Just a little public service announcement here to report a couple of life updates: namely that I’m back in the UK, that I’ve finished with my au pair job in Germany, and that I’ve decided now to take some time off to focus on my book and my writing.

Yep, this is really happening.

I have to admit that I love telling people that I want to be a writer, and I rather narcissistically take great pride in telling people that I’ve written a book. I’ve gone from the girl writing in secret for three years, to the girl telling anybody and everybody that she’s a writer and that she’s determined to publish her first book. But I suppose there’s only so much telling you can do before you have to be ready to show something for it. So, typical me with all of my fairy dreams and ambitions, I thought it was about time to make good with all of my resolutions and to dedicate all of my time and energies to that thing I keep talking about.

I understand that part of the job of being a writer is to balance your writing with the rest of your life because there are only a lucky few who manage to do it full-time and get paid for it (can you imagine!), and I feel like I’ve done a pretty good job of juggling everything up to now. However, in this chapter of my life, when I have the time and no concrete future plans, it makes perfect sense to me to take the risk and to throw everything I have at my writing. Or, at least, I hope it does.

And what will come of it we will have to see. I’m suspecting stress, a severe lack of money and a good case of insanity, but I’ll be damned if I don’t at least try. And, of course, I’ll be recording the whole thing here on my blog, so you will all be updated with my imminent failures. And I suspect too that my blog will suddenly become a hub of activity as I procrastinate by any means possible, so look forward to that too.

So here’s to old stories and new beginnings, 114,000 words to edit, and the chance of a lifetime to make something out of the thing I love the most.

Wish me luck!