Well! it’s like this – I didn’t find any competitions which fitted my purpose to enter.

So instead I concentrated on marketing my book How to be a SuperAger.  Copies were sent to newspaper columnists who had written about the delights and difficulties of growing older.  Copies were also sent to TV presenters and it is good to be able to record here that Lorraine Kelly of daytime TV took time to send a reply.  Thank you Lorraine, it was really appreciated.

The editor of my local newspaper has also replied, so thank you.

Meanwhile a completely different and terrible subject has been at the forefront of news items; the senseless, mindless murders committed by teenagers on teenagers.  I am sure that it is not only in my generation of older people where dismay is felt.  The horror and fear must be affecting all generations but especially impacting young black children.

In my area we have a growing number of young black people and my experience with them is that they are thoughtful, polite and far removed from the distressing profile portrayed by the constant news items of mayhem and murder.

If you know how to help – please do reply.

With love.  Angela

 

Does life start at fifty?  there is not a one size fits all argument to back this idea; but there are some generalities.  Actually, what starts at fifty is the next stage of your life which hopefully has gathered some wisdom from your first half century life events.  If you have reached the Big 50 you are breathing and alive and reading this blog.  that is a good start!

Try this – first give yourself a goal or dream – a useful starting point so that you don’t just drift; unless of course you want to just drift with a little sitting down and a folding of the hands as you gently sigh into a comfy armchair.  But be aware – any wishful thinking may only produce regrets.

It is your mind set that helps you to create this new stage of life, that allows you to go beyond yourself and live out the challenges that this stage in life can bring.

Are you gnashing your teeth and snarling at this blog while thinking that I don’t understand your circumstances?  so true – I don’t.  However my fifties started with no money, as in, there was no money, none at all, no coins down the back of the settee and there was an eviction notice sitting on the table.

And even as I type,this article is being produced in a rental house just two doors away from my own house.  A fire which began next door decimated my home and its contents.  But I am alive and importantly have continued to breathe!

Every stage of life has the potential to create challenges.  and if you are breathing – halleluiah! get going on that goal or dream and enjoy the challenge.

Love  Angela  #superager

Have you noticed my blog hasn’t appeared for a little while?  If you have noticed then it means you read my blog posts!  That feels like encouragement on this lovely windy but sunny day.

However I need to tell you about another source of encouragement – my granddaughter who at age 24 continually sets herself new challenges.  Not so long ago she went to Sierra Leone to run a half marathon raising funds for a charity involved with children’s work.

Now she is trying to find ways to go back to Sierra Leone to work alongside a local children’s charity.

Meanwhile my granddaughter is going on a surf and skateboard holiday – she has never done either of these activities – ;Just a new challenge to stretch herself.’  This delightful young lady has started cycling from her home in Palmers Green to her office in London; a distance of 24k.

The fire on Mothers Day that ruined my home at times feels like challenge enough.  A more exciting challenge has been the publishing of my first book this year ‘How to be a SuperAger’.  ‘Marketing’ is proving to be a new learning curve and at times feels daunting.

SO! an enthusiastic granddaughter taking on new challenging experiences is just the tonic I needed and reminded me of the theme of my book written for third agers ‘Whatever problems life presents, if a new challenge is accepted, a purposeful new life adventure begins.’

Surfing might be beyond me for sure but I can write.  In collusion with my granddaughter I have committed to enter two writing competitions a month.

Watch this space!!

Have a good day.  Angela

 

How you talk to yourself matters!

Many years ago, as a young army nurse, I worked alongside Doctor Roger Bannister, the 4 minute mile athlete.  He succeeded because he told himself that he could!  After missing out on a medal in the 1952 Olympics he told himself that he could succeed and of course put in the necessary training.  He removed the mental barriers and made the impossible, possible.

So far this year has been  surreal.  first a fire starting in the house next door quickly decimated my home –  on Mothers Day of all days!  Publishing day for my book How To Be A SuperAger was only three weeks away.

While living in a rental house nearby  the postman delivers payment demands.  Mainly for electricity/water use estimates.  And, YES, I had informed them of the fire.  Did anyone take notice?  I leave you to guess as I send out the latest letters to say there is no electricity supply, no water supply.  URGH!

The local council did no better sending out reminders for a bill I did not owe – even issuing a court summons.  Getting in touch with my MP plus some strongly worded emails saw the summons rescinded.

And just in case boredom should set in, a routine mammogram indicated need for a biopsy, which led to a breast cancer diagnosis, a lumpectomy, and a Thank You God moment with the good news that all the cancer was removed.  There will just be the follow up radio therapy etc. There has been dignified positive support from my family and friends.

