Last updated: May 27th, 2026
Summary
I'm currently taking a break from being a salary woman to work on several personal and professional projects.
On professional grounds, I'd like to redefine my way of working and earning money.
On the personal side, I plan to work on my garden to create a haven for bees and butterflies (and all the other creatures that are less attractive but still deserve to live), read a lot of books, be more consistent in my yoga and pilates practice, and in my study of Japanese, and improve my drawing skills, so I can illustrate my travel diaries. And many other things.
Priority project
Write my next novel (long term project)
I decided to write a fantasy novel, which is very new to me. I spent the last two months working on character sheets, plots, timeline... About three more chapters to go (but they're the most difficult to write) before I can say my first version is complete!
Sides
Those are projects that I'm building on the side when not busy with my priority project or when I need to put my mind at something else. They're either maintenance tasks, one-shots, or groundwork for future "priority projects".
Writing another novel
Why I'm doing this
I started writing something for fun... until it became a concrete novel project! I decided to write both novels in parallel and it's been working great so far.What I'm actually doing
- Writing in a more laid-back way, so this project is my writing workout for days when I don't feel like working on my more complex one.
Writing about my Japanese trip on The Flonicles
Why I'm doing this
It's a way for me and my partner to relive those moments, while sharing with people who want to organize their trip to Japan on their own. Since there's a lot of interest in Japan at the moment, it's a great time to post this. This is a long term project.What I'm actually doing
- Sorting pictures.
- Writing posts in French and English.
- Updating related posts with internal links and references.
- Maybe updating part of previous posts content to avoid redundancy.
Content creation
Why I'm doing this
Because I love it (and because algorithms). Still regularly posting on my different websites, I even started writing for my technical blog The code she writes again!What I'm actually doing
- Writing!
Personal curriculum
Here's what I'm learning at the moment, not only for professional purpose but also for personal growth.
- Learning graphic design and editorial graphic work. I'd like to be able to create professional book layouts and draw book covers. This is a long term learning goal, which concretely includes: upskilling my hand drawing, learning how to draw with a pen tablet, watching tutorials and attending online courses in graphic design (general or book oriented). I might start creating zines about topics I learn about to practice those skills.
- Learning Japanese: reading a book with anecdotes about food. One big step for my Japanese learning: I finally dared writing in my books!
- Researching about the political messages and cultural influence of pop culture for a post I'd like to write.