The Big Move

Hello dear Vocal friends, I am sorry for my long stretch of silence and happy to find familiar friends still here. For many reasons that will not all find their way to this blurb, I moved to Spain with my spouse. A driving factor was the urge to travel and see more of the world. Europe for a start, Asia hopefully next. Another thing was the ratio of cost of living to income. The math crunched out that we could live in Spain while my husband worked full-time and I focused on writing full-time or we could live in a lower cost of living state in the US, far from anything too extraordinary.

We want the extraordinary. The towering mountains, weaving cities, or crystal beaches. At least one of those. The region of Spain we picked (Alicante) has two of those and some decently size mountains. While it might be a very writer thing of me, I have always wanted to go to a new part of the world with a new language and get lost there. So that too has been rewarding but also nerve wracking. My Spanish gets me by, if you are wondering. And, I have way more conversations in the elevator about my dogs than I foresaw.

But, as I said earlier, the most exciting part of this journey has been transitioning into writing full-time and quitting my 9-5. It still feels a touch insane to wake up and spend my full-day with my Mac, spewing out 3,000-6,000 words. I have finished two novels that were started before the move and begun the querying process for them. I am about to finish my third novel. They are all fantasty, but not at all related to each other.

I recgonize that it is a privledge few are aforeded, and want to do my uptmost to take advantage of it while it is something we are able to do. Eventually, I will need to make enough from writing or return to work full-time. Which, I did love my day job, so it is not entirely a loss if I have to go back to working HR. But, I would prefer to not.

The months leading up to the move were quite stressful and busy. And every free moment was spent cramming in one last hike or visit with friends. I miss Alaska, but I am loving Spain. The swimming has been other-worldly. And to spend every day writing, well that has always been my dream.

We left Alaska in November of 2025 and stayed with family in Texas while we waited on US paperwork to finish up. It was a good time, and I started writing again. We made the actual move in February of this year, which was much later than we intended. It is June now, and our visa is still pending.

But, I still had not really find my way back to Vocal. And, that is because my writing has been entirely focused on my novels. But, I like this community and my smaller projects as well. So, I am attempting to carve out earnest time for it too, and not just sink into my manuscripts. I would also like to post little stories about Spain and what moving here has been like.

So, thank you everyone for still being here. It's great to be back and get caught up on the many things you have been creating. Share in the comments the piece you are most excited about right now, and I will go give it a read.