I began writing in the ‘70s, and my first book, The Witchstone, was picked up by a traditional publisher the same year my oldest son was born.
Parenthood kept me busy until ‘84, when I wrote The Ring of the Dark Elves, a retelling of the Norse legend of Sigurd Fafnirsbane. I wrote mostly short stories until starting on my dystopian trilogy Children in Hiding, and published two books of short stories after that.
Writing While Parenting Helped Keep Me Sane!
My goals in writing have been writing to stay sane, to have something else to think about when times were hard, as they were occasionally during the 17 years I was a single parent.
The biggest emotional challenge during those years was not being taken seriously as a writer or an intelligent person. A single mother with two small children faced many obstacles during those years, and still does, I am sure. I didn’t even attempt to find a traditional publisher for The Ring, but published it as POD. I plan to make it into an ebook before too long.
My Years as a Nurse Hurt My Back—So I Use a Standing Desk
I used to walk every day for exercise while the children were in school. That became more difficult when I started working odd hours as a nurse, but I managed to get a walk in before I picked them up from daycare.
After 14 years as a rehabilitation nurse, hefting patients from beds to wheelchair and back, I injured my back. So I switched to home health, taking care of children who needed medical supervision. After that I became a telephone nurse for eight years, which involved sitting for long periods.
About then studies began to show that sitting was as dangerous as cigarette smoking, so our employer installed several standing desks. Strangely, few nurses wanted to use them, but I did. I also created a standing desk at home, which I still use.
I don’t walk as much anymore since I injured my hip a couple of years ago, but I enjoy doing the Hasfit senior exercises, both aerobic and weight training.
How I Lost 30 Pounds with Ease After Retiring
My most positive move has been to start intermittent fasting, following the protocols of Dr. Jason Fung, a Canadian nephrologist. I try to fast every other day, and have lost 30 lbs with ease since retiring.
Not only does fasting help with weight loss and avoiding diabetes, it resets the system to reduce the risk of dementia, strokes, heart attacks and other consequences of the standard American diet, which is slowly killing us all.
Good Friends Help a Writer Stay Healthy
In addition, I consider having good friends to be a major health factor.
I belong to a Bible study that meets weekly, and hang out with friends during the week. I take care of my disabled husband, who is actually pretty independent but does need help in the mornings; and sometimes of my grandson who is in preschool.
I try to write when I can, usually mornings once everyone is on their way.
Success for a Writer Depends on How You Define It
My greatest challenge currently is the lack of respect in which self published authors are held, although I can certainly see why. The surge in creativity is wonderful, but many people publish without taking basic steps such as editing or understanding grammar.
I try to support other authors as much as possible, and write reviews for books that I enjoy.
Success is how you define it. I will never be a best seller in the Times, but that’s not my goal. It now is to create something worth reading, so that the one or two people who need to read it will find it.
Advice for a Young Writer: Go For It, but Get a Job
If a young person wants to become a writer, I would say go for it. Read and write every day. But get a job as a nurse, electrician, plumber or horse trainer as well. We have plenty of writers, but we really need dedicated nurses and teachers.
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Victoria Randall’s father was a commercial artist, well known in the ‘50s for Bill Randall’s Datebook, a calendar that you could find hanging in every mechanics’ shop in the Midwest. Her two oldest sons are also artists, but sadly the artistic gene skipped a generation with Victoria.
She graduated from Oberlin College in ’66, having been told she would be a good writer if she quit writing about elves and fairies. (The Lord of the Rings, published a few years earlier, went on to sell 150 million copies, but it was just starting to become popular in the U.S.) After graduation she traveled, working as a waitress in Boston, a teacher in South Dakota, a social worker in Cleveland and Boulder, a post office clerk in San Francisco, a sign painter, a fabric sales clerk, a nurse’s aide in Oregon and then a registered nurse in Washington. In between travels she got married, had two children, the marriage failed, and she remarried again in ’93, to a Mexican immigrant who crossed the border in a wheelchair. She and her husband adopted two children and acquired a stepdaughter, and now live in Seattle.
For more information on Victoria, please see her website, or connect with her on Facebook. Her books are available on Amazon; her author site is here.
The Golden Helm: Twelve fantasy and sci-fi tales. If you wander long in the realms on the edge of sleep, you may begin to see strange visions. You may hear the lonely calling of the sea people, and catch the glint of a golden helm with the power to change the fate of kingdoms. You may hear the gibbering of a horde of monsters, lurking for unsuspecting travelers.
You may meet a strange rodent-like alien, who only wants to borrow your library card. You might see a tree with a single potent apple swelling on its branch, or a strange machine flickering in and out of time and reality. You might glimpse the horn of a unicorn piercing the mist. You might overhear the hours passing, soft footed, down the halls of eternity, or even hear the howling of a wolf with a terrible secret.
For readers who enjoy tales of magic and the imagination. Available at Amazon.
Shadowcat: There is a misty place between sleep and waking, where if you wander long, you may find yourself caught in a world of strangeness.
You may meet the irrepressible Shadowcat, recruiter for the Catmasters Guild, who use cats as weapons. You may hear of a colony of spacefarers who have vanished completely, or encounter a sandwich with a terrifying ultimatum, or meet the last known human being in the universe. You may find that the voice in your mind is not yours at all, or learn that time travel has its drawbacks.
Seven short stories set in the future, and on other worlds, and in this one, which is strange enough when you think about it. Available at Amazon.