I Have Returned!!!

It seems like all my blog posts in recent months have involved me apologising and this post is no exception. I made a few vague hints in my last few posts regarding Germany and au pairing. If you follow me on Twitter you would have seen me mention it a lot.

The short story was that I was all set to go to Hamburg, Germany, leaving behind my family here in little old England and settle in to a new family and look after kids and other nanny-ish things. The weeks leading up to the move were hectic, so hectic that I just didn’t have time to post. I was grabbing up all the time with family and friends that I could while simultaneously working out how to fit 23 years of my life in to a suitcase or two (I can’t travel light, I try but it doesn’t work). Anyway, once I got to Hamburg (beautiful city by the way) things went a little pear-shaped. The family was pleasant enough, the area that they lived in beautiful, Hamburg was nice. Still I couldn’t shake this feeling of wrong-ness, the sensation that I shouldn’t be there. It got worse and worse until finally, the day that I was supposed to move in to the family’s home I couldn’t take it any more and begged my parents to take me home.

So I came back after many apologies to the family and it’s back to the drawing board for my life and finding work. I don’t regret coming home though as you might think. I don’t regret following my gut, I don’t regret deciding not to stay, I don’t regret leaving the family. I do however, regret that the family went to so much trouble and I turn around and leave them in the lurch. I do regret that I couldn’t stay, simply because I wish I could have lived in a different country. It’s a strange feeling but with a history of depression and a tendency to over-analyse and get stuck in my head I didn’t want to risk ignoring my instincts and ending up a hospitalised mess.

And yes, that is indeed the short story. The longer version involves a lot more crying, snot and Currywurst (which is absolutely delicious and I wish I could have one right now). For now I’m trying to get back on all the horses, including blogging and hopefully soon I’ll get back in that saddle and start posting more regularly. Until then I’ll keep trying to find my groove. Catch you next time.

A Slight Addiction

Hello again my lovelies. Sorry for the long absence. 

I will admit that I developed a teeny tiny addiction to something and it took a lot of my attention away. And I mean a lot! When I’ve not been working on my freelance writing I’ve usually been indulging in this new addiction. I think I have it under control though so there’s no need to worry.

‘What am I addicted to?’ you might ask and well you should.

I am now slightly addicted to Minecraft and the videos on Youtube that go with it. I’ve recently started playing it although my laptop isn’t really able to handle the heat running the program generates. That’s something I mean to fix at some point. Anyhow, I’ve been playing Minecraft and watching various videos online and I have to say I really am impressed. It’s addictive sure but the creative possibilities are endless when you’re playing and I really enjoy it. I’m thinking of possibly doing videos of my own at some point but right now that’s just a thought in the back of my hand. I haven’t got a good enough computer for that and no microphone so voiceover would be really rubbish. It’s something that I do want to do eventually though so watch this space. In the meantime I think I may post a few images and entries about my adventures in Minecraft here. If I finally get around to having any that is.

In other news I have been getting organised. I know a while ago I mentioned that I would be going to Germany for a while. Well that’s all sorted and it is now definitely happening. As of the 29^th of July I will be on a plane and heading to Hamburg. Once there I will be looking after twins and learning German for a year. You can probably expect many blog posts about it... if I remember or have the time. As the date for leaving is getting closer and closer I’ve been sorting things out, primarily all of my story notes. I’ve been making sure that they are all in just one of the many notebooks I have and I’ve been narrowing down which notebooks I will take. It took a while and I ended up making a list (I’ve said before, I like lists!) and it turns out that I have roughly 52 stories in the works at various stages of completion. That’s not including the RaT stories or a monthly genre stretch idea that I get from a website. There are all different types too! Some are short stories, some are novellas and some are full length novels. There’s something from most genres there and for several different markets. When I finally get going I go BIG!
Making that list though has helped me realise that if I can get at least some of these novels and shorts finished I’d have a pretty good starting point to start selling books and I wouldn’t have huge gaps between releases. Now I just need to finish the darn things and get them edited.

You may have noticed that the blog has changed a little. I like to mix things up once a month and for once, rather than trying to make the blog look like it reflects me as a person I went for something simple and muted. I can change it but for now it’s something quite pleasant to look at while I try and figure out exactly how I want the blog to look. There’s no point shoving something up that I’m not happy with and looks ugly when there are plenty of reasonably attractive templates that I can use in the meantime. So for now I’m going with this template, something nice and plain and pleasant.

Let me know your thoughts on how it looks.