Do you ever have moments when suddenly everything you have ever done seems to converge into a wonderful whole?

I am fortunate in that it has happened to me several times.

Firstly, when my life abroad and persistent offering of articles to the Lloyds Bank Offshore Club magazine, Shoreline, led me to be invited to be the editor of a new magazine, called Woman Abroad.

Secondly, when the work I had done writing and speaking about how expat partners could have thriving portable careers, led me to be invited to be the closing keynote speaker at the  Families in Global Transition conference.

And thirdly, today, when my  recent journalism student, Linda Janssen, interviewed my recently published author, Niamh Ni Bhroin, of The Singing Warrior and that article was published by Sergios and the guys at IAMEXPAT. It’s all about connections. I connected Linda with Niamh and Sergios and voila, not only a super article, but the knowledge that Linda is well on her way to a fabulous career as a freelance writer. Amazingly, she only attended my article and blogging courses three months ago, and already her blog has won an award with Expat Arrivals (Linda is now writing for them too) and commissions are starting to come her way.

Niamh’s book is available on Amazon for Kindle any day now and at the ABC book center in The Hague. Her music CD is available via Kunaki and very soon her audio book (she is a fabulous performer) will be for sale too.

If you ever have days when you feel you are swimming upstream and that all your efforts are in vain, think of me. It took me 13 years as a freelance journalist to get the job at Woman Abroad. It took me 9 years as a portable career expert to be invited to do that keynote. Linda, however, has worked steadily and hard with tremendous focus and her journey took just three months.

Last month I was delighted to guest post for Anastasia Ashman at the tremendous Expat Harem blog. Anastasia likes to publish gritty, important posts and between us we decided that I would write about the dilemma facing expat authors like me. I would write about the problem of writing for a genre that has no bookshelf.

You see, we have a problem. Take my bestselling book A Career in Your Suitcase. A Career in Your Suitcase: The Expat and Trailing Spouse’s Guide to a Career on the Move

It is a book for people living abroad and is about creating and growing a portable career based on your passions. But, if you wanted a book on portable careers where would you look for it? In the Careers section, maybe? In the Travel section? The trouble is there is no expat section. But maybe, it is just a question of asking the bookshop?

In January, I met with Lynn Kaplanian-Buller, who runs the American Book Center in Amsterdam. I discussed this issue and Lynn agreed to put my books on her local interest shelf. AFter all, those people looking for books about living in Amsterdam were likely to be expatriates and likely to be interested in my books.

And then yesterday, I met with Agnes Joseph, who runs the American Book Center in The Hague and had the same conversation. Agnes has agreed to pilot a Living Abroad section in her store.

The image above shows my books on the left of the shelf that also contains a book by one of my clients, Ron van der Krol, English for Nederlanders. I think we can officially call this a result!

Will join the crusade? Will you also go to your local bookshops and ask if they would consider a special shelf for expat books?

If you don’t ask, you don’t get, right?

Wow! Did we have fun last night as I celebrated the launch of my 25th book at Lesley Fisher’s beautiful apartment in Den Haag with 50 of the finest folk whom I have the pleasure to call my friends, colleagues and supporters. As a ‘trailing spouse’ it is not always easy to pursue a career while moving round the world as chattel and cheerleader to a bloke in the oil industry. It is even harder when you get a stamp in your passport that reads ‘wife – not permitted to take up employment’. As you know, that happened to me in 1988, and since then I have been determined to retain my professional identity despite the obstacles. To those who attended, thank you for supporting me.

Thanks too . . .
To Lesley of Metamorphosis Consulting for hosting the event – don’t forget that she has a super training room available to rent
To Annelene for her wonderful wine, and for making recipes from ‘Dates’ – invite The Wine Emporium to do a wine tasting for you and your friends and you may have as much fun as we did last night!
To Katy, for drawing the raffle, and for writing the foreword to ‘Career in Your Suitcase’ – take a look at the wonderful work done by the Permits Foundation
To Kim and Maged from Xpatriate Magazine, for providing mags for the bags and those wonderful vouchers to Ascot in Wassenaar! Watch out for my new column!
To the glorious Zelda, for dancing for us – join Lesley and me on her Dance with the Goddess workshop on Saturday!
To ABC Treehut for providing the other mags for the bags
To Mega of Portable Career, Julie of Essence Therapeutics, Rev Barbara of Authentic Matters Ministries, Robin of Dutchnews, Agnes of ABC, Annelene, Lesley, Zelda and Elske of Stichting the English Theatre for providing such wonderful raffle prizes.

I hope you enjoy your goodie bag suitcase, which reminds me to thank Ricklin-Echikson Associates for the wonderful luggage tags.