As you may have gathered, the website was dormant all last year while I concentrated on finishing my thesis, and then got caught up in some very pressurised deadlines to produce two books at the end of the year - not to mention crises on just about every front as life went awry there for a while! But all that is now in the past and things are now back on track … which leaves me no excuse not to get on with refreshing the website. I’ve always had a very positive response to the writing diary, so here it is again. I did try and think of a way to change the format, but was completely out of inspiration so it’s just what it was before – if this is your first visit, it’s a bit of a ramble about what I’ve been doing and where I’m at on the writing front (usually stuck!)

So … here I am, hoping that the effects of having to rewrite an absolutely disastrous book over Christmas aren’t going to be lasting. It was my fortieth book, and I suppose I thought I knew how to write a romance by then … WRONG! The story never seemed to click, and although it didn’t help that everything else in my life seemed to go wrong at the same time, I think a lot of my problems with it were due to the characters and the situation. I have to say that my editor was fantastically kind and understanding, and I would never have got to the end without her. I don’t know if any other authors have books that they come to loathe in the same way, but I certainly found it a humbling experience. In the end, the book did go through, and will be out in November, although I can hardly bear to think about it at the moment!

I am determined to do better in 2005. I have just started my first book of the year, having committed myself to three, which gives me blissfully relaxed deadlines for once (at least, they seem relaxed now - no doubt I’ll work myself up into a frenzy as each approaches). I must say, I do feel very positive about this book at the moment, although I have only got as far as a very rough, 30 page draft. It’s set in a local newspaper, and I’ve had fun creating a set of characters who can reappear in later books with stories or walk-on roles of their own. The hero, Mac, and heroine, Georgia, seem real to me, so I’m looking forward to writing their story – starting tonight as soon as I’ve finished this! I’m going to go for a longer draft of about 15 pages per chapter, as I have learnt through long experience that if I try for a finished version at this stage, I only get to Chapter 7 and then have to start all over again. But 15 pages (out of a final 17 or 18) gives me plenty of material to rework for the last draft. It would be nice to think that I could come back at the end of March and report that the first draft was finished, so I’ll aim for that … but I’m not committing myself to any timetables just yet!