand mental health illnesses.
Poetry has been my biggest outlet for my pain, but also my healing. Today I am living with my beautiful partner Jennie in a small fisherman’s cottage in the North East of Scotland. I see all my children regularly and have a new job that I love. I am more involved than ever supporting my work colleagues and others in the community with talk therapy and signposting to organisations that make a really difference.
At 56 (nearly 57!) I have found peace with Stephen’s passing, although still find anniversaries, birthdays and holidays difficult, however I have learnt how to channel the negatives into positive remembering, celebrating his life and supporting other to give them
hope.
In about five years I hope to collate an anthology of all my poetry, charting my own personal journey, I’d like to think that through my poetry and life experiences the reader may connect and impart some solace and of course hope.
My message to anyone struggling is simple! Talk, reach out for support and keep going … brighter light WILL find you!