Month: August 2019

There was a point earlier in this year, just after I finished writing A Step too Far where there was absolutely nothing that I wanted to write. It was the first time since I started writing that this has happened. I didn’t mention it to anyone. I didn’t admit to it. I just thought, okay, nine books, maybe that’s it. There was a little part of me that also thought it could be good if I’m being honest. I could go back to teaching full-time and actually make a proper income again. So because there was nothing appealing to write I figured I may as well knuckle down and write books that ‘should’ be written, rather than books I particularly wanted to so I started on Temporary Insanity and Rebellion. Rebellion got kind of pushed to the side as I made a decision to concentrate on Temporary Insanity.

Why am I writing this? Am I writing it to say that you can still write if you force yourself to do it. Nope. I’m writing this to say that I really miss that silence because the plot bunnies are all over the damn place at the moment.

This is my brain at the moment and I’m not going to edit this.

You have that 10k story to finish that’s now 27k. Finish that. But you need to get your Christmas story written over September. That’s the priority. When are you going to finish Rebellion? You really should finish that. Why are you spending so much time thinking about the characters in the urban apocalyptic story you want to write – you know the one with the blurb but no words. I know you want to write it but you can’t yet in case you get carried away and the Christmas story doesn’t happen. You’ve booked editing for the Christmas story. What about that dark fantasy story you started? When are you going to write that? What about Russell’s story?You came up with an idea for his love interest yesterday when you went for a walk. Paul and Indy should have a Christmas story, you know. Not this year. It’s too late for this year. But maybe next year. You’re already got an idea where they were and it’ll explain where they were during Dom and Tristan’s story. You know you’re going to write it. That’s why you called it book 1. Write that and Russell’s story and you can write the wedding. Oh, that’s how the Edge of Living sequel might work for having a similar-ish tone to the first one. Good idea. You should write that one day. That 27k story would be really easy to do spin-offs from. How about you write some more novellas linked to it. What about that story about the gymnast you were going to write? That would be good before the Olympics. What are you going to write for the 10k story now. You came up with two ideas. Which one?

Yeah, I kind of miss the silence.

The plot bunnies seem to have bred out of control.

I had a bit of a wake-up call recently. I know I’m a perfectionist and hard on myself. But I didn’t realise quite how much I look at the things I need to work on and don’t take any time to celebrate the successes I have until recently.

What gave me the wake-up call? A friend of mine once bought me a small bottle of expensive champagne for giving up my time and helping her with something. I say a friend. It was that long ago (probably about ten years) that she stopped talking to me about five years ago over a misunderstanding over a text message. I know. But that’s another story. Anyway, another friend said to me a while ago. “I can’t believe you haven’t drunk that champagne yet.” My answer. “I haven’t had any champagne moments.”

I thought about my answer later and had a bit of an epiphany over what I’d said and thought about all the events and milestones I’d had that would and probably should have been classed as champagne moments. I’m going to list them below in roughly chronological order. I’m sure there’s probably more that I don’t even remember but these are the most obvious.

• Got a promotion to a management role in my teaching job.
• Left that job. Got the first job I went for, even though it was in a Secondary school.
• Got my first book accepted by a publisher.
• 1st book was published in December 2015.
• 2nd book was accepted by a publisher.
• 2nd book was published.
• 2nd book stayed in US top 100 for gay romance for months.
• Learned to self-publish and self-published 3rd book when the publisher shut down.
• Wrote and released 6 more books.
• Had a medical diagnosis which was a hell of a lot better than what had been running through my head for months.
• Had an audiobook company contact me, asking for the rights of a series. Signed Contract.
• Had an Italian translator contact me, asking for the rights of the same series. Signed contract.

So yeah, no champagne moments.

Why am I writing this? On August 29th I’m releasing my 10th book. And do you know what. I’m going to drink that damn champagne- lol.