Nine Years down the drain and never happier.
Four years at university, five years as a licensed nurse, and now I’ve left it all behind for a life in France with my young family.
To say living in France is a dream would be to sell the dream short.
My husband and I met in France back in 2015. We were both on a study abroad program to learn more about the language and culture that we loved. Fast forward nearly eleven years and we live in a place that has always called to our soul. We moved from the United States to France to build a better life for ourselves, and our little one. I could wax on and on, and I will in the future don’t you worry, about the ways our lives have changed, but to put it simply. We’ve never been happier.
How does a nurse become a fantasy romance author? Sleep deprivation between shifts? Ha! No, writing has been an incessant tapping on my shoulder since I started my professional nursing career.
It was 2020 and I was working on a cardiac medical surgical floor. A new grad, juggling five patients at a time, on day shift. Those in the field might say—that’s not that bad—and with the state of the healthcare system in the U.S., they aren’t wrong. But just because it could have been worse, doesn’t mean it was without its challenges. After eight months on the unit, I had worsening anxiety and GERD (if you know, you know) in my early twenties. Writing was a way for me to cope and get outside of my head. At the start of my career, I was already finding ways to avoid it.
After my time on med surg I jumped from gig to gig, postpartum nights, primary care clinic days, postpartum part time, and finally an OBGYN clinic. Clinic life was amazing. My patients were generally stable, the relationships I built with my co-workers added joy to my life, it was the best situation I felt I could find. And yet, despite the passion I have for maternal-fetal health, I couldn’t muster the same enthusiasm for a future in healthcare as I could with writing. I felt stuck.
Writing was my escape, then it became my pipe dream, and now I’m working to make it my reality.
~Wait Verona, you started writing in 2020, it’s 2026. . . What happened? ~
I wrote a 110K fantasy romance novel in two years, toiled over the edits for a couple more, and had a baby to add some delightful chaos to the mix. Now the manuscript is sitting on my digital shelf half-edited. It was a labor of love, and I learned so much from it. It’s book one of a trilogy with a fresh magic system and complex characters, but honestly it needs a re-write. I hope to get back to it someday.
For now, I’m taking all I learned during that first project and bringing it to my current series. It is so incredibly special to be writing a series that takes place where I live! The history I read about is right next store! I can go on tours to see the ancient architecture in person or just walk down the street. It’s truly surreal.
So my lovely readers, do you want to tag along for the journey? Follow along to learn more about what vampires, Arthurian lore, and the hundred years war have in common, he he he. If you’re interested in my expat journey and local French history, we’ll be chatting about that too.
Keep that warm beverage of choice handy. #TeamMatcha
À la prochaine,
Verona Rae