I hope you are all doing ok during lockdown.
It dawned on me this week (yes, I am sometimes that slow) that working from home is a new concept for a lot of people but something I have been doing on and off for years. In my previous life as a project manager I would occasionally work from home when I needed to focus on something with minimal interruptions - being in an open office can have its challenges. As an author I now spend all my time typing away in our spare bedroom. So in the spirit of sharing and caring, here are my top tips for working from home.
1.    Set and stick to a routine – whilst it may look and feel like the longest of weekends it’s not and you are meant to be working. So setting a start time, break and lunch times will help to give your day structure. Try not to work all hours, this isn’t healthy and it’s not sustainable. Stop working at the time you would usually leave work.
2.    Drink plenty – this does not mean gin or wine (unless you are editing a book then this is completely acceptable). I have a regular supply of tea but I also try to drink water. Leaving your seat to get a drink also provides a little break from the screen see next point.
3.    Take regular breaks – if only to stretch your legs and avoid deep vein thrombosis. It’s good to give your eyes a rest from the screen and it’s hard to concentrate for hours on end. Go and do star jumps for a couple of minutes and you’ll feel energised… or get another cup of tea, either is good.
4.   Sit properly – I don’t mean to sound like a schoolteacher, but this will make a difference. If you are slumped or overstretched, you will cause yourself backache. So find somewhere where you can sit with your eyes at the right angle for your screen, your back supported and your feet flat on the floor. Your chiropractor will thank you.
5.    Use natural light – if you can then sit by a window. It’s better for your eyes and it’s far more pleasant than staring at a wall. However, watch out for distractions. It’s amazing how engaging sparrows can be when you are bored.
6.    Dress comfortably – You’re at home, make the most of it. Yes, you can wear pyjamas, unless you have your annual review with your boss by video call then maybe not. Otherwise wear what you like.
7.    Let others in the house know you are working – this is a tricky one. Other people at home will treat it like it’s the weekend and interrupt you. Try to manage their interactions. At breakfast I share what I’m working on that day and hopefully convey whether it’s a day I can take some interruptions or one where I need to be left alone. I find a sign on the door also helps as a reminder when they reach for the handle because they must show you a funny dog meme.
8.    Biscuits and other snacks – personally I think they are essential to working from home. They are a lovely perk but need rationing or your bum will grow to the size of a bouncy castle and you will have to be craned from your home under the watchful eye of neighbours and possibly local television news.
Have fun and stay safe.

On the 12th February 2015 my debut novel 'It Started At Sunset Cottage' was published. It was a very special day and one I genuinely hadn't dreamt of because people like me didn't get published. I had set out to see if I could finish writing a whole book, nothing more. So this was the end of that journey. Only it wasn't.
The last five years have gone by in a flash but I have learned a lot along the way.

1. Being published is just the start – It often feels like your first book being published is the end of the journey when in fact it is just the start. For many of us we have been writing for years before we get our big break. That first book is actually the trigger for a cycle. There is an overlap between books where you are often promoting one book, editing the next and writing a third. If you are also juggling a day job this gets a bit tricky. Also, like me, you may have had fifteen years to write and polish your debut novel but will likely be looking at 6 – 12 months for book 2 which is somewhat of a shock.
2. Publishing is unique - The business of publishing is very different to the corporate world I was used to. There are many positives – firstly the people in publishing are both very professional and truly lovely, which is quite a rare combination. Their focus is about getting books out there and they work like crazy to achieve this. The publishing industry lacks the bureaucracy and rigidity of the corporate world. It might be my name on the cover but there is a huge team of very talented people who all come together to produce my book to the best possible standard and get it into the hands of readers. 
3. Find Your Tribe – I have made some wonderful friends over the last five years who I know I will cherish for a lifetime. Do not underestimate the value of finding like-minded individuals. Nobody else, however well intentioned, can truly understand the ups, down and frustrations of being a writer other than other writers. Seek them out either through local groups or national associations. If you are a romance writer I cannot recommend the Romantic Novelists’ Association highly enough – the support you will find there is second to none and they have the best parties!
4. Editing, editing, editing! - What you submit is not what will be published. I’m not a fan of editing. However, I recognise that it is a necessary evil – and evil it is. You have submitted your manuscript and your editor loves it hurray! But then they send you pages of reasons why it has to change. Cue – confusion and self-doubt. If they love it why do they want me to change it? Because it will make it better. You won’t realise that the first time you read the structural edits but after you’ve pummelled a cushion and reread it you will see that your editor is a most wise and helpful sort and the edits will only improve your story. 
5. Success is not guaranteed – Thousands of books are published every year and only a handful will get a big marketing push from their publisher and only a few will sell in big enough numbers to hit the bestsellers lists. Don’t despair! You can learn to market your book without it feeling too cringeworthy and if you’ve built a good support network they will help you with this too. Even despite your best marketing efforts the odds of you being an overnight success are slim - it took Katie Fforde 8 years ;-) You need to be in this for the long haul. Celebrate every small success because none of this is guaranteed. Nobody knows which books will fly and which will tank and sadly the latter is rarely a reflection of the writing but only of reader choice. Whatever happens – never, ever give up!

