The first spark of the idea for The Dualista came in mid 2014, when I was on my way to London for a day of meetings. Running slightly late, I rushed onto the train and went to take my laptop out of my bag to finish off some prep for my first meeting. Inside, next to my wallet and make up and Macbook, I found a small rabbit. One of the Jellycat toys my daughter sleeps with, she must have stuffed it in there without me noticing before I left.
It crystallised a feeling I'd had since she was born (because I was back at my laptop, tiny baby tucked into my chest in a sling, working on the edits for my fourth novel three weeks after she was born) and it's one that I think all working mothers know well - the constant duality and tug between the two sides of our lives. Work versus home. Children versus career. Stylish or sensible. Heels or trainers. Responsibility versus freedom. The work call taken while bribing a small child to be quiet with cartoons and raisins. The foot jiggling a bouncer under the table while the hands type at a hundred miles an hour to finish a bit of work before the baby wakes. The left hand pushing a buggy while the right types out an email, single-thumbed. The gap that we try to bridge between the people we used to be and the ones we are now, the desire to hang on to that old self while wrapping our arms and hearts around the new one we have created.
Combining work and motherhood brings all of this duality to the forefront of one's mind, and that's the focus of this site. I'm fascinated by how other women make their working lives work around family, and I'll be talking to some of them to see how they balance it all out. I'll be posting relevant news or features from other writers that I find. And I'll be sharing the stuff that makes it work for me - products, outfits, tech, and more.
So while I'm looking at all this from the perspective of working mothers, there should be masses to interest women without children, and those of us who look after children full-time. After all, work and family aren't the only dualities contained within our lives, and plenty of us have tensions between warring elements that we must try to bed in happily alongside one another.
About Me
I'm Jess Ruston, a novelist, screenwriter and journalist and I live in Hove with my husband, who works in music, and our daughter, Lila, who was born in May 2012.
No comments:
Post a Comment