Recently, amid an especially oppressive run of hangovers and, having turned thirty in late May, I decided it was time to shake things up and go in search of a little change. I figured I was due to see a little more of the world, catch up with family overseas, and exercise my E.U and U.S. passports seeing as they haven't been too active of late. Most importantly, however, I felt it was time to make for an environment where I could escape from distraction (and, ahem, my own rubber-arm) and sit down and write. I need to know in a few years time that, if this writing caper doesn't work out, at least at one point in my life I gave it a truly committed, almighty crack.

So, in the spirit of new beginnings, I'm off this month for the town of Bangor, Maine, in United States to try and find a little inspiration.

Well, I'm hopeful, anyway.

Even if Bangor is a relatively isolated, serene part of the world, America isn't exactly a country you think of when you consider the words 'distraction free'.

In the first place, anytime you're heading somewhere new, there's bound to be distractions. But in a nation saturated by the media, pop culture, lots of noise and all things oversized and brash it's going to be a challenge, nonetheless. In a state where a lobster is revered and there's still wild deer and bear ambling about, distraction may be an understatement.

Then again, as I was enjoying a few farewell drinks last Friday with friends my most favourite of all distractions it occurred to me that diversions and distractions are a most unavoidable yet important part of life. If you lived in a cave all your years and only ever saw dark rocks, you wouldn't be able to write about much else than rocks, right? So here's to taking but a brief respite from familiar distractions, vices and experiences in Sydney (and all the influences they have on my writing), and discovering new distractions, vices and experiences in small-town America. May the writing flow readily between drinks, and may distraction always, joyfully, be a part of my life.

Over the next several months I look forward to sharing a few of the experiences that small'town America has to offer here in Ezy Reading, and with luck, perhaps I'll find something of an idyllic writing retreat away from Sydney... at least for a little while.

Ezy Reading is out every Monday.