Author: leoniemack

I’ve discovered one unexpected side-effect of the more meticulous planning I’ve done for my last two books. It give me a sense of urgency to get the thing written. Once I know what is going to happen, the drive to get it down is strong. The Christmas/Latin book has been intense. The interaction between the…

I’ve been dreading the little email icon on my phone screen. Every time something drops in, I’m dreading a no from either Mills and Boon about Tess and Diego’s manuscript or a no to my Carina Pitch proposal. The email from Mackenzie Walton at Carina Press dropped in today. She requested the full manuscript! My…

The human brain is truly amazing. At times like this, when I am up to my eyeballs in a story, it amazes me that we are able to create whole people, whole worlds that don’t really exist. And we are able to communicate these details to other people. I am deep in writing and planning…

My manuscript has gone, leaving only hope and a vein of anxiety. It gets a little easier each time I press that orange button. And now I get to start something new. I had to choose between writing the next in the series (which is actually a rewrite of Meg’s story, which I’ve partially outlined…

I was in a car in the Irish countryside a week before Christmas with some new acquaintances and it turned out we all had creative careers or side careers. I mentioned my romance novels, explaining it was early days yet and I had had only limited success with one publisher that ultimately led to a…

I love writing novels because it’s the opportunity to truly step into someone else’s shoes for a few months of your life. My second passion after writing fiction has always been learning languages. As my native language is English, it’s not easy to learn languages because everyone speaks my language better than I speak theirs.…

As the saying goes, I’m a real author now. I’ve had a manuscript rejected. And it’s taken me how long? to be able to write this blog post. It’s taken me exactly as long as it’s taken to finish the next manuscript. The feedback I received on the story of Meg and Jon was partly…

They’ve kissed! I’m pleased with how it worked out after getting stuck a few times. It was in the rain on a motorway shoulder. An unexpected amount of action takes place on motorway shoulders in this book. For all the glamorous locations, these two seem to be more honest about their feelings on motorway shoulders.…

Travelling alone, it seemed a good idea to stay at a hostel, rather than a single room in a hotel or pension somewhere. Despite being stuck out on an extremely late pub crawl that has made me slightly less productive today, it was the right choice. The best part of it has been explaining to…

Google Maps has changed my life. Travel before Google Maps involved a massive fold-out map from a tourist office and, when a bus was involved, terror of missing the stop. Getting lost is a thing of the past. I got myself home from the hostel pub crawl last night without even needing to stop and…