MY FIRST SIX YEARS IN FOLKESTONE

It’s been six years since I moved to Folkestone from Italy to join my husband. I had many plans and dreams: after four hard years in Italy, I was eager to enjoy a normal family life again, go back to health, and start my writing career. As always, things have worked out in a different way from what I had imagined.
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On the bright side, the town seafront is one of the most beautiful in the world. One of my treats is to walk down to the beach and enjoy the magnificent view of the Folkestone Bay and the coast of France.
Folkestone has also turned out to be the perfect spot for my writing career. As I returned to health, and realised that my novel was going nowhere, I attended a few creative writing courses at The Centre for Adult Education. They gave me the skills and the confidence to write stories that I would then publish (A new Beginning, Homecoming, and Across Spacetime).
And I love the cultural ferment of this town, with its many festivals, like:

• the Book Festival. One of its fringe events is a short story competition run by the Folkestone Writers Group, in which I took part in 2013. My short story A New Beginning was shortlisted and published the following year in their anthology;
• the HG Wells Festival, which celebrates the 13 years that the science fiction writer spent in Sandgate and Folkestone;  
• The Normal? Festival of the Brain;
• the TEDxFolkestone talks, to which I’ve dedicated four blog posts;

and the international art exhibition The Triennial, which takes place, of course, every three years, throughout the town.

On the downside, and it’s a big downside, there’s my marriage break down. Going through a divorce is not easy, but we are keeping things as amicable as can be for our daughter’s sake. 
What I find tough, among other things, is promoting Across Spacetime (which was inspired by how I met my husband of 20 years,) while discussing with him the terms of our divorce. But that’s life I guess.
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And so here I am, a bit scared but ready for a new adventure.

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