Who is Caz Austin?

They say life begins at 40 for me I think it's true.

Every 5th birthday from the age of 25 I wrote a list of the things I would like to achieve in the next 5 years. Writing a book was always on the list but I never did it, all the work goals and other personal goals did get achieved as I always tried to keep the goals realistic and I'm not an over achiever.

I have always been a workaholic, a bit of a stress head and a bit of a perfectionist, work has always been the one thing in my life that I thought would always be there and has been, but I have learnt in the last few years that although work is a huge part of my life it is not the be all and end all of life. I have learnt like others in my industry I can easily be replaced by someone else not necessarily in this country and the industry I work in isn't as secure as it once was and I am luckier than most as I have never been made redundant.

Like everyone I know I work hard, I commute over 3 hours a day to and from work and I love my job but I do not want it to be what defines me as a person.

So here I am now, just over 1 year into my next 5 year plan and on it is writing a book, passing my next set of exams at work, being a better behaved diabetic, losing some weight, finding a Tai-Chi class and complete some cross-stitch projects I have.

So far I am studying for 1 exam to be sat in the Summer, i've nearly finished 1 stitching project but I have to give myself a break as I did get married last year so had a wedding to plan.

I'm a believer in being prepared so on my Christmas List were books on writing (as well as some games for my DS). Since my 41st Birthday a few months ago I have been on a writing course where I learnt about the different types of genres what's hot what's not, plots, planning, characters etc. Last week was the best even though it was only a short workshopI learnt a lot. The workshop was run by Heidi Rice a published author with Mills and Boon and it was brilliant and inspiring we covered characters, conflict the life of a writer and heard how the other people at the workshop were getting on with their writing as they were at various stages of their writing projects.

The subject of promotion came up and Heidi said she liked Facebook but wasn't on twitter! I thought this was strange only because I love Twitter it keeps my commuting hours entertaining and helps me keep up to date on what authors I like to read are working on, the latest news, along with chatting with people i've never met.

So there I was on twitter on Friday during my break chatting with @RachelLyndhurst and @52Betty and realised that other than work stuff, the odd letter etc I haven't actually written anything since school! So Rachel suggested writing a blog and Betty thought it was a good so here I am.

So what will I be blogging about............well a few ideas came to mind including me learning and trying to write a book, combined with the life of a commuter/city worker and my general ramblings. I'm not sure how entertaining I'm going to be but for those who read my blog I hope you enjoy it.