Like Roger Bannister it matters how I talk to myself. ‘Oh dear the house wont be habitable until the end of November’ changed to ‘By the end of November I will be home’ and I smiled.

Post operative tiredness and worry produced unwanted reminders as I repeatedly told myself how tired/worried/sick I felt. Do you see the pattern?  I was reminding myself negatively instead of affirming the positives.  Like Roger Bannister it was about removing the mental barriers.  Talking differently to myself made a huge difference ‘Thank you’ punctuated my reminders   ‘Thank you the cancer was found early.  Thank you for my amazing family.  Thank you for the friend who drove me to all the hospital visits.  Thank you that I experienced the National Health service at its best.  Thank you to God who provided all the above!  Changing my thinking put a smile on my face – even when I am tired.

It is so easy to put limits on ourselves that don’t have to be true.  Look again at the back cover blurb of my book How To Be A SuperAger – ‘If a new challenge is accepted a purposeful new life adventure begins.

With love     Angela

 

Are you thinking I have lost the plot, that I am doing something other that writing – or – what kind of experiment???

First I have to let you in on a kind of secret – without my son’s help I can’t do blogs – I can write them, and of course those are the blogs you have been reading.  BUT – and its a big BUT I just cant get the hang of ‘how to‘; I am sure you know what is meant by that!

Just at the time there is some exciting news for you to share my son is at work in America; so he is quite unavailable to guide me through the intricacies of actually getting the word out there.  And I did think it was high time I got to grips with the process myself.

Then I noticed on the top corner of the blog page is the word ‘write‘ so, In anticipation that it means my blog will appear on the website – here goes…

Maybe you have heard of the women’s magazine, ‘The Peoples Friend‘?  Following a telephone interview just last week an article, gleaned from my book, ‘How to be a SuperAger’ is going to be published in The Peoples Friend issue dated 27th June.

On the same date, 27th June, my book, ‘How to be a SuperAger‘ will feature on the blog site of The Peoples Friend.  I found the site simply by googling the magazine’s name.  their blog site looks lively, interesting and punchy, well worth having a look.

If my son was guiding me through this blog he would show me how to guide you directly from this blog to The Peoples Friend blog – but I think that between you and me we can negotiate our way around.

So, happy searching and get down to your local newsagent on 27th June to buy your copy of The Peoples Friend.  Then do remember to enjoy searching their blog site.  Any comments you have can be posted on my website, Angela Lucas Writer.

Bye for now and catch up with you soon.  Angela

This sunny day is May 7^th, almost one month since launch day of my book,  ‘How To Be A SuperAger’ and almost two months since ‘that’ fire.  If you have read my previous blogs you will know that on Mother’s Day of all days my home and sanctuary was made uninhabitable by a fire which spread from the house next door.

The local newspaper unglamorously described me as old and frail!  ‘Old’ I own up to, there is nothing I can do about that; but ‘frail’? Had they got the right person?  I don’t think so.  A friend contacted the newspaper editor to declare ‘’She won’t survive, she will thrive’

Now I have to make that ring true.  If you have read my book you already know that I used my hiking experience, on the ancient pilgrimage route of Camino de Santiago in the Spanish Galician mountains, as a mirror reflecting the getting older process.

So, I have chosen to make the coming 7-9 months a pilgrimage.  Really?  Yes.  While temporarily living in a rental house and trying to come to terms with the loss of so many things – including my brain sometimes! there emerges a new ‘Camino’ often of the sticky mud type, out of which a new adventure, and hopefully a new book will emerge.  A daily journal marks the good and the bad days etc.  The back cover of the current book carries these words ‘…whatever problems life presents, if a new challenge is accepted, a purposeful new life adventure begins.’

This is where you can be involved.  You can be part of my new challenge – and the embryonic new book.  A title will be needed and your help would be a delight.  Send me your suggestions and if your proposal is used you will receive a signed copy of the new book.  To submit your suggestions for a title use the ‘contact me‘ section on my website ‘Angela Lucas writer’.  I am already getting excited in anticipation of hearing from you.  Thank you so much for being part of my new pilgrimage.

(Just between you and me – my publisher, Panoma Press, doesn’t know about this book yet – perhaps you can tell your friends and kin folk that they can buy the current book on Amazon – looking ahead it would make an excellent Christmas present!)

With love     Angela

The day that I wrote this post was an oxymoron!

It is about the bitter sweetness of moving away from my temporary, but safe, home at a Premier Inn hotel for six weeks and into a rental house just next door but one from my own home which was damaged by fire.

The rental house will be furnished courtesy of the insurance company and it will be time to adjust to the unfamiliarity of it all.

But, dear reader, you have not been forgotten amidst the chaos; and copies of THE book are piled up in my hotel room.

