The tale so far…
I wrote my first paranormal romance when I was 17. That was almost 21 years ago. Back then, the shelves weren’t stacked with genre, and especially not for young adults like I was. There was no Twilight. The Vampire Diaries weren’t available in my local bookshops in the U.K. I didn’t have a computer back then, let alone access to Amazon. So instead I wrote my own.
And that’s how this PNR journey started. I haven’t stopped writing since. I won’t fill you in on all the detail now, but it’s been a long road to self-discovery. I’ll be succinct by saying it’s taken me a long time to identify my voice and genre. I came across the umbrella term ‘speculative fiction’ years ago and knew I was in the right building, but it still took me a while to uncover which department I was going to work in.
So let me pull you almost up to date with the key event at the end of 2010 because that was when it all changed for me. I tentatively entered the opening chapters to a vampire novel into the Mills and Boon New Voices writing competition. And I had success. It was the only paranormal romance to get into the Top 10 and then go on to the final. This was momentous to me, not only because I wasn’t used to putting my work ‘out there’ but because, finally, I’d resolved that I’d discovered my voice. More than that, people liked it. Making the final again in New Voices 2011 confirmed I knew exactly what I wanted to write. (If you’d like to know more about what led up to entering New Voices, check out my Bio where there’s a link to my interview with the lovely CC MacKenzie.)
And that leads me to the here and now. Welcome to my blog! If I could hug you to say hello, I would. You’re most likely here because you came across me through New Voices. On that basis, it’s probably because you’ve fallen for Caleb (Blood Roses) or Kane (Beguiling The Enemy). Maybe both. Maybe you just like the way I write.
If you’d like to follow me on my journey as I leap into trying to get published, I’d love your company. I’ll blog any successes and the inevitable failures as I struggle through. Hopefully that sounds interesting enough.
I’m not one of those people who’s uncomfortable with silences so I’ll be on here once a month, maybe twice. In the meantime, I hope you stay a little while for now and enjoy your visit. My first official post will be on my favourite topic – yep, vampires. I’ll let you know how I got into them and loads of other stuff. And if you know who started the rumour that the vampire popularity trend is dying off, please invite them along…
Hugs xxx