It's Catch Up Time!

*takes a deep breath* 

SO, before my little check-in post, I hadn't been here since 2017. That is a LOT of stuff to catch up on. 

Like... a lot. 

I guess I will try to summarise as much as possible because many things have happened in that time! 

In terms of writing and publishing, I released the Game On Series, which is the sports romance series I was working on when I first began blogging. These have since been unpublished for a re-write. I also released a rock band romance duet, which was recently picked up by a small publisher and will be re-released over the next couple of months. After that, I began to dabble in books that covered more serious topics. Most of them still in the romance area, but much less fluffy than my earlier stuff. 

Then the pandemic hit. 

My inspiration was zapped. While many of my author friends were writing like crazy because they had more time, I was sitting at home wondering what was wrong with me. Over time, it occurred to me that I am someone who needs to be around to be people to find inspiration, and being locked down was the worst thing for my creativity. I managed to get one book out in 2021, but that was all. I was worried I was never going to be able write again, but thankfully, a flash hit me recently and progress is being made! I will tell you more about that another time, though. 

As for work, I had been dabbling in beta reading and editing, and around the same time I stopped blogging, I began working on setting up as a real editor. I now have a super successful editing business, and I edit mostly for self-published authors, which is the best job ever. I am so grateful for it because I can truly say I do what I love for a living. Last year, I also opened a writing community to help authors improve their writing skills which is just so much fun, and it's growing nicely now. 

In terms of personal stuff... I am no longer a single lady! Just over five years ago, I met someone who lived on the other side of the country from me (this is also a cool story for another time lol). We were friends for a while before we got together, and at the very beginning of 2020 (seriously, that year was pretty life-changing on a personal level!), I moved away from my home to live with him. From the South West of England to the North East was a huge change, and then, of course, we were thrown in the deep end as lockdown hit after we'd been in our own place for about two weeks! Thankfully, all was good, and just before my 40th birthday last year, he proposed! We are celebrating four years together tomorrow, so we went out for dinner last night. See photo below! 

As if the craziness of the last couple of years wasn't enough, I had to have a pretty major surgery at the end of last November, so right now, I am still in the later stages of recovering from that. 

And all of those things are just the main points of the last few years! No doubt, as I get back into things, I will share more details, but I just wanted to catch you all up on where I've been! 

I am excited to dive back into the bloggy world!