Back in November, I got Covid! Aside from the fever and coughing and general disgustingness, having a mandated ten days ‘off’ being stuck at home not being able to work – did wonders for me. I wrote a whole novel! And, viruses aside, I want more of that.

My writing is generally a compulsion, not a ‘career’ and I am not naïve enough to think I could ever make proper money doing it. But my goal for 2024 now, is to take big steps backwards from my business; not to abandon it but to make myself into a semi-functional human being again, not one that is permanently in survival mode. I need to work on the business, not in it so much. Working the equivalent of two full time jobs, having no time for anything more creative and not even making a salary from it is not sustainable. The rational part of my brain has always known this, but the relentlessly optimistic part keeps piping up and telling me “endure it now so you can enjoy it later.”

But maybe, especially in the current economic climate, ‘later’ will never come. So, before my body decides to immobilise me again, I shall endeavour to take life a little more slowly, and make time for some inherently silly creativity.

I am going to edit the Hope Street novel into something that I have the confidence to show other people (!). And recent business adventures have inspired something else – a farce, or maybe even a heist novel. So, 2024 will be Year of Fiction, I hope!