 
 

It's a common dream authors have that one day their book will make it onto the big screen. Sadly in reality this very rarely happens. But that doesn't stop authors day dreaming about who they would like to cast in key roles. So here is my fantasy cast list for A Walk In Wildflower Park:
Anna Strickland played by Jenna Coleman
Meet Anna - Anna’s been dumped by her fiancé. She’s rebuilding her life without men but Hudson Jones is her work nemesis and now she’s got texts from a cute stranger. Anna is petite and feisty but kind to the core. She takes in a giant rescue cat Maurice and gets more than she bargained for when she meets his previous owner Bert.
Sophie Butterworth played by Roisin Conarty
Meet Sophie - Sophie is a stressed out mum with feral kids trying to juggle life, work and daily mess. She’s Anna’s best friend and together they can get through anything. She uses a series of child-friendly swear words to help her cope with her well meaning, but thoughtless, husband Dave.
Hudson Jones played by Zac Efron
Meet Hudson - Hudson Jones is the new guy at work with an intriguing past and the ability to make all the women swoon. Right now this chilled out American is a thorn in Anna’s side until he becomes helpful fending off her ex. 
Albert 'Bert' Freeman played by James Bolam
Meet Bert - Bert is unhappy about being in a nursing home and is missing his best friend Maurice. He and Anna strike up an unlikely friendship over coffee and the newspapers.

If you can't wait until it's snapped up by Hollywood you can always read the book!

(This is not an approach I would recommend.)
 

• Always keep a notepad at the side of your bed. Wake up in the middle of the night with the best idea ever and write this down. Next morning puzzle over the blankness of your pristine notepad and the intelligible scrawl on your bedside coaster.
• Spend hours researching very minor points on the Internet. N.B. Always include an animal character in your stories so that watching puppies and kittens on YouTube can be classed as valid research.
• Don’t worry that a single light bulb moment can have you spending the next two months building this up into a story in your mind. N.B. to the outside world it may appear that you are doing nothing.
• Buy a large supply of custard creams and bulk purchase fish fingers so that the family don’t starve while you are chasing a deadline and writing in your pyjamas.
• Write detailed character profiles so you can understand these people and their motivations. Spend too long deciding on which celebrities they most resemble so that you can add a picture to said profile. N.B. Remember to do a character profile for the cat/dog/guinea pig so that you can enjoy more guilt free YouTube video watching.
• Buy lots of post-it notes in all available colours and sizes. You CAN NOT have too many of these. They are mainly used for plotting out the story threads and timeline but also come in handy for writing down general reminders when you are ‘in the zone’. Reminder notes may include: Feed cat/Dismantle giant cobweb/Check if child has been to school recently.
• Start writing. Be in awe of amazing word count. At this rate you’ll have all 100k words done by a week next Tuesday.
• Get distracted by shiny new story idea and forget about novel you are meant to be writing. Realise shiny new idea is not Booker prizewinner and reluctantly go back to the other story.
• Hate your crappy characters and stupid novel so much that you want to dig a large hole in the garden to bury your computer in (and possibly yourself depending on degrees of crapness.)
• Force yourself to finish the utter pile of poo that is your novel. Have a cursory read through before you plan to ceremoniously burn it and discover to your delight that it’s not entirely poo, in fact some parts of it are actually quite good.
• Edit, edit, edit and re-edit until you are back to believing it is definitely poo.
• Give it to your partner to read and stand over them to check they laugh in the right places.
• Send to your editor, pour yourself a large glass of gin and state firmly that next time it will be different.
• Return to first bullet point.

