Do you have a dream?

Elaine is looking at our dreams and ambitions ahead of the publication of her novel The West End  Girls on Thursday.

The novel is set in World War One London. The main character, Annie, in The West End Girls had a childhood dream, that wouldn’t go away, but it didn’t match what her parents wanted for her. Annie had to decide how far she would go for it. As they say nothing comes for free. She needed the support of her friends, and a wake up call, to give her the push she needed to move forward with it.

Dreams and ambitions come in many forms; they can be for you, your family, and friends or for the people of the world.

Do you have a dream? Can you share what would motivate you to try to achieve it? Can you tell people what it is? Are there people in your life that would support you if they knew about it? That support may not be directly helping with your ambition, it might be to do the ironing or other tasks to free up your time. Is it something you can put the building blocks in place for when you’re ready to take the risk of going for it?

My ambition for as long as I can remember was to write, but life got in the way of it that is until about ten years ago. I was in my fifties then and I suddenly realised that time was running away from me. So with the support of my family I started to attend classes to learn, that was in 2012.

I also watch a poet on YouTube, Prince Ea. His poem, Everybody Dies But Not Everybody Lives, struck a very powerful cord within me and I would definitely recommend listening to it. I will add the link at the bottom of the post. I haven’t listened to all his posts so I’m only talking about this particularly poem. It made me realise I don’t want to be a ‘Kinda’ person; which is what he talks about. I wanted to at least try to achieve my dream so whenever I got down I listened to the poem again and received the much-needed boost.

Reaching your dream can be a wonderful thing, a massive feeling of achievement, but sometimes it’s not always as we imagined it would be. It took me six years to achieve my dream, it was a compromise on my original one but I’m more than happy with it.

Good luck with whatever you wish to do in life, just make sure you live it.

You Tube: Prince Ea – Everybody Dies But Not Everybody Lives

Amazon: The West End Girls

Growing up on a farm in the country, Annie Cradwell has always dreamt of singing on stage. So when she hears her friend Joyce has a room to spare in London, she sets off with best friend Rose for an adventure beyond anything they could have imagined. 

In London, Annie and Rose stumble into jobs at the Lyceum Theatre. Being a dresser to capricious star Kitty Smythe wasn’t exactly what Annie had in mind. But then the musical director, Matthew Harris, offers her singing lessons. And Annie starts to wonder – could this be her chance? Or is it all too good to be true? 

With the threat of war in the air, everything is uncertain. Is there a place for hopes and dreams when so much is at stake? 

Annie, Rose and Joyce are three girls with very different dreams – but the same great friendship. 

Elaine’s New Photo

Author Bio

Elaine Roberts had a dream to write for a living. She completed her first novel in her twenties and received her first very nice rejection. Life then got in the way again until she picked it up again in 2010. She joined a creative writing class, The Write Place, in 2012 and shortly afterwards had her first short story published. Elaine is very proud of The Foyles Bookshop Girls saga trilogy, which her late husband encouraged her to write. She, and her extended family, live in and around Dartford, Kent and her home is always busy with children, grandchildren, grand dogs and cats visiting.