The idea for this blog came to me while I was back home visiting friends and family. I met an old manager of mine and in passing she mentioned that thought she stayed in her job longer than she should have. I responded that had she left early, she and I may never have met. She thanked me for my kind words, and I hope she went away feeling better over her decision. For you see, our meeting shaped the decisions I made in the year that followed. She planted the seed in my mind

Some of you might know the turning point that brought me to Korea. Some of you don’t. But now is the time to share that with you. I need to start off with some history. I grew up in Greenock, Scotland. I moved to Dumfries and Galloway in my early twenties and took on a part-time job as a barista. There, I met two people who had a greater influence on my life than they realise. One was my manager. She was studying an English as a Second Language course and later moved to Thail

Caged Birds is a short story I wrote as a submission for an anthology in Korea. They rejected the story with a letter expressing that they liked my poetic style, but didn’t think the story was right for their anthology. I understood. They wanted more of a foreigner’s perception or experience in Korea. I didn’t want to write that. I didn’t want it to become a piece containing all the things that bother me—which I feared it would be. We foreigners will always be outsiders here,

I read a tweet from another author battling with how overwhelming it is to see so many writers in the online community. Although the writing community is a supportive place filled with advice, guidance, sharing and constructive feedback, the tweeter felt discouraged by the size. She was another needle in an ever growing haystack. I can relate to her feelings. I am sure many of us have heard that voice in our head discouraging us to continue with our passions. You are not good