Hello! It’s been such a long time with no update, I thought it was time I posted something! It’s autumn, it’s my favourite season, and it’s the perfect time to step back and assess how the year is going.

> Writing/publishing.
You may have noticed that I haven’t had a new book out for a while now, and although that wasn’t the original plan for this year, it’s how things have ended up. I am still writing – writing quite a lot, actually! I’ve completed two novels this year, one of which I think is the best thing I’ve ever written, and one of which I think is probably the second best thing I’ve ever written. I’ve also completed three novellas, and have made a couple of starts on new novels.

When it comes to publishing, I came very close to being traditionally published this year, unfortunately it fell through at the last minute, but it did make me realise that it’s still my dream. It’s why I’m going to take the novel mentioned above – the one I think is the best thing I’ve ever written – and attempt to go the traditional publishing route. Once I’ve had a bit of space from it and edited it to within an inch of it’s life, I’m going to send it out to agents. Yes, I know how hard it is to be noticed in the slush piles, I know it’s a long process, but I feel this book deserves a chance. It was one of those rare (really, really rare!) stories that quite literally wrote itself – you know the kind where you sit down at the laptop and look up two hours later to discover you’ve written six thousand words and the characters have done things that were completely unplanned by you? This book was the easiest thing I’ve ever written, but also the longest, and the one written in the shortest amount of time – from idea to finished 127k word draft in under two months. I spent every spare second writing it and loved every moment. That doesn’t happen very often, and I think when it does, it means you’ve got something special.

So, yes, all the writing has meant that actually releasing any books has fallen by the wayside. The sequel to Not Pretty Enough was supposed to be out this summer but I haven’t had time to work on editing it, and I’d also planned to release a Christmas novella, but upon re-reading it, I’ve decided that it’s just not good enough. I intend to re-write it during the festive season this year, along with another festive novella, and hopefully have it up to scratch by next year.

So that’s about it from me! Happy autumn/winter season, everyone! (Let’s ignore the fact it’s been winter in the UK since July!) How is your year going? Tell me in the comments! Have you met any goals or got any still to meet?