time flies when you're having fun

Venice, Italy. Doesn't look like a real place, does it.

Wow.

I can't believe I have been away for over two months now. I've been to and done so many things in that time.
I've been to Tokyo, Japan; London, Oxford & the Cotswolds, Blackpool, Stratford-upon-Avon and the Lenches, the Peak District, Derbyshire Dales, Brighton, York, Nottinghamshire and Sherwood Forest in Great Britain; I've been to Ireland and Wales, been to Venice, Italy; Athens, Santorini and Mykonos, Greece; Istanbul, Turkey; Dubrovnik, Croatia, I was a true grown up and spent my 30th birthday at Disneyland Paris; France and I'm now settled down in Edinburgh, Scotland, in a house with a writer bud from Australia who has moved here permanently (I certainly don't blame her!). Little do our neighbours know, our little second floor flat has become NovelHQ.
Outside, they must think it just a flat with squeaky floorboards and the tiniest kitchen known to man. They don't know of the adventures being had here.  Our living room walls speak of fantastic worlds, our books and their plots. 

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No. Really.

I don't know where I'm going next, when our lease ends mid-July. But I'm excited to find out.
I thought I could write while traveling. That was a stupid idea. It's been exhausting, but exhilarating. But I have been inspired by all the places I've been. It's interesting when you travel, how sometimes places you've been can start to blend into one.
And that's a really good thing for writing, I'm finding. The world is a melting pot of different cultures and expectations, different ways of doing things throughout history and I'm swirling them all around and coming up with something of my own. It's great.

I've been reading a lot while away, churning through books on the cruise ship that took us around the Mediterranean and beyond, and I'm loving exploring these authors worlds, being inspired as I work on my own.

Now that I'm settled down for a while and I've actually UNPACKED my suitcase, progress is a bit slower on my writing than I had hoped it would be, but it's by no means slow. It had been several months since I last wrote anything, and I'm rusty. But I'm giving it time. I'm working the muscle and I'm writing every day.

Most importantly, I'm happy. I'm having a ball. There are ups and downs, but oh my goodness is it worth it.

Explore the world, lovelies. Go out there and live in it.