It is already day three of my holiday/writers retreat, located in my ever so glamorous front room. I spent the first two days doing another edit of Dawn and the Duke. And now, today, I should be starting my next novel. Yet again, I am paralysed by indecision and doubt…

I have just started the two weeks of leave that I took purely to write. I figured if I could have two weeks just to write I can get some momentum going again and be able to keep that momentum going once I go back to work.

I started this…

Okay, I know what you are thinking, “you were dating a man with kids; what did you think would happen?” Well, to be brutally honest, not this.
For starters, I have never had a relationship last longer than three years. That was my first marriage, so to be fair, most of…

So I just got some feedback on my query letter and synopsis from my editor. Would anyone like to explain to me why the hell I didn’t ask for help sooner?
I mean, really, what did I think I hoped to achieve trying to do it on my own when…

More rejections came through over the last couple of weeks. And I was doing okay. Only a small amount of self-doubt had taken hold. But the request for a full manuscript could only buoy me up for so long. Weirdly the letter that got to me was this one;

I’m…

I take it that this parent you are hooking up with is pretty amazing. And not just in bed. I mean, they must be for you to change your entire life.
Because that is what you are doing. You are changing your life forever. All the Facebook posts of parents showing…

So as you know, I am currently pitching my book Bloody Dawn and The Duke to literary agents. Once a week, I log into Query tracker set the filters to Open to Submissions, Urban Fantasy. Then I scan the lists of agents and choose a couple. I look at their…

Don’t. Seriously, just don’t.

So you have fallen in love with someone who has kids.
Runaway.
Seriously just runaway.
Do you know how stepmothers are portrayed?
Do you know why?
No one likes stepmothers.
You are the lowest of the low.
I mean, what were you thinking?
Are you the mothering type?
This is not mothering.
Are you someone who…