Many months ago I wrote about following your passion and for the last 6 months that is just what I have done. Since December 2015 I moved states and cities, bought a new home, spent six weeks overseas in some of the most wonderful places in the world, wrote and am about to publish The Entwhistle Experiment Book 3: Stuck, and wrote The Giverny Chronicles (for publishing in 2017.

What have I learned?  I’ve learned that most people in the world are good and kind, like the dozens of people who helped me in my move and travels. Like the wonderful Helen, a volunteer for 36 years at Monet’s Garden who opened the gates for me when all other tourists had left and allowed me to soak the atmosphere I wanted to try to capture in my book. Like my friends, Jane and Andy, who took me to Hampton Court, Chawton to see The Jane Austen House Museum, and to the Roald Dahl Museum. Like my family, children and brothers, in-laws and nieces and nephews, whose privacy I guard, but whose support and love is unwavering. Like the wonderful friends I left behind in Brisbane but who never lose touch.

I’ve learned you never know what you can do until you try and that resilience is something you can learn. I’ve learned it’s not what happens that matters so much, as your attitude to what happens that makes the difference. As Stephen Covey puts it in The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, It’s not what happens to us, but our response to what happens to us that hurts us. Of course, things hurt us physically or economically or at the deepest emotional level but how we choose to deal with that sorrow determines whether we face each day with strength and happiness or choose to be miserable.

I learned when it all boils down if you have love and family, then you’re the richest person in the world.

And so, when I wrote The Giverny Chronicles while I was staying at John Steinbeck’s Cottage in Monterey (truly!), with family in Connecticut, at  Hideaway Cottage in Hay-on-Wye and at Giverny’s Garden I wanted to capture the idea that good overcomes evil, that miracles happen and that love never dies. I can’t wait to share it with you next year.