You know those times when you think you’ll just get one or two little projects done and suddenly morning has turned to afternoon and then the sun has set and it’s well past bedtime and those projects still have you utterly, head-spinningly, occupied. Well, ah, the last twelve months has been like that for me.

Since posting last time – in a long list of things achieved – I have finally moved to Los Angeles. Oh goodness, it’s good to be here. As I blinkingly re-adjusted to the brightness of life after earning my PhD in 2018, questions about what next loomed, prompting alternating exhilaration and fear. I racked up a considerable list of rejections for things I mostly didn’t want anyway, but thought I ought to pursue. And then, with the ease of many good decisions, I was suddenly arriving in LA as 2018 rolled to its end, able to call it home after a decade of wishful visits.

And being here is all the ups and downs and wonderfulness that I anticipated. It hasn’t been easy, but you wouldn’t want something so momentous be without its character-carving challenge right?

So what’s happening here? I’m transforming my PhD and masters into a book. One that people will read, with the academic point-scoring bits stripped away. I’m searching for a dream job. I’m spending time at the river. I am gazing at palm trees and relishing the proximity of friends and collaborators who for so long have lived so so far away.

You can stay in touch with how my world looks by following on Instagram where I am, simply, tillyhinton.