I’m going to start by saying I have had an absolutely incredible year!
My Life in General…

Having a cup of tea on the first morning of being in our new house!
It was only Christmas day last year (2014) that my husband and I landed in the UK, ready to start living and working here for the foreseeable future. Christmas day this year was the first year anniversary of this chapter of our lives. I’ve loved it all so far; there have been challenges, victories, changes and trials, but it does seem worth it. We knew that the first year would be one of the hardest – adjusting to a different lifestyle, different weather, different jobs… but we have achieved a lot – we found jobs in the incredible Lakes District area that offered accommodation to start with, got enough savings to buy a car, then eventually managed to rent a stunning maisonette that was fully furnished and right on the banks of a beautiful river!
So many people have helped us while we’ve adjusted and learnt about how life works in the UK; friends and family back in Australia who encouraged us to take the leap and wished us well; UK relatives who welcomed us into their home for the first few weeks while we tried to find our first jobs and accommodation; new friends made in the UK who are invaluable at translating slang and answering questions that must seem very odd and common-place to them… Thanks to everyone who made the start of our adventure possible and exciting!
My Writing Career…
I was so passionate about getting a book published this year. This was the year that I was FINALLY going to do it. I was going to get my butt in gear and make it happen.
I guess it was probably a bit much to expect myself to figure out the learning curve of self-publishing and everything else that comes with that goal, on top of starting a new life in a different country.
However, having said that, I did get closer to making it a reality than I ever have in the past. In November, I sent my manuscript for The Unfinished Prophecy mini-series off to be professionally edited, a first for me. It was a confidence-booster, definitely! I was so nervous about sending my work to a stranger to be picked over. I couldn’t help thinking what if they say it’s absolute garbage? They didn’t (thank goodness!), in fact they said it had a pretty solid story arc and not much need to be changed – it was mostly grammatical fixes. Big sigh of relief there! Since I’ve gotten it back, I’ve been going over the suggested changes, most of which are really good points.
All in all, I’m glad I took the deep breath and clicked send on that email! The finished product will definitely be better for it.
In other writing-related news for 2015, there is obviously my 500-word-story-starter challenge that I set for myself earlier in December. It’s been going well so far and I’ve really been enjoying getting the 500 words down every day. Some days it’s a struggle to get the words on the screen when I’m really tired or if I’m sick as I have been for the past few days. It saps the energy from me and all I want to do is curl up in bed and sleep (but I can’t do that either because my runny nose or cough keeps me awake all night…). I’ve stuck to it though and I’m quite proud of the progress I’ve made so far. I know it’s only Day 14 today, but still, I think that’s better stats than most of the NaNoWriMo’s I’ve done… 😀
I’ve also got myself an author logo – the griffin in the circle you can see on my home page. I love it! I was trying to think about what sort of branding I should have as an author and stumbled across this… had to have it! Probably not the most necessary thing for my writing career, but anyway…
Plans for 2016…
I want 2016 to be my best year ever. I want to kick ass and achieve my goals. I want to be able to say at the end of the year “I’m a successfully published author.” It would be nice if I could also say “I’m a successful author with several bestsellers…” 😉
In 2016, I would like:
- to publish The Unfinished Prophecy mini-series
- to write and publish another series
- to continue successfully writing my 500-word-story-starters and complete the challenge
- to begin making enough money off my writing that my husband can take part-time work
- to begin growing my reader following and mailing list
- to enjoy the adventure that is living and working in the UK
- to be grateful every day that I am alive, healthy and have the opportunities that I do!
This year was awesome. 2016 is going to be even better! Hope yours is too!
See you all in the New Year! 🙂