Travelling

 

I’m writing this blog at Schiphol Airport, in the Netherlands. That’s also my excuse if my grammar is...different! I went to the Netherlands for a very short weekend as it was my mum’s birthday celebration Saturday.

It also happened to be a weekend filled with book reviews and blogs, so great planning... I had a late afternoon flight Friday. Balancing passport, boarding pass, bag, coat... It made me wonder how we ever manage to fly places with four kids! Somehow, I thought, as I was waiting in line, being responsible for others makes you more competent. As if you have to be on your toes all the time, whereas travelling by yourself doesn’t seem to hold as many responsibilities and therefore it all gets more difficult. Glancing around at my fellow travellers, I wondered who would make an interesting character in a story. Most people looked slightly shell-shocked, simply following where others walked, like me, I realised, picking my coat off the floor again.

It made me think about my writing about travelling characters. Getting from one place to another can be stressful. What kind of travellers are your characters? Staying at my sister’s, we were talking about this. Always a few minutes late? Needing reminders? Or are your characters the type to travel light as well as fast? What would your character do if something on their journey doesn’t go to plan? Would they ask for help? We talked about family members that might not ask to check, as they didn’t want to look silly, to then simply sit on the wrong train.

Travelling is tiring as well as exciting. One warning, never use flying as a quick option. With my brother, we speculated that there is probably a secret tunnel between the Netherlands and England, for by the time you get to the right gate, you’re practically there. So my flight was most likely from Rotterdam to Amsterdam, rather than Bristol to Schiphol! Being the kind of traveller that likes to make sure I’m on time, means hanging around a lot as well. By the time you’re through and into the plane, I could have driven to Calais already.

Setting up a laptop doesn’t take long, but I still struggled to do so, as there is so much to see in an airport. Different voices, different shoes and how long will that lady be able to keep her complicated-looking hairstyle together? And there are doors. Lots and lots of little secret doors all around the airport. I keep telling myself that these will most likely lead to boring little office spaces or connecting corridors. Again, if I had been travelling with my kids, I wouldn’t have dreamt of opening or even touching those doors, as I would have been far too busy stopping my kids from doing so. Maybe travelling with kids does make me much more of a grownup. Hopefully, I will look responsible enough at the checking to be allowed to keep my bag with me on the plane.

Maressa Mortimer is Dutch but lives in the beautiful Cotswolds, England with her husband and four (adopted) children. Maressa is a homeschool mum as well as a pastor’s wife, so her writing has to be done in the evening when peace and quiet descend on the house once more. She loves writing Christian fiction, as it’s a great way to explore faith in daily life. Because of her interest in writing, Maressa is part of Creativity Matters: Find Your Passion For Writing, an anthology encouraging people to write.

Her debut novel, Sapphire Beach, was published in December 2019, and her first self published novel, Walled City, came out in December 2020, followed by Viking Ferry, a novella. Beyond the Hills is the second book in the Elabi Chronicles, and was released in 2021, followed by stand-alone novel Burrowed, released in 2022. All of Maressa’s books are available from her website, www.vicarioushome.com, Amazon or local bookshops.