Am I a journalist yet? Well, I'm published at least.

Living in shared house with three messy boys and writing features in the time that I'm not holding down an almost full-time call centre job is not a lifestyle which is particularly conducive to feeling like a professional adult.

In fact, whenever I sit down to write a feature it feels like I'm doing a university assignment that I'm waiting to be graded, just to prove to myself and to whoever I'm writing for that I'm worthy of a journalism qualification. I wonder when that's going to go away?

On the plus side, I have my first feature published in 3SIXTY magazine. If you're nosy/a friend/a follower/a fan (I wish), then you can download the current issue here: http://www.3sixtymag.co.uk/index.php?s=downloads

This week I've been mostly working on another feature for 3SIXTY and having to face one of my biggest fears: Telephone interviews with important people. I wonder if there's a name for this particular phobia? Probably not. Given the fact that I'm qualified as a journalist, I was trained in public speaking and I work in an outbound call centre, this fear clearly makes no sense.

I also have an irrational fear of answering machines. They just make me gabble like a possessed, crazy person. If I need to leave a message on somebody's answer machine, I have to actually write down what I'm going to say, and have it in front of me as a script. Is that pathetic? Or have a I just worked in too many call centres?

In an attempt to fight my fear and minimise note-taking-induced flustering, I got an exciting new toy today... an in-ear microphone. It's actually incredible. It fits in your ear like an ear-phone, but it's a microphone so you can record your telephone interviews. I coveted the one that I got to use for the week I was at The Sunday Times, so I bought my own. I'd recommend it - it beats balancing the phone in between your shoulder and your head so you can take shorthand notes.

Also, and finally, I have been invited to contribute to a book review blog, http://lepetitbookworm.wordpress.com/, by a fellow blogger JoWrites (aka BigMouthBlogGirl), so I can finally indulge myself and put my English Literature degree to good use at the same time. Fabulous.