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 …

New Book Out This Year!

Happy New Year! This isn't a New Year post, I did that last week - it's the first Monday of the month, so this is a post about my writing projects. This time last year I was preparing for the release of Grace & Serenity. And oh, what plans I had for books signings and …

Lockdown 2 – Electric Boogaloo

It's Sunday morning, in my world (although you're reading this on Monday or maybe even later than that). Usually by now, I've got my post written and scheduled because I work on Monday mornings and it's one of the few things I'm organised about. This week has been manic, with seeing family, friends, work, my …

Making it up as I go along

The observant among you will note that I've changed my blogging day to Monday. When I decided I'd post a series of interviews, I was going to do them on the third Monday of each month but continue posting around the Thursday/Friday as well. I realised that was a little unfair on my interviewees because …

Off-schedule

I have a schedule. I printed out a year-to-a-page calendar, and scribbled all over it for working on my current draft, so I can work on something brand new before getting down to the edits for next year's release. And at the beginning of the summer, it felt easily achievable. Mostly because I wasn't going …

Alas, poor study…

I live in a three-bedroom house - or as I like to call it, a two-bedroom house with study. Sometimes it's my study, sometimes it's a bedroom. With the imminent return of my eldest from university, today it's a study, tomorrow it will be a bedroom again. Old StudyThe Place Where My New Desk Will …

Holding my breath

Bear with me, because I have no idea what I'm going to write today. I know I want to write something - the whole point of returning to my blog was to do it regularly - but... oh my god, I did not sleep well last night. I watched 1:15 disappear into the darkness, and …

Spring is springing

After some very cold and snowy weather, today felt properly Spring-like. This is what a happy dog looks like, once he's run around and exhausted himself! The awesome thing about this time of the year is waking up when it's light, strolling rather than rushing to get through errands, and being able to sit outside …

A weekend in Bristol

A few people have asked how my day at the Indie Pop-Up Signing in Bristol, this weekend, went. So, whenever I'm asked a question that requires more than a one-syllable reply, I blog about it 🙂 I've not done a signing on this scale before, so I wasn't sure what to expect. Everyone else seemed …

To write a novel, don’t write a short story instead!

  This month, I have mostly been side-tracked by the Commonwealth Writers Short Story Prize, which is a huge international competition that I've entered for the past couple of years. Normally, I've had a story that I can refresh for this, and send off without too much fuss. But this year I had nothing. At …