Pen to Paper: Missing in Action

Hey everyone!
How are you all doing? It's been a long time! Much, much longer than I thought (and hoped) it would be, in fact. You may have noticed that I haven't really been around much over the last month and a half (aside from Wishlist Wednesday and the odd First Page Friday), and this is something that I have really hated, but it was, unfortunately, something that needed to happen. I know that I don't have to explain why I have been away, but I feel as though I owe it to you all, seeing as you've stuck with me, even though I've been away.

I was ill for nearly 3 weeks at the beginning of October, and this is what started everything. Since then I've been trying to get through a huge personal problem, and adjust to a large change in my life. This has been, as I expected, enormously difficult, perhaps even more so than I'd originally thought.
Add to this the fact that I had University assignment deadlines looming, and because of my illness and personal problems, was unable to concentrate on this properly, and I'm left with perhaps one of the most difficult couple of months of my life so far. I hadn't even been able to concentrate on reading my books!

Thankfully though, I am beginning to come out of the other end, and things are starting to look much brighter. My assignments have been handed in (after a gratefully received deadline extension), I'm no longer ill, I am finally able to concentrate enough to sit and read my books, and I'm starting to become much happier and more optimistic in general.
Like I said before, I have really hated being away so much - if I could have changed things, I wouldn't have been away at all - but it was unfortunate that the ways things suddenly went in my life, meant that I wasn't able to sit and blog.
I'm really appreciative of all of - especially those who I was able to keep in contact with on twitter - all of the support you've given me has been incredible and I can't thank you enough for that!

So what's going to happen now? Well, I have a huge amount to catch up on. I have reviews that are sitting unwritten, books left unfinished and giveaway winners undrawn. I feel terrible about all of these things, and over the next week, between starting on my next assignments for University, I will be working my way through these things. So if you've entered my giveaways recently, do not fear - you may still have won! Keep an eye on your inboxes :)
And also look out for plenty of reviews coming over the next few days - I'd read some awesome books before this happened, and I've finished some awesome books over the last few days - so there are some great reviews coming!

Thank you again for all of your support, and I look forward to being a proper part of the community again! :)
Loads of love to all of you!