As gin features in my latest novel Coming Home to Ottercombe Bay I needed to do some research into the subject whilst writing the book. Quite a lot of research as it turned out!
I found that I quaffed a variety of gins, all in the name of research obviously and that is probably the first point, that there are now so many different gins on offer.
I also learned a number of interesting facts. (Feel free to liberally scatter these into polite conversation to make yourself look clever and informed rather than just a gin soak.)
My first proper research was at a local pub where they were holding a gin night. Harry Yates from Burleigh Gin Distillery came to give a talk and while everyone else was sipping the different gins and munching the posh crisps I was scribbling down notes.
 
The history of gin is a little sketchy, most likely due in no small part to its consumption, but here’s what I learned:

• It was originally called Genever or Jenever
• Genever is referenced as far back as the 1500’s
• It was invented as a medicine
• There are a number of locations that claim to be where genever was first produced, most notably, Belgium and The Netherlands, however, it may well have been discovered by Italian monks as far back as the 11th century
• It traveled across Europe as medicine and was given to ward off The Plague making it widespread
• It was first sold as a drink in the Netherlands
• When William of Orange invaded Britain in 1688 he stopped the import of French favourites wine and brandy and instead imported gin from Holland
• It is associated with the Dutch who used to drink it before going into battle this is where the phrase ‘Dutch courage’ comes from
• The classic gin and tonic came about as gin was added to medicinal tonic water which was taken in India as an anti malaria treatment and the gin took the edge off the bitterness.

 
I went to a gin festival held in the stunning surroundings of the old Coventry Cathedral. Possibly an odd choice for such an event but quite lovely. Here there was an unbelievable array of gins to try which was quite overwhelming. The large number of people in attendance shows just how popular it has become. I got to chat to a number of the companies with displays at the event and learned more interesting facts:

• Gin is actually juniper flavoured vodka - who knew?
• Most of the juniper used is picked wild. Almost none is cultivated
• British sailors used to receive a daily rum ration but officers got a daily gin ration
• The country with the highest gin consumption is the Philippines
• London Dry Gin doesn’t refer to its place of origin. This is a style standard introduced to improve the general quality of gin production
• The Gin Act of 1751 banned any still that had a capacity of less than 1,800 litres
• In 2009 Sipsmith won a two-year legal battle with HMRC for the right to produce gin in small quantities rather than on an industrial scale.

 
It is this last fact that has led to the recent upsurge in small distillery gin production in the UK which has heralded the boom in the industry and oodles of choice for us the consumer. Flavoured gins are particularly popular ranging from rhubarb to tomato. Gin is a key ingredient in many cocktails but I still think you can’t beat a good old gin and tonic. So grab yourself your drink of choice, curl up and see how my research informed my latest novel Coming Home to Ottercombe Bay.

It’s been a while since I did a blog post but as I started to accumulate a number of wonderfully Christmassy books I thought it might be something to share.
Christmas books seem so much more prevalent now than they used to be and as it’s a time of year that I love then the more books the better! And who doesn’t like to snuggle up with a roaring fire and a good book?
So here is a list of the Christmas books that I am looking forward to reading over the next 10 weeks as we countdown to Christmas! (If you like the look of any of them then just click and it will take you to Amazon for more information.)
 
Christmas at the Cornish Café – Phillipa Ashley
Berties Gift – Hannah Coates
Comfort & Joy – Cathy Bramley
The Christmas Promise – Sue Moorcroft
The Holiday Swap – Zara Stoneley
Christmas at the Little Wedding Shop – Jane Linfoot
Christmas at the Comfort Food Café – Debbie Johnson
Christmas Under a Cranberry Sky – Holly Martin
One Christmas in Paris – Mandy Baggot
A Christmas Day at the Office – Matt Dunn
 
Let’s get started – could someone please fetch me a mince pie and some mulled wine?
What are you looking forward to reading this festive season?

