I’ve been writing (and publishing my writing) since the 1970s. But, to be honest, I never considered myself a writer until 2015, when I closed my science outreach and interpretation consulting businesses in order to pursue writing full time.

The change felt like losing an arm, even though I chose to do it.

Because I didn’t consider myself a writer. I was a heritage interpreter, and who was I really if I stopped being an interpreter?

It wasn’t until I ran into a fellow heritage interpreter at a writing conference the following year that I reconciled with the change. He said, “But you’re still telling stories, just in a different way.”

Because of course, heritage interpretation is all about telling the true stories of people, places, and the natural world. He was absolutely right. I had always been a storyteller. The shift from interpretation and science outreach wasn’t so much the removal of a body part, but the growing of a new one.

It made all the difference in my attitude towards the change.

So when the family’s financial situation changed and I needed a steady income, it wasn’t too difficult for me to switch to writing part time while working as a teaching assistant—I could see the connections between the two. I chose to view the change as growing a new limb, rather than cutting off the old one. And when that role evolved into a specialist teaching role focused on science and extension literacy and maths, it felt like the best of all worlds.

I began to think of myself as a communicator who used a variety of media to communicate. And that change in thinking has led to the next change.

This week I handed in my notice at my ‘day job’. Six weeks from now I will transition into full-time writing. It will be my second foray into this territory, but I am infinitely more prepared for it this time. With seventeen books under my belt, I have a base to work with. And with the understanding that I am doing the same thing, just in a different medium, losing the daily teaching from my schedule doesn’t feel as tragic.

And now that my plans are in motion, I’m allowing myself to explore all the possibilities this new phase will open up.

I will miss my students and the amazing people I’ve worked with for the past seven years. And I’m a little nervous—a bit overwhelmed by the sheer quantity of items on my growing to-do list. But I am more than excited to dive into my writing full time. I have heaps of plans for fiction and non-fiction, and I can’t wait to begin making them happen, and share the finished products with you all!