Wow. Pretty sure we didn't have a Stella Rimmington on our little street when I was a child, but we were always looking for mysteries, fired up by Enid Blyton.
Love this 'truth is stranger than fiction' round-up, Francesca. The telling off that inadvertently led to future job where you met your husband is encouraging. You just never can tell where blunt honesty can lead!
Meeting Ian via my lonely hearts ad in 1986 and us having triplets by the end of the year was wild. I don't think I'll ever top that for unlikely outcomes!
Enjoyed this, Francesca! Coincidences and weird karmic moments are poignant - premonitions; old friends/foes we cross paths with; places where we feel a sense of déjà vu; random characters or situations that transform our lives. The way our lives unfold - it's so mysterious at times!
Exactly! Thank you so much, and thank you for the mention in your post. I think noting all the weirdness is a much more entertaining way to live than not noting too…
Loved this so much, Francesca, and I can relate to that intense feeling of being subject to Fate’s whims in my teens and twenties.
I think clairvoyants/mediums are often more effective than therapists and better value to boot, even though ostensibly I don’t believe they can really see the future. But I went to see a tarot reader after a break up, when I was in my twenties, and so far most of what she saw has come true, and it’s only one thing that hasn’t, not quite, but 🤞🏻
Really enjoyed this - my first job was also in Wapping! And Diana Wynne Jones was your godmother? That blows my mind. She is one of my all-time favourite writers - Charmed Life is a masterpiece. Howl's Moving Castle....so so good xX
Thank you! Agh that Wapping office… Yes Diana was great, and I loved both those books too... The Skivers Guide was another favourite, but nobody seems to know that one x
Haha yes you and Ian’s story really does belong in a film - though it would actually be OTT, as I’m sure people are always telling you! And you’re right it’s so odd how you don’t know what will cause what…
Loved this. My strangest/best story is that Tom and I were at the same wedding in California in 2018 and he gave a speech but we didn't meet/talk. Then a year later we were both in the same bar in Mallorca, just by chance, and we started chatting because we recognised each other from the wedding. Got married exactly a year after that. I like to think the universe gave us a second chance <3
No way! Thats full Sliding Doors! I like to imagine your two angels calling crisis talks after the wedding they were sure would seal the deal didn’t work…
I mean it barely counts but this did land in my inbox days after I rescued my two favourites of your Godmother's books from my mother-in-law's garage and started reading on of them to my daughter.
I do though share the writer's hex, perhaps the most notable example was writing a film where the characters triggered a banking crisis. We started in 2003 with people dismissing the idea as fantasy and ended up racing to finish a draft in 2009, writing riot scenes that would then play out on the news that evening. Towards the end, a friend had a birthday in East London and on the way home we walked directly into a protest we'd written that morning. Of course that draft, the 10th, was dismissed as "a bit of a knee jerk response".
Oh no that definitely counts! What uncanny timing! Either the hex was active or either you or your co-writer are psychic? So frustrating when it works against you though. When Covid happened Apple dropped my quarantine novel as ‘nobody would want to read about that any more’. Very glad to hear you were a DWJ fan, I loved her books too.
Wow. Pretty sure we didn't have a Stella Rimmington on our little street when I was a child, but we were always looking for mysteries, fired up by Enid Blyton.
Love this 'truth is stranger than fiction' round-up, Francesca. The telling off that inadvertently led to future job where you met your husband is encouraging. You just never can tell where blunt honesty can lead!
Meeting Ian via my lonely hearts ad in 1986 and us having triplets by the end of the year was wild. I don't think I'll ever top that for unlikely outcomes!
Enjoyed this, Francesca! Coincidences and weird karmic moments are poignant - premonitions; old friends/foes we cross paths with; places where we feel a sense of déjà vu; random characters or situations that transform our lives. The way our lives unfold - it's so mysterious at times!
Exactly! Thank you so much, and thank you for the mention in your post. I think noting all the weirdness is a much more entertaining way to live than not noting too…
Loved this so much, Francesca, and I can relate to that intense feeling of being subject to Fate’s whims in my teens and twenties.
I think clairvoyants/mediums are often more effective than therapists and better value to boot, even though ostensibly I don’t believe they can really see the future. But I went to see a tarot reader after a break up, when I was in my twenties, and so far most of what she saw has come true, and it’s only one thing that hasn’t, not quite, but 🤞🏻
Thank you! Yes I know what you mean about clairvoyants over therapists. Same intense focus on you, but much more fun!
Really enjoyed this - my first job was also in Wapping! And Diana Wynne Jones was your godmother? That blows my mind. She is one of my all-time favourite writers - Charmed Life is a masterpiece. Howl's Moving Castle....so so good xX
Thank you! Agh that Wapping office… Yes Diana was great, and I loved both those books too... The Skivers Guide was another favourite, but nobody seems to know that one x
Oh man, the last leg of that Wapping journey… 🫣
Haha yes you and Ian’s story really does belong in a film - though it would actually be OTT, as I’m sure people are always telling you! And you’re right it’s so odd how you don’t know what will cause what…
Loved this. My strangest/best story is that Tom and I were at the same wedding in California in 2018 and he gave a speech but we didn't meet/talk. Then a year later we were both in the same bar in Mallorca, just by chance, and we started chatting because we recognised each other from the wedding. Got married exactly a year after that. I like to think the universe gave us a second chance <3
No way! Thats full Sliding Doors! I like to imagine your two angels calling crisis talks after the wedding they were sure would seal the deal didn’t work…
I MAY have taken mushrooms at the wedding and was otherwise engaged lol. It was California!
I mean it barely counts but this did land in my inbox days after I rescued my two favourites of your Godmother's books from my mother-in-law's garage and started reading on of them to my daughter.
I do though share the writer's hex, perhaps the most notable example was writing a film where the characters triggered a banking crisis. We started in 2003 with people dismissing the idea as fantasy and ended up racing to finish a draft in 2009, writing riot scenes that would then play out on the news that evening. Towards the end, a friend had a birthday in East London and on the way home we walked directly into a protest we'd written that morning. Of course that draft, the 10th, was dismissed as "a bit of a knee jerk response".
Oh no that definitely counts! What uncanny timing! Either the hex was active or either you or your co-writer are psychic? So frustrating when it works against you though. When Covid happened Apple dropped my quarantine novel as ‘nobody would want to read about that any more’. Very glad to hear you were a DWJ fan, I loved her books too.