Snap

Posted September 8, 2024

Hello lovely ones, thank you for stopping by to check in. Again, it has been some time since my last update. I’m going to cover 4 and a bit moths in a very snappy blog post. The reason for the snappish blog post is because that’s how the months have felt – they’ve all gone in a snap!

At the end of April, I took a quick trip to Malaysia, it was a whirlwind but travel always excites me and I managed to meet up with a dear friend who gave me a snap tour of Kuala Lumpur – such a stunning city. Highly recommend a visit.

The month of May included one of my favourite writing events – KidLitVic! I have tried to attend every KidLitVic event since I began my writing journey. I love the KidLitVic community, and I always gain so much from meeting different publishers and learning from fellow writers. For authors, KidLitVic tickets are the equivalent of getting your hands on Taylor Swift tickets. They are always in high demand and it’s a very intense process. I was very lucky to snap mine. As always, the event left me feeling inspired and ready to write some more. I was even invited to share a special story with a dream publisher…let’s see what happens…but even if nothing comes of it, I put myself out there and connected with this beautiful community – that makes me happy. That’s a win.

June and July were two swift months – A month of celebration – I celebrated a milestone birthday in July, which included many gatherings with friends and family, book events – one of my very close writing buddies launched two new books, two family holidays – to the coast and to one of our favourite spots – The Blue Mountains, and a snap trip to Indonesia – again, I so love to see the world and highly recommend a visit to Jakarta if you ever get the chance. Phew! That’s a lot – I’m feeling tired reflecting on it all, but despite them being so busy they honestly were lovely months!

I’m going to squeeze in a little about August before I leave you – I hope that’s ok – August included a trip to the snow. We always try to escape to the snow during the season. Just for pure play! It was so fun. It always is. Book Week was in August too, some of my highlights were visiting classrooms virtually, which showed me over screen or in person, you can always connect over a book. And, I also visited my son’s class. It was lovely sharing some of our favourite books with his friends. I’m looking forward to Book Week next year as I might have some new stories to share then. Fingers and toes crossed.

Speaking of new stories, sprinkled throughout the past few months has been proofing my six new junior fiction stories which are coming soon! I got a sneak peek of my new book covers and the internals and I couldn’t be more excited! It has been a few years between books, but the wait has taught me a LOT. I’ve been fine-tuning my writing, reading oh so many stories, attending all things book events and soaking up as much as I can from my fellow authors who inspire me each day – it honestly is a gorgeous community. Patience and being kind to myself as I juggle family, a demanding day job and chasing my author dreams have also been big lessons. I’m so looking forward to sharing these books with you once they are ready – please stay tuned!

I’ve been feeling I haven’t been doing enough lately but looking at all of the above and the snappiness of the months I actually can see there’s a lot that has happened. Progress is being made. I encourage you to take stock of where you are – what have you been up to? Can you see the glimmers of light and happy moments you’ve had? Can you see your growth? On those days where everything feels snappy, take a moment to be still, present and celebrate those steps, which may have felt like little ones, in leading you to where you are. You are doing great. Just keep believing and don’t be too hard on yourself, easy said than done – we all do it – I know, but I’ve found writing it all out (like this post) and connecting with your support system (good friends and family) helps too.

Enjoy the weeks ahead. Until next time xoxo

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE MONTHS

Travel snaps from Malaysia to Indonesia