Creativity in retirement
Scarlett and her husband Dave are 57 and have been retired from the public service for two years. While Dave pursues his dream of starting a new career as an artist, Scarlett pursues her dream of starting a new career as a romance writer.
"So far, I have had several short stories published in print for various magazines and have earned a bit of money," says Scarlett, "but the online market is where most writers ‘live’ and they publish for the love of it rather than for financial reward and the whole idea of writing for free -- on or off the Net -- just doesn't appeal to me at all. I am a published writer and believe that I have a right to get paid for my work."
"I appreciate that unread words are dead words -- that literature needs readers, and plenty of them, to bring it alive," says Scarlett, "but I'm having a great deal of trouble getting my head around the fact that in order to get read on the Internet these days you have to virtually 'give' your work away to people who will invariably plagiarize it -- if not in English then Mandarin or Hindi!"
"When I look at Dave happily dabbling in canvas and oil paints," sighs Scarlett, "I think about Mrs Worthington."
"I don't think the stage is half as depressing as the writing market," says Scarlett, "so if I had a daughter I'd be encouraging her to become an actor not a writer!"
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