The heroine in my latest novel ‘A Family Holiday’ is Charlie French who is an unconventional nanny to four quirky children. Charlie had an unsettled childhood and as a result had anger issues but being resourceful she came up with her own method for managing them effectively – The Kipper List.
The Kipper List was a long list of people that Charlie would like to beat around the head with a wet kipper as an alternative to losing her temper with them.
 
So in reverse order here is my current Kipper List:
 
7. The woman that jumped the queue at the self-checkout in my local supermarket and despite realising what she’d done and saying sorry she still carried on and put her shopping through! Rude!
6. My chest of drawers – Yes, of course you can have inanimate objects on the list! My chest of drawers is so full that when I open the top drawer all the others come with it and the bottom one bashes me in the ankle.
5. Donald Trump – I don’t think this one needs any explanation and a wet kipper to the head could only improve that hair.
4. A Blackbird (I don’t have its name) – the one that thinks it’s a good idea to make a noise like an irate alarm clock outside my bedroom window at silly o’clock most mornings.
3. Father Christmas – What? I’m still waiting for those roller boots.
2. Kylo Ren – I will never get over the loss of Han Solo.
1. Lorraine Bowen – Lorraine rose to fame when she sung The Crumble Song on Britain’s Got Talent and received the Golden Buzzer from David Walliams. Twelve months on this song is still being sung repeatedly by my child and it’s driving me potty! Grrr!
 
Who would be on your Kipper List?
 

Oh my word it's been an exciting week and it's only Wednesday!
On Monday the Joan Hessayon Award contenders were announced and I was thrilled that It Started At Sunset Cottage is on the list. The Romantic Novelists' Association is amazingly supportive and this award is just another way that it showcases new authors that have come through its New Writer's Scheme. Yet again the list of contenders is chock full of first class reads.The full shortlist for 2016 is:

• Her Forget-Me-Not Ex by Sophie Claire, Accent Press
• Letting in Light by Emma Davies, Amazon Media
• Take a Chance on Me by Debbie Flint, Choc Lit
• A Street Café Named Desire by R J Gould, Accent Press
• The Gunner Girl by Clare Harvey, Simon & Schuster UK
• Waiting for You by Catherine Miller, Carina
• It Started at Sunset Cottage by Bella Osborne, HarperImpulse
• Remarkable Things by Deirdre Palmer, Crooked Cat Publishing
• The Giants Look Down by Sonja Price, Robert Hale
• Sense and French Ability by Ros Rendle, Endeavour Press
• The Hidden Legacy by Julie Roberts, Accent Press
• The Friendship Tree by Helen J Rolfe, Crooked Cat Publishing
• French Kissing by Lynne Shelby, Accent Press
• The Cherry Tree Café by Heidi Swain, Simon & Schuster UK

The winner will be announced at the RNA Summer Party in four weeks time which is always a lovely evening, so I can't wait!

As if that weren't enough excitement for one week, yesterday Harper Impulse did a cover reveal for my second book 'A Family Holiday' which is due out on 16th June. It is such a summery cover and it displays a terrific quote from the lovely Katie Fforde who has been so supportive. 

And today it is full on sunshine in the UK. I think I need to go for a lie down in the sun with a cool drink and a custard cream!

I think every published author must have said it so now it's my turn - 'Seeing your book on a shelf is the best feeling ever!'
It is so exciting to see it sat on a shelf like a proper book! It makes me smile every time. I was always thrilled to see the books of writers I had met and especially friends but nothing beats seeing your own one.
I almost spontaneously combusted when I saw it on the shelf in WHSmith as I didn't know they had ordered any! I did wonder for a moment if it was my husband playing a practical joke and he'd brought one with him from home! Thankfully it wasn't!
It is amazing to think that the seed of an idea I had could actually get this far. I am a very logical person and the odds of getting published were very much stacked against me but being a stubborn sort I thought I'd carry on anyway.
It has now topped the KOBO Romance chart and featured in the Booksellers Heat seekers chart reaching No4. All quite amazing for something I made up! Of course it's not just me that made this happen and that's something you realise as you get pulled into the publishing world. The writer is just one part of a very long process, it takes a lot of time and effort from a wide group of professionals to ensure it makes it into the hands of readers so I am eternally grateful to everyone involved.
It just goes to show you that it can be done and if I can do it then you definitely can!