The picture here is of my publisher, Mindy Gibbins Klein holding my book at the book launch in London?  Mindy’s company, Panoma Press, has been so supportive and encouraging and, I think, are as pleased with the book as I am.

Oh dear!  Reading back I realise THE book is mentioned but which book you may ask.

It is ‘How to be a Superager’ : Living Life to the Max in your 50s, 60s and beyond.

Hopefully you already have a copy, have been delighted with it and are ordering more copies as Christmas presents for your family and friends!

Have a good day

Love

Angela

 

Monday 2 April 2018, and the launch day for my book is a tantalising ten days away.  Already it has its place on Amazon ready to collect pre-orders.  A hundred marketing post cards have arrived at the Premier Inn heralding the soon to be arrival of one hundred books!

Yes, you read that right – ‘Premier Inn!’  So you are wondering why?  Have I gone there to celebrate in advance with mega excitement and dozens of friends and bottles of Prosecco?

NO!

Three weeks ago, on Mothers Day of all days, a fire which began next door engulfed my home, with its contents, in thick acid filled smoke.  Not the kind of smoke which can be washed off or covered with paint, but the kind that rapidly eats into the fabric of everything it lands on.

My home, with all its memories and yes, including the hours of sitting in the study typing my book, was destroyed.

If you read my first blog you will have seen mention of black sticky mud – well, this Mothers Day I encountered the deepest stretch of black sticky mud – and I needed rescuing.

‘Rescuing’ came in many forms; practical help and tremendous kindness from my family and friends – and, THE BOOK!

Excitement might not be the right word to use here; the shock factor ate into my brain turning it into dull mush, while my arms and legs didn’t seem to have any power to hold even a cup of coffee much less a consignment of books.

So ‘excitement’ is being renamed and called ‘determination.’  I even re-read my book to remind myself of the value of the later life years!

It is the excitement of others which helps to keep the momentum going.  The buzz of words surround me ‘When is your book being launched?’ and even ‘You must be so excited.’

So I am trying to extricate my brain from its mushy state with reminders that this moment in time is meant to be exciting and to remember the words of wisdom that I wrote (really?) for the back page blurb ‘…whatever problems life presents, if a new challenge is accepted, a purposeful new life adventure begins.’

So dear reader, YOU CAN JOIN IN, get motivated, be excited and dig deep into a marvellous sense of purpose to make your third age years, with all of its challenges and complexities, and even beyond into a delightful reality.

And you can learn more from my book from 12^th April 2018 onward. But you can preorder it now at Amazon.

With love

Angela

Welcome to my blog post – the first one I have to add and hopefully you are keen to find out just what my book, How to be a SuperAger, is about.  Here are a few clues.

The book was birthed in the Galician mountain range of northern Spain as, with my daughter, I hiked 100 km of the ancient pilgrimage route, Camino de Santiago.

The route, mainly uphill, took in amazing scenery, sticky mud, lush forests, more sticky mud, albergues (dormitory hostels) conversations with other peregrinos (pilgrims) and yet more sticky mud with occasional advice about how to avoid said mud!  I mention the mud because early on in my hike I slipped and fell headlong into the stuff damaging both my hip and my pride.  A tall, lanky, good looking young Australian man just happened to come along at the right moment and rescued me.

Keeping my opinions to myself at that point I reflected that the journey mirrored the ‘pilgrimage’ of getting older; the challenges of limbs that ached, of losing vital independence, of cataracts, boxfuls of pills and a strange loss of identity while also ruminating and wondering what life has been all about.

But intriguingly it wasn’t just about the above mentioned losses – there was also a sense of excitement along the trail as rumours spread of ‘the old lady who is 82’ – and yes, that ‘old’ lady was me!  Such fun and delight on discovering that in my later life others found encouragement and sense of purpose in my journey.  In fact, dear reader, I had a reason for being, a reason to breathe the air around me.  There was value in the years of my life that could add value and purpose into the lives of others around me.

Arriving in Santiago at the end of my pilgrimage, I jumped and waved with exhilaration – I had done it. Oh my goodness indeed; I had accomplished something very special that made me ponder just how much those kilometres mirrored the mystery and journey of getting older.

And so my book was born!

Inside its covers you can discover ways to give added value to your later years, to make them meaningful not only for yourself but for all those others around you.  You can discover how your third age and beyond can be the start of a whole new adventure.

And here’s what some readers have been good enough to say …

This book is truly inspirational and full of optimism giving clear challenging advice for those struggling with the ageing process. (Paula Whittle, Education and leadership consultant)

This inspirational, practical book is a delight for those over 50 who feel their life adventure is over when in fact it has not yet begun. (Elva Ainsworth, Author and business leader)

Look for it on Amazon, for example. And look back at this blog for links as they become available.

With love

Angela