The end of summer, but still very hot in the UK

Welcome to my irregular update of how things are going in my life. It wasn't meant to be a weather update, but I'm British and it's in my contract to mention that... wow! we're having a bit of a heatwave. Not an official one, but the temperatures have been up around 26/27C which is hot for September.

​On Friday I was writing in the garden because I could not spend a moment longer in the house. It was glorious and I got so much done.

There are two major things I'm working on at the moment.

We're at the developmental edit stage of my next novel, which is due out next May. My editor sent it back a week ago with the most wonderful comments about it, and I've only got a few little niggles to iron out. I'm unsure about the title at the moment, which is why I'm not going to mention it just yet. It's The Novel With No Name for a little while.

I'm also refreshing Our Beautiful Child for a republishing date later this year. I say refreshing, but really I'm slashing it to pieces. I didn't mean to, but once I started to clean things up, make a couple of interactions a little more mindful of post #metoo sensibilities, remove or rename a few of the characters, and change the order of the three novellas in the collection, it's become almost a brand new book.

Hopefully, by November (with my fingers crossed), the collection will be out with a new title, a new cover, and a smoother read.

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The Clock in My Mother's House didn't win its category in the Rubery Book Award, but it did get a groovy sticker for its cover. Yes, I said groovy, it's a great word and I'm advocating it's return to common usage.

I also received some wonderful feedback from the judges, which you can read right here. You'll need to scroll down a little bit.

To grab yourself a copy, and find out why Rachel on Goodreads thinks I'm "a writer at the top of her craft", click here.