There's only one more week before I fly out to Australia for Readers and Writers Downunder. I am so excited and terrified all in one. This is my first signing, first opportunity to meet readers. I've mostly packed my bags already. Full of books at least. ;)

And I'm working on Rebecca's story. It was coming along quite nicely until I came up with a little twist today. :D At this stage, it's just a small diversion.

I have a lot more to come in the next year or so. Next up will be the first book in my new series under my real name and I have another book planned that I think will be better under that brand too. But we'll see!

The release of Something Real has led to a couple of people asking questions about how close it is to my life just because they know I'm a mother of two who writes romantic fiction.

My story is a little different to Olivia's. I'm happily married with two children (a boy and a girl), and my moment to start writing again came when my youngest was around eighteen months old and I was looking for something to do for myself.

I love being a wife and mother, not to mention a service delivery manager in my day job, but I wanted something just for me. Most of my hobbies centred around needlecraft, and with a young child who loved putting things in her mouth, I wasn't keen on having sharp objects around. She's also one of those kids who somehow manages to get into everything, so I wasn't prepared to take the risk.

When I was at school, I wanted to be a journalist. I loved the writing, but decided I wasn't keen on the actual journalism part. I'm quite the introvert, and the thought of going out and interviewing people didn't appeal. In my head however, there were always fiction stories floating around. I decided at the very least I could just record them even if no one ever read them. 

So I started writing, and then a friend of mine published her own book. Check it out if you like historical fiction, it's gorgeous.  http://www.amazon.com/Tin-Tsaritsa-Rächal-Monigatti-ebook/dp/B00928V6QS/

That was when I realised you could do or organise everything yourself. 

Looking back, I had no real idea what I was doing. When the first book was ready I had no clue what to do. I uploaded it and fumbled my way around until I found some online resources that helped me. I kept writing while the sales slowly climbed and to cut a long story short, two years later I have eight full length books (one written as novellas and compiled into one book). 

Everything I've earned I've reinvested in my publishing, found an amazing editor to work with along the way, found a brilliant cover artist who does all my covers now. My writing is so much more than it was back when I started, and I have the readers and my editor to thank for that. Most importantly to me, I am still loving what I'm doing.

The similarities between Olivia and I are that we found people who support and believe in us. That has been such an important factor for me, and I wanted her to have that in her life as well. 

This was such a special book for me, I knew just how she felt as she wrote and published. While the rest of her life bares no resemblance to my own, it was pretty cool to celebrate my second anniversary of self-publishing writing a book including self-publishing. :D

Deciding what to do next was hard. I've started development on a series I want to do under my real name and I had started the first book with four more plotted out. Then, while I was writing Something Real, I could see another story coming out of it, Rebecca's story. She was such a cool character to write, and I had this awesome idea for her and wrote it all down, so I'm part way into that. 

Here's the blurb:

Rebecca Wallace spent her whole life trying to impress her father. He was often absent and she spent her childhood bouncing between him and her alcoholic mother, never settling.

Stifled by her world, she yearns to break free. When she starts a friends with benefits relationship with her next door neighbour, it’s like a delicious, dirty little secret that excites her, and at the same time she’s terrified her father will find out. Elliot isn’t like the boys Rebecca grew up with. He’s trying to find himself, bouncing from job to job, and a part time musician. Her father’s worst nightmare.

Rebecca watches her friend, Olivia, find the love of her life and longs to do the same. She doesn’t know if she’s mature enough to handle a grown-up romance, and the man she’s sleeping with is the least grown-up person she knows. Despite their differences, could Elliot be the right one? 


What I'm going to do is to put aside the other project. I need to put in a lot more time with that one and I haven't even set up Facebook, website etc to support it so that can go on the backburner for just a little while. Not for too long, though. ;)

Loving Rowan was only ever going to be a standalone book ...