Confusion, concentration, and spontaneity

Hello! Or should that be, hello? This Covid head of mine is playing tricks on time. I wake most days convinced it's still March and completely unsure of which day it is. This is important because I work shifts - I'd rather not turn up in the afternoon to discover my shift was in the …

Merry Christmas, everyone

Another interesting year is coming to an end. I started it with three months of furlough, returned to work, finished a novel, published a novel (you might have heard?), had a lockdown-themed short story published (All the Magpies Come Out to Play @ Fairlight Books), worried I might lose my job, heard my job was …

Practising what I preach

After writing a blog post a few weeks ago on ways to return to normality after a book launch and the writing break which is required, I have done no such thing! So I'm definitely failing at practising what I preach. Here are some things I haven't done recently: Blogged, or visited many of youKept …

Small Forgotten Moments has arrived!

After months of planning and waiting and thinking and nail-biting, Small Forgotten Moments has left the building. If you've pre-ordered, it's winging its way to you, or has possibly already arrived. Today I shall mostly be jumping up and down, having lunch with my family, and breathing a sigh of contented relaxation. It's all over, …

When everything converges

Photo by Ron Lach on Pexels.com This is me right now. Well, obviously not actually me, I don't look like this - but I'm too knackered to look good in a photo right now! This week we helped Eldest Child move to Bristol - emotional exhaustion.We stayed in a hotel for a couple of nights …

July (so far) round-up

A few weeks ago I spoke about being busy. Well, what happened next was I signed up for a sponsored step challenge in aid of Diabetes UK, and started taking very long walks with Artoo. As you can see, he's loving it! My aim is to walk 1.7 million steps over the course of July, …

Absorbed into different worlds

It's common for readers to be pulled into the world of the book we're reading, to have characters so well-drawn we feel we know them and miss them when the story concludes. But did you realise authors feel exactly the same way? We live with these characters, in these worlds we've created, far longer than …

The middle of April already!

Well, I told you I was busy! Two and a half weeks since my last blog post! My major achievement this week has been still having an Easter egg and a half left over (if I was writing this an hour ago, it would half been an Easter egg and three-quarters 😉) The edits I …

Spreadsheets, statistics, and sums

Photo by Campaign Creators on Unsplash It's not the headline you expect for an author, right? It should be more words, plots, and sentence construction shouldn't it? Yet the more I write, the more maths I seem to have to do! Because, marketing! Getting my books in front of the readers who need to read …

Distraction and procrastination

The beta reads for WIP 1 are coming back. The general consensus is it's good, messy, and stuff doesn't work (but not the same stuff for each reader, which is to be expected). And in response to their notes, I've made my own notes of what needs to change which doesn't even correspond to anyone …