Now, I agree that a new place can help you see things differently or expose you to new sights, sounds and tastes. Traveling in a foreign country helps because you are on vacation without stress. You sleep in or stay out as late as you want as you visit museums, cafes, concerts, restaurants, streets, shops, squares, bars, only you control your program, not anyone else. The days are nothing but endless possibility: writing pages, editing, mapping out scenes, and developing characters.

But there are those who live permanently overseas. Life is a series of queues for visas, work permits, and other bureaucratic nightmares. What happens when these quaint alleyways and cobble stone streets stop being exciting and new? What then?

A routine is the answer. Do you make the time to write every day? Do you stimulate your mind? Do you read new books, or go see movies? Do you have a favorite place: an art gallery, coffee shop, a chair, a sunny spot on the balcony or a path in the woods? (which prompts you to relax and release your thoughts.)

Do you form a plan? Believe in yourself? Have supportive friends and family? Who push and encourage you to keep writing the next line, paragraph, chapter, or novel?

Do you make time to travel through your imagination? To open the door in your mind and find out what is inside.

Me, I love Prague. It’s a great city, but after 13 years, I’ve shaped an environment to write, imagine, and to create whole new worlds. My friends and family help me to keep my dreams alive, to play, to see and to enjoy. It is these discoveries that I write about for my readers.