It’s becoming real. A few weeks ago, two Advanced Review Copies (ARCs) of my first novel popped through my letterbox. It was a wonderful surpise, as I hadn’t known they were coming. Of course I had to take a picture of my new arrival and there might have been some celebratory jumping up-and-down. Because the book looks absolutely lovely. I love the cover, the title and little things that other people might not notice – such as that my name looks as if it’s being imprisoned by the bridge.

My publishers have been an absolute delight to work with and have been really helpful. However, I’ve come to understand that there were a lot of things that needed to be done that I was blissfully ignorant of. Foolishly I thought that writing a book was enough, but no! I have now organised my book launch, had one of my friends take  new author photos (as the old ones were not of the right technical quality) and we had to get author-quotes for the back of the book. Luckily both my agent and my editor have mainly taken care of that last step. More to follow on that.

I’m writing a series and that’s been both a challenge and a bliss in this pre-publication time. The first book will be out in three months, the second is with my editor right now and I’m getting the draft of the third to the point where I can send it to my agent.

However, I am telling myself to celebrate these milestones along the way. To do a little dance and open a nice bottle of wine when the ARC turns up. Here it was: my words in proper print for the first time. It felt extraordinary to open a page at random and see those familiar words that I had first written down a while ago. Writing the third book has been no easier than the first but if every book creates this amount of joy, it’s labour well worth undertaking.