So, same old story.  The first four chapters go well.  The characters feel new and fresh and the plot full of potential.  It’s going to be a good one, I think smugly.  Then I hit Chapter Five.  There’s something about those middle chapters, Five to Seven, which turns the whole business into a chore.  Enthusiasm gives you the momentum to get going, and then everything starts to slow down until you suddenly find that you’ve got to Chapter Eight and you’ve still got half the plot to fit in, and it all ends in a rush.  At the weekend, I got bogged down in an incredibly boring scene in Chapter Six that I knew would have to go, but somehow I couldn’t get myself out of it.  But whenever I complained to friends about how it was going, they would mime yawns to show they’d heard it all before, so I suppose I’ll just have to plod on.  I’ve nearly finished Chapter Seven, which means that things should start looking up, but my timetable is beginning to look increasingly tight …

Big excitement, though, when the website registered 1000 hits, so we are planning an appropriate celebration.  Many thanks to all those of you who have logged on and sent messages and generally reminded me that the books I write don’t in fact disappear into a void!  I’ve got three anthologies of some very early Jessica Harts to give away, so if you’ve been one of those who’ve helped bump us to the Big M, and would like a copy, send me a message with your address, and I’ll put one in the post to you – first come, first served!