An American Writer in England

So…guess what? I’m living in England. Oh, the blog title gave it away? Bloody hell.

I wish I could have blogged about my “Brentrance” a long time ago, but it was a real hustle just to release my fourth book before leaving the country.

I’ve now been in the United Kingdom for two weeks now, but just getting here has been such an ordeal that I feel like I’m only finally able to catch my breath. A book launch is my busiest part of the year, and that was on top of all the logistics of uprooting my life and preparing to replant it half a world away.

Not that I’m unfamiliar with the life of a wandering troubadour. I’ve moved fairly often over the last three decades; growing up as an Army brat before joining the Air Force myself and ultimately ending up as an Air Force spouse (that’s how this whole thing came about, my wife’s job). All told, if I’m counting correctly, this is my thirteenth move.

But moving countries was a whole other experience entirely.

I think I could probably start my own country with less paperwork than it took to move to the United Kingdom. The worst bit was probably bringing our pets with us. Fortunately, we were able to avoid quarantine, but the bureaucratic minefield leading up to it bordered on the absurd (and absurdly expensive — Merry Christmas, sweetie! I got you our cat and our dog this year).

I could bore you with the red tape details, but that’s not the interesting or important part, is it? The point is — we made it! We’re all here and we’re here for three years. And during that time, I’ll try to be better about blogging. After all, this is the experience of a lifetime! I’ll still be writing my books over here, of course, and I’m still working on my ultra-nerdy screenplay project, but now I get to try and set up author events in this part of the world too. I’m so incredibly excited to live here that I can barely put it into words.

In the next few days and weeks I’ll talk about the cultural differences, meeting new friends, finding a place to live, and of course — travelling.

I hope you’ll follow me on my journey!

Thanks for reading! What do YOU think? Surprised? Excited? ME TOO!

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