The first of April may be April Fools’ Day, but I really hope this isn’t a joke, as this week I move into a new pattern of work.

I’m starting a new part-time job tomorrow as Church Office Manager at Davidson’s Mains Parish Church in Edinburgh. This is my local church where I’m already very involved, and committed to all that we’re about. The church office is beside our fabulous café, The Sycamore Tree, and it’s a busy place with all sorts of community contact. I’ll have lots to learn but I’m really excited about getting started.

But I set up this website a few years ago to share news about my writing, and this new pattern could be quite a significant one in those terms too. I’ve been thinking a lot about purpose and calling over the last few months as I’ve been making these decisions, and it seems that for me that’s always a multi-faceted thing. Family … work … faith … writing … they’ve always all been part of the mix. All that’s happening just now is a shift in balance.

 I’ve worked from home ever since the children were born on a range of projects, and for the past few years almost exclusively on exhibition work for CMC Associates. That work pattern was ideal for our circumstances, but things have changed. One of the challenges of my unpredictable work pattern was making time for my own writing. Whenever I had a project on it was pretty much impossible to make space for writing, and whenever I had a gap between projects I felt guilty about writing and not earning money. Now for the first time I will have a fixed day each week given over to my own writing, and I can give myself that permission to write. I cannot tell you how exciting that is!

So I have a list beginning to take shape … flash fiction competitions (new to me), submissions strategy, and probably most importantly a review and potential major redraft of my novel. I’m going back to Moniack Mhor later in the year and I’m pinning my hopes on that as a chance to get some clarity about where I go next with it. Between now and then there’s a good deal of preparation to be done.

Today is my first ‘writing Monday’ and I think I just got started!

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