A writer returns (hello!)

Hello! I thought it best to test the waters again in the Newbie forum as my last foray here at AW was short and now two years gone. I am a somewhat itinerant writer - mainly back and forth between Germany, the UK, and the East Coast (my place of origin). It's not particularly glamorous, but it does make introductions a bit more interesting.

The reason I'm resurfacing after a two year gap is that writing took a backseat for a while. Not all writing - I did finish a book-length project, specifically a PhD thesis. I submitted a few weeks ago and have just emerged from the haze of burnout, just in time to prepare for Nanowrimo!

I write a bit of everything. I'm currently working on a few personal essays and my Nano project is a coming-of-age tale, on the cusp between YA contemporary and adult/literary depending on how much I decide to take on. I've also spent several years now on a historical fantasy set in 17C England. That project has 2 drafts and several notebooks full of ideas for revisions, but I need a break from the 17C as it's my research period and I've spent a lot of time there recently. I haven't completed a fiction manuscript since starting my PhD so I'm looking forward to using my post-PhD transition year to recommit myself to fiction and non-academic writing.

As for my reading life: it's also quite varied. While writing is a passion of mine, reading is my main skill in life (hence PhD in English). The past year has included a high percentage of Agatha Christie and cozy mysteries, a balm for my fraying intellectual mind. But my regular reading life is fairly diverse: I read YA across all genres (currently: King of Scars by Leigh Bardugo), the darlings of the literary critics (currently: The Overstory by Richard Powers and Trust Exercise by Susan Choi), a smattering of romance, as well as short-form, usually a collection of essays or short stories (currently: Trick Mirror by Jia Tolentino, like everyone else in the world).

I'm very open to trying my hand at beta reading and I've done a bit of critiquing (CP group for fiction, as well as helping friends with academic work). My nomadic existence makes in-person writing groups and workshops inconvenient so AW is perfect for finding a writing community!

Thanks for the welcome and congratulations! Getting back to writing after so much of the intellectual heavy-lifting of academia has been so refreshing. Writing 50K doesn't sound half as daunting after my 110K thesis but I'm sure Nano will offer stark reproach to such hopeful naïveté soon enough. I did have several years to work on my PhD and the whole point of Nano is to work within the shortened timeline so my confidence is completely unfounded.