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I'm not quite sure how, but I have half of a draft of my next book. I only submitted the last one three weeks ago and I tried, I truly tried to take a break. But breaks are off now because my next book has reached the 'entropy' stage. It's starting to settle into order. … Continue reading Order from Chaos

Sometimes I feel like my books write me, rather than the other way around. That's why it's so hard to say it's done. But it's done. Music-inspired Christmas book is finished. And I'm a different person from who I was when I started writing it at the end of January. This book baby has been … Continue reading Bye-bye Book Baby

Processing possibilities and impossibilities is a human habit and the reason why we love both romances and crime novels, is the reason my kids make their toys kill each other. We're constantly processing the world we experience (increasingly through media) and trying to construct sense from it. I'm fascinated by the complex dialogue about creativity, … Continue reading Life Imitating Art

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 … Continue reading Music/Christmas Draft – Tick!

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 … Continue reading RELIEF

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 … Continue reading Patterns and Connections

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 … Continue reading Work, Work, Work

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 … Continue reading Request #2

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. … Continue reading Spanglish

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 … Continue reading Moving On