​April is on the horizon so I’ve signed up for the annual CampNaNo as part of the NaNoWriMo.org challenge. On the official website*, I’ve set a personal goal of 50,000 words given that I have a new book to draft - I might as well treat it as a November project and make the most of the coming month.
 
My only difficulty was thinking up a working title for this new project. Authors rarely select their book titles so I don’t get hung up on such tasks nowadays. But I do like a working title which makes it easier to reference whilst discussing with readers or mentioning on this blog. Seriously, it makes me laugh, I can produce a hundred thousand words yet can’t think of a suitable or likeable working title for a project! 

* press the highlight for a link

My brand-new beautiful cover for book 3 in my Shetland series has arrived!

​Pippa has long felt like the odd one out in her family. Taking a job driving a mobile bakery van around Shetland's villages gives her a sense of freedom and purpose, but also makes her realise how much she wants to belong.

Natalia has recently returned to Lerwick hoping to reconnect with an old flame. But she's engulfed by loss and rejection when she hears that he's moved on, and Natalia's world is turned upside down.

Autumn is dedicated to her job in hospitality and relishes her role as general manager of Lerwick Manor's new hotel. No guest request is too big or too small, but her own unrelentingly high standards could push Autumn to her limits.

Will the beauty of Shetland help these three women find the friendship, support and healing that they all need?

​Available for preorder: here

Ahoy, I’m back. I took a few weeks off having submitted my fourth and final book of the series, ‘A Shetland Christmas Carol’ to my publishers. The final week was a strange situation, one I’ve never encountered before, as the proofread for Shetland book 3 arrived on my desk. Timelines and deadlines tend to cross over in this business, so it was strange having two books in the system, at different stages, both requiring my attention. Daunting but doable, so yeah, I took some time out to recover from the long hours once both tasks were complete. 
 
And then, I read, sketched, painted, sewed and dog walked my way towards a planning session and a brand-new book was born. And, the joy starts again! I’m a few weeks into writing draft 1 having taken it at a leisurely pace so far. There’s a 24 hour write-a-thon organised by London Writers’ Salon starting on Friday, 25th March so I’ve signed up and intend to write a fair amount during the challenge. I won’t be present for the entire duration, as this girl needs her sleep, but I’ll definitely be attending the majority of hourly sessions. I’m treating it as a ‘stay-at-home-writers-retreat’ so I’ll fill the fridge with goodies and plod along with my word count. Update: I managed to write for 17 hour of the 24 hour stint (I need sleep nowadays) adding 14,854 words to my latest WIP.

Experiment news - my handwritten book is coming along nicely. I'll let you know when I start the typing process; it'll be a messy situation, for sure!
 
 
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