A year ago yesterday, I signed a three-book deal with Bookouture for my Blackthorn series. That contract is almost at an end, with the first two books published and Blood Torn in the process for publication over the forthcoming weeks. I’m not sure where this year has gone.

I have to be honest, my call never worked out as I’d imagined it would. Bearing in mind I’d resolved at the age of thirteen that I was going to become a professional author one day, I’d certainly had plenty of daydreams about how it might eventually transpire.

There was the ultimate fantasy, of course: One pristine submission targeted at the right editor/publisher at exactly the right time. They’d be in touch the next day, in awe of my talent. I’d be signing a multiple-book deal. We’d be talking of a life-long relationship between publisher and author. Never would I have to face the slush pile again…

Then there was the more realistic dream: Preparing the best submission I could with my limited synopsis and pitch writing talents, trying to convince an editor in some distant publishing house that my book really is worth a read. Several submissions later, no doubt into double (if not triple) figures, I’d finally snag someone’s interest and they’d give me a chance. Better still, I’d sell enough copies that they’d request the second book, maybe even a third.

I most certainly hadn’t expected the stuff of fairy tales – for a publisher to find me instead of the other way around! I’d not long had a rejection for Blood Roses after waiting eighteen months for a definitive answer from a competition I had entered it into. Despite a round-up of support from readers and fellow writers who had read my entry, a part of me had resolved that I’d been right to keep Blackthorn tucked away for so many years. After all, if I couldn’t convince an editor from the publishing house where Blackthorn had finalled in their competition twice, what hope did I have?

Only I’m not very good at giving up, especially when it comes to my writing. Because after three decades of ploughing away, I know that, talent and luck aside, one thing every author needs is grit determination.

I mention this now because a handful of my writer friends entered ‘So You Think You Can Write’ last month – the sister competition to the one I was a finalist in back in 2010 and 2011. Last week, those friends found out they hadn’t got through. And I know that gut-wrenching feeling of disappointment only too well. It was certainly rife eighteen months ago – something I managed to suppress only by focusing my attention on preparing submissions.

I had only just started the process when out of the blue came a request from Bookouture. Ironically, they had discovered me through the competition I had failed to snag publication with. In less than a month, I was offered a three-book deal. A month of contract negotiations followed that – a scary thing when you don’t have an agent! After lots of research and help from the Society of Authors, I ecstatically signed on the dotted line, entrusting my launch as an author as well as the beginnings of Blackthorn with Bookouture. And the series couldn’t have found a better home.

Needless to say I have loved every moment. Fifteen months ago, I’d never have believed that within a year I’d be working with a top-notch editor, or have Henry Steadman designing my first two book covers. I certainly wouldn’t have believed that a Hollywood film executive would compliment me on my world building, or that I’d hit number one in Gothic Romance on Amazon.com, let alone have such fantastic reviews. Even more than that, I wouldn’t have believed it possible I’d receive emails from readers thanking me for writing Blackthorn. Because that’s what matters more than anything else – that readers want to read about Blackthorn and it’s inhabitants.

So, for all my amazing supporters, my contract might be coming to an end, but I can assure you Blackthorn is far from over. Whilst you’re awaiting Blood Torn’s release, my head is already focused on the rest of the series.

This time last year, I had notebooks upon notebooks of world-building, plot lines and character information with year-on-year developments and amendments scribbled all over them. Over the past twelve months, in-between edits and writing Blood Torn, I set myself the task of gradually condensing and updating my notes – primarily to ensure that each book being published contained all the right elements at the right time. It’s been quite a task as some of the original aspects have undergone a natural evolution while the characters have taken hold.

And I’m so glad I started to plan ahead because Bookouture has already asked to see outlines for further Blackthorn books!

The rest of Blackthorn – just a few more notebooks to condense! 

So now I’m tasked with condensing the rest of the series into a meaningful few paragraphs. It’s like being in an interview, when the introduction begins with: “Tell us something about yourself.” You know exactly what’s happened the last twenty-plus years of your life, but summarising it isn’t quite as easy as you first think. Only I’ve got eight lives, so to speak, to somehow make comprehensive to those who live outside of my head. It’s most definitely the biggest challenge I’ve faced this year, so please keep your fingers crossed that I do it justice. I don’t know about you, but I’d love another year of Blackthorn ahead.

And as for my friends – as well as other writers – still on the road to publication, please know you’re in good company. Make the most of every opportunity, because one risky submission back in 2010 changed things for me in a way I never saw coming. Just as I never saw, back in the Autumn of 1996, that getting lost would lead to Blackthorn being created. Sometimes life truly is stranger than fiction – not that you ever get away with that in a synopsis. 😉