Monday, November 10, 2014

Hello, hello? Anyone out there?

I couldn't blame you for wondering what on earth ever happened to that Emmie person who wrote a few books and then vanished off the face of the earth. Because that's kind of what happened. Things have been . . . well . . . busy. Let me give you a brief summary:

One of the best things about moving to the US
was getting to celebrate Halloween this year!
I moved countries
I moved to San Francisco, USA, from Melbourne Australia. Moving house is always a busy, stressful time. Believe me, I know -- this was my 28th move (yeah, I know). But moving *countries* is a whole new ball game and I really had no concept of the time it would take to get settled and feel organized.

I started a new, full-time job
Enough said. :)

I found some real-life romance
I found a Mr Love, and for a long time there hasn't been any need for fictional romance. Because my life is now blissfully full of it. (Awww....)

I moved three times since arriving in San Francisco
Because, roommates. Horrendous, awful, hilarious, insane roommates. They will be characters in a book one day. Also, until my current home (a lovely one-bedroom apartment that I DO NOT SHARE WITH ANYONE which has a view of trees and a lake) I didn't have any environment conducive to pulling out the computer and writing words.

I got sick and hurt myself 
People told me that moving countries meant you were exposed to new germs. I didn't give that any thought, since I've travelled so much in my life and figured it just wouldn't be a problem. Then I had four colds in four months. And then I fell over and sprained my ankle quite badly. Not expecting sympathy, just another thing that happened in these past months.

My brain just wasn't filled with stories for a while
I think, maybe, I burnt myself out a little. I had four books published last year (two of them were novellas, but still). I also self-published for the first time, which is an entire learning experience of itself. I think I was a little tired and, with a new non-writing related full-time job, the muse just went on a vacation.

So! That's the Story So Far. The good news is that it feels like muse might be returning. She's rusty and hard to coax into action, but I can definitely feel her back there, tickling my brain, waking up the voices that want to be heard again.

This weekend I attended the RWA San Francisco chapter meeting. As with any romance writing group I've ever been part of, it's full of lovely, friendly, encouraging women. Also some very inspiring, very successful ones!

My goal now is to get some writing done before I go back to the December meeting. Fingers crossed I can get the muse stretched and supple and ready for action soon!

Thank you for hanging in there with me. Big thanks to those readers who've written to me, wanting to know when the next book will be out! Hopefully I will reward you for your patience soon!