Saturday 16th July

Well - I've finally bitten the bullet and set up a blog and a Twitter account!  I don't have the first clue what I'm going to do with them, but apparently they are necessary tools for an aspiring writer.

Here's some background:

My name is Stacey.  I'll (very) shortly be turning 32 and I live in Scotland.  Riveting stuff....it gets better.

From April 2008 to October 2010, I was a patient in a psychiatric hospital.  Yes, you read it right and there are no typos.  For two and a half years, I was a permanent in-patient at my local nuthouse (I'm allowed to call it that, I earned the right).  I have an interesting little condition called BPD - if you're at all interested then you can look it up.  But it's not really relevant.  I am not my illness, it's just a convenient label and helps me understand that I don't always think about things the way 'normal' people do.  I have no problems with that....

Since my discharge last year, I have been slowly re-building my life.  I have two wonderful daughters and I am loving spending extra time with them over the school holidays.  They are thoroughly enjoying the two hours of 'telly time' I throw their way each afternoon.  They think I'm doing it because I love them.  I do love them....but it gives me two hours every day where I can sit at my kitchen table and WRITE.  I'm hopeful that after a couple more works, they will have worked out what is meant when I shout "Mummy is WORKING!" when they pop through every five minutes to tell me what programme they are watching on CBeebies. 

And that brings me neatly to the reason I am writing this blog.  This is going to be an online diary of my writing.  Everything from what chapter I've been working on, which "how to" or "how not to" guides I've been reading for advice, and any interesting tips I've picked up from my favourite online community www.authonomy.com 

I don't know how interesting it will be, but I hope to look back on it in years to come (when I'm a famous author of course) and laugh at my ridiculous attempts to work out POV, story arcs and other skills I've never even heard of yet.