As you’ve probably guessed from my lack of presence here lately, edits are currently consuming most of my time. When it’s not edits, it’s my insistence on working on book six in between waits. I really hope I’ll have some Blood Dark news to share with you in the not-to-distant future. I can’t thank you enough for all the queries coming in about it and for your patience waiting to know when that release day will be.

I did, however, take Monday afternoon off, and for a very good reason: I met one of my U.S. readers! It was actually the first time I’ve ever met a reader from across the pond. Leticia has been a big Blackthorn fan for a while now and has even recently set up a brand new fan page on Facebook (this is aside to the official Blackthorn fan page where I post) where readers can go and chat about my books in a closed group. She once told me that she’d fly all the way from Portland in Oregon to the UK just to attend a Blackthorn book signing and meet me so, when she got in touch to say she was in the UK, we arranged to meet up.

Monday morning, Leticia travelled from where she was staying in London, across to the South West to meet me at The Magdalen Chapter Hotel in Exeter for lunch.

After lunch, I showed her the lounge area where I was sat back in 2012 when I received an email from Bookouture showing me the original Blood Shadows book cover (see below) – so Leticia had some Blackthorn history thrown in too!

Above: Me and Leticia in The Magdalen Chapter’s lounge.

Above: The original Blood Shadows book cover, the Blackthorn banner (both designed by Henry Steadman) and one of the first ‘Bites’ as emailed to me by Bookouture back in 2012 whilst I was sat in the room above.

I was so nervous about meeting Leticia, and promised myself I wouldn’t ramble like I’m prone to – especially considering my Welsh accent kicks in when I’m at top speed, which can be tricky to understand. Fortunately, she was lovely and we quickly fell into chats about her other favourite PNR author Stephanie Hudson (about whom I quizzed her mercilessly and is now on my TBR list), her life in the States (I’ve never been), and our cultural differences. The hot topic soon became about the language differences between the U.S. and the U.K. and there were giggles aplenty when we discussed how even some of our basic vocab (I think everyone knows about the spelling issues) is so different. It’s no wonder my U.S. readers get confused sometimes! It’s not quite the same when I’m talking about Kane fixing his bike in his vest (which is apparently called a tank top in certain U.S. states) and Leticia is envisaging him in what we in U.K. call a waistcoat. Kane in a suit?? Hmm, I’m not sure how that would work… (If anyone is drifting off at this point to try and imagine it, ahem, I’m not quite finished yet…) As an aside, I even learned what ranch sauce/dressing is!

Leticia, of course, got to quiz me about Blackthorn and its creation and my personal takes and thoughts about my characters. One of my favourite moments though was when Leticia looked me in the eye and told me that under absolutely no circumstances, whatever is ahead for Blackthorn, am I allowed to kill off Jask. And, heck, did she mean it! Apparently a little more suffering is kind of okay, but there has to be a HEA for him in the end. So, for all Jask’s fans out there, know that Leticia was right there fighting his corner.

Thanks, again, for spending your afternoon with me, Leticia. I’m so glad you enjoyed your first visit to the U.K. and had such a wonderful 30^th.

xxx