Guest post by Rosalind Smith-Nazilli a British Expat writer living & writing in Turkey

Rosalind Smith-Nazilli author of Author of -  FOURTEEN flashes of fiction

 I write short stories and flash fiction, all day and every day. Currently I have two anthologies in the pipeline and also something much more challenging. I am lucky enough to live by the sea in Turkey with my husband Mehmet, and a crazy puppy, Ayda, who only recently joined our family. I shall be taking the plunge into self puplishing very soon and will be looking for a lot of guidance..

Check her out at:
http://rosiesmith-nazilliwrites.blogspot.com/

Rosalind writes:  For a good many years I lived a wonderfully full life, worked in a profession I loved (nursing), and raised an incredibly intelligent son.

Then one day he vanished from my life and started building his own. University, and as a single mother I was suddenly part of the empty nest crowd.

Something was happening to me and I didn't know what. During a very important promotion interview I suddenly lost the power of speech and within two weeks of that day got the call to tell me that someone I loved with all my heart had passed away.

Several other things occurred around this time which led me to plummet into a deep depression.

And then my best friend saved my life. She arrived at my home with tickets for a one week holiday in Turkey.

I refused point blank to go saying I had heard it was a horrid and dirty country and that it was the last thing I needed. But she persisted and four days before my fortieth birthday I found myself on a plane headed for Alanya.

We arrived in the middle of the night in September, and as we walked out of the airport the stifling heat knocked me for six.

Well that was the start of the rest of my life. I fell in love and made as many trips over as I could afford. I travelled everywhere, stayed in big cities and mountain villages. I had come home.

When my son eventually married I made the decision to up sticks, sell everything I owned and move out properly.

It took a while to establish myself in a new life and I moved around considerably until I discovered the idyllic little fishing town of Eski Foça. Just over an hour outside of the city of Izmir, two small harbours form a back to front S shape on the Aegean coast.

Life is quiet here. It is not a pulsating tourist resort although we do have many very nice hotels. The majority of visitors are Turks from the cities and the holiday season here is really only four months long where as along the Mediterranean coast it is upwards of seven.

Since moving here I have met and married my husband and carved out a near perfect existence.

Winter is cold, beyond belief and Eski Foça becomes a ghost town with many houses and apartments shuttered up as the owners return to their city homes. But it is a small price to pay for the dazzling scenery and the magnificent places on hand to visit.

I have always been a writer but since settling here I have been able to dedicate the time and effort to it that I have always dreamed of and to be honest, it is only thanks to the internet and social networking that I am able to make a living this way.

Far removed from the days when I used to bang away on an old typewriter and send stuff out via snail mail. I have managed to produce my first ebook via kindle and start to build a name for myself. A long way still to go but it would never have happened had I not moved to Turkey.

There are one or two other English people living her but I am not great at interaction and prefer to give my time to my craft. My husband works long hours so I am free to write, walk the dog and in the summer spend long hours gardening or at the beach.

My Turkish is far from fluent but I know enough to function on a daily basis and can even manage to haggle at the pazar (the huge weekly fruit and veg market).

I cook a lot of Turkish food now and greatly prefer the healthy options that are available. A whole lot better than a frozen lasagne for one.

All in all despite the reservations of family and close friends it was the best decision I have ever made. There have been difficulties along the way of course, and some nightmare situations but on the whole I wouldn't change a thing.