Have been very busy behind the scenes getting Return to Me ready for publication. Received the cover and I'm absolutely in love with it. Captures the mood of the novel so beautifully. Will hopefully be able to make it public in a few weeks.

Had to do copyedits and now it's moving down the line toward publication. Was so nice to see the layout of how it will look when it comes out. Now I'm counting down until the 1st of September.

I've been slowly chipping away at my second novel. I'm hoping now that I've cleared a few other obligations I will be able to immerse myself in writing. I'm really loving this new book and the characters in it. I'm also loving having access to technology to create this world. 

I'm using Pinterest and have a secret board where I have images that are helping me world build. There are images of where my characters live, what they're wearing, and what they look like. I also love Google Maps which allows me to research routes and how long it takes to get from A to B.

Writing a new book is always so daunting, but I'm now at the point where it feels like it's writing itself. I completed a 40,000 word crappy draft that gave me the bones of the story and now I've started an actual draft. I find that I write by layering and revising over and over the same scenes. It almost feels like I'm building a Lego wall as I reinforce the world in detail that brings it to life. But once this first act is complete the foundation will be set for the rest of the book. 

For now I'm having the best fun and am carrying a delicious feeling of anticipation as I count down. Only 18 days until Return to Me is out.

I’m still completing the Return to Me edits. It’s been slow going because I’ve been ill. It’s that time of the year in Melbourne when the weather is cold and drizzly and all the colds and flus are doing the rounds.

I’m up to page 129 out of 200 so I am slowly chipping away. My editor has been wonderful and identifying inconsistencies and tightening up the writing. Thankfully there have been no structural edits, it’s just been straight copy editing.

I also found out the publication date, which is September 2013. That’s right, it’s only two months away. My head is spinning at the pace of it all. This is the wonderful thing about digital publishing. Everything is so much faster.

The cover is still in process so I’ll see that soon. That’s when it all comes to life. When you actually see the cover and how it’s going to look. I’m really excited about that part.

During one of the weeks when I wasn’t ill I completed two chapters of my next romance novel and I can’t wait to finish the Return to Me copyedits and be able to immerse myself in this new world. I have a deadline and need to complete it ideally by September so I’ll be writing away frantically. 

I’ll also be using this blog to keep myself updated so expect more frequent updates. I used to have a widget that displayed the wordcount and might revisit that so that I really keep up a cracking pace. Nothing like letting the world know what you’re doing to make you accountable.

So I'm very excited to be starting this blog and my career as a romance writer. I'm still waiting on the contract for my romance novel so I don't have the publication information to share, so I thought I'd talk instead about how it all happened.

I wrote my romance novel Return to Me years ago and after being in a writing group and getting it polished, I put it in my bottom drawer. While I told myself that I didn't want to be a romance writer, the real reason I didn't submit is because I was scared. 

This was the first novel that I had ever written and it took 3 years of hard work and a lot of sweat and tears to complete it. I was too scared to actually go through with submission and see what would happen. I started working on other things and forgot it about it.

A few years later when I saw  the changing publishing landscape with digital imprints springing up and self published authors succeeding I revisited my first novel. I printed it off, read it all again, and decided that it wasn't good enough. Back it went into that bottom drawer.

Then I was participating in Nano, ideas started flowing about things I might want to write, and  I saw that publishers were seeking Nano participants to submit straight after they completed their manuscripts. Now I knew my novel was pretty polished so I did an impulsive thing and submitted. 

Suddenly it was real. I had actually submitted my novel. There might be a possibility of it being accepted, and there might be the possibility of it being rejected. So I contacted my agent and told her what I did and we went from there. She submitted it to a few publishers and pretty soon we had a publisher expressing interest in making an offer, but they requested some revisions first. 

I started revising my novel and we got the green light and a real life actual offer. I did it. I was actually going to have this first novel published. Then I got a few rejections, and then another offer. I was now in the position of being able to choose who I would publish with.

I chose PanMacMillan's Momentum. So now I'm waiting on the contract and all the fine print. In the meantime I've started my second romance novel that I'm really excited about writing. It's an idea I've had for years and years and it's wonderful to finally see it come to life.