About

This is the current version of my blog story. If you are interested in the older, longer version, please visit this blog post for a little entertainment.

I have been a British expat for over twenty years (not through choice or intention), back in Europe and closer to home at last, but still dreaming wistfully of a cottage in the English countryside. Still with plans to publish historical novels one day (update June 2020 - can check that one off my list!). My husband is a Texan mathematician. We have two girls - one at college, one a teen ... and a little boy! Needless to say, life and plans were turned upside down by baby number three. So much so, in fact, that we made the crazy, bold, brave (depending on which friend or family member you ask) move of selling almost everything we own and relocating to Koper, Slovenia, where my husband finally joined his research group full time and I am the University of Primorska´s in-house editor, for want of a better description of what I do, though, I am calling myself The Grammar Lady. How is our Slovene, you ask? Right now, govorim zelo slabo slovensko, but I am trying hard to get better.

I eventually had to subtitle this blog, Notes on an Eclectic Life, because I keep failing at the rule of successful blogging which says you have to have a consistent theme. It began (as The Pen and the Spirit) as a writing/ reflective blog, became a literary blog focused on bringing the unusual and neglected in historical fiction and classics to light, then a more lighthearted philosophizing about life, because laughing at myself is how I keep depression at bay. Right now, I am trying to bring the world a little of the beautiful country that is Slovenia, and keeping my reading life vibrant by linking up with Modern Mrs Darcy for monthly Quick Lit reviews, plus the occasional stand-alone review if a book really bowls me over, and posts related to my novel set in Dorset.

I am willing to consider your private editing project (at professional rates), dependent on my current workload. Feel free to peruse the Editing section for further information. Prices are currently in US dollars.

[P.S. I am not the "runciblepen" of fanfiction.net, writers workshops or anything not represented via this site. And I thought I was being very original with the name!]