Hi, welcome to my blog! The blog itself is called Blogging in Paradise—A Writer in Italy. So if you like Italy and you like writing, stop by often and keep my Google ranking high. You might even find a few recipes.

So. I’m a professional writer – after being a professional simultaneous interpreter and translator – and I live in Italy. I know what you’re thinking, and yes, I’m very lucky. But in this blog I’m going to show what it’s like to be a professional writer. And I’m also going to show you what it’s like living in Italy when you’re not George Clooney and you’re not restoring a villa in Tuscany. Warts and all, as they say.

Being a writer and being PAID for being a writer is a fabulous thing, but it is a long and arduous road getting there, with the Scylla and Charybdis of agents and editors to navigate. And unless you’re a best seller on SEVERAL lists, you’re not going to get rich any time soon.

In this blog I’m going to try to avoid talking about politics, which is no fun any more, anyway. I’m of an age and a station in life in which I would simply love to be a conservative, for a number of reasons, to wit:

• After a lifetime of hard work, I have some property and investments and want to keep them out of the grubby hands of the rabble.
• Unlike in my younger years, I have a greater appreciation of order. Anarchy is NOT fun when you’re not nimble any more, when your hormones are gone and your muscles are lax.
• You should work hard and save. Any other lifestyle is unacceptable.

So—sign me up for any party that will cater to the above. Unfortunately, however, I do require a degree of sanity, just as a baseline requirement, and that excludes the conservatives (tea partiers) of my home country, the USA, and of my adoptive country, Italy, who are all batshit crazy.

Pity.

For the rest, stay tuned to this channel for life in Italy as a writer.