So you've done it. You've landed an agent, your book's gone out on submission. Any minute now a publisher is going to snap up your book, it will hit the book shops and immediately top the best-seller lists ... you're home and hosed and on to planning your JK Rowling-esque lifestyle. Right? Wrong. Sorry to burst your bubble but these things take time. Even when it happens quickly it's not really quickly in real time. Publishing can move at a snail's pace and I've been advised

The mid week slump. You've gotten through Monday-itis and Tuesday (its ugly little sister) and you're almost ready to coast through to the glorious weekend. But first, hump day. If you're anything like me you kicked the week off with a bang, full of positivity and energy. You've set intentions for balancing long work days with some healthy exercise, some evening work on your personal projects, and a nice helping of late night Netflix, amiright? But by Wednesday you realise th

I've been wanting to write a blog post about procrastination for a while now but I've kept putting it off. That's not entirely a joke. Procrastination; to procrastinate; to defer or delay - from the Latin, procrastinus; pro - 'forward' and crastinus - 'belonging to tomorrow'. That's the exact definition (otherwise known as just an excuse to use Latin because I am a complete and utter dork). "Just call me Cattus Dorkius." Except we all already know what the word means, don't w

My newest MS is currently in the hands of my agent while we decide just how we're going to get it out there to readers - traditonal or self-publishing? Yes it's that glorious period where time stands still and a week feels like a year while we initially do the rounds of publishers. In between compulsively refreshing my email server and guzzling wine, I field the following excited questions from friends, family and colleagues - When can I buy it? When is it coming out? Trust m

Newsflash! I am not cool. Never have been and probably never will be. At varying stages of my life I have tried very hard to be what is considered cool but have always fallen a little short - never quite carried it off - and have simultaneously been terrified that some ACTUAL cool person will recognise my fake coolness and call me out as a fraud, an imposter, in turn cementing my inherent UN-coolness. So if I'm not cool, what am I? Well, recently I read an article that resona