It’s a new year for me, since today’s my birthday! I’m celebrating it here in Australia; and even though I’m traveling alone, I feel so incredibly blessed to be in the sun right now with generous and welcoming housemates, healing from what is always a difficult winter.

I’m amazed at how much the sun changes me. I went from depressed and lazy to almost manic within a couple of days. This morning I got up and wrote a 10-minute play, just because. To say that’s abnormal for me in February is a massive understatement.

Since today is a fresh start of sorts, I wanted to let you in on a couple of new things to expect around here on the site.

First, you can expect to see a little more dramatic writing on here. (Don’t worry if that’s not your thing – it won’t be too often!) I have a number of short scenes floating around out there without a home. A lot of people ask to read my dramatic work and I don’t usually have snippets to show them, even though I send them to this lovely website. That will change this year as I start to post them here.

Next, for the month of February you can expect to read a few posts about Australia, especially from a human rights perspective. I’m not just excited to be here for the sun; experiencing new cultures always humbles, educates, and inspires. It’s certainly doing that for me, and I’m hoping to share some of what I learn here, with you.

Lastly, you can expect me to ask a little something of you. In the past few months I’ve written on three main topics: human rights, creativity/writing, and seasonal affective disorder. These are areas with which I have decent experience, so I write about them. But nothing pleases me more than hearing from a reader about a post that moved them, or a topic they’d like to hear about more. I read those attentively and with a huge smile.

I have a couple of posts coming up based on that feedback. So I ask – nay, beg! – that you continue to help me out by letting me know what makes you come back to this site, if you do. Leave it in the comments any time or shoot me an email, and I’ll consider that an excellent birthday present!

Cheers!

Joanna