I blame the blinking Australian Open. The amount of time I’ve wasted watching tennis lately has been absolutely shocking. But the close matches, and the upsets!! And the retirements (Djokovich), and the audience reactions – really, as wild as the tennis. And the tennis has been WILD.

It’s taken a toll, however. Have slowed on my latest book (due in June, really thought I’d have finished by now).  But what I have done, inspired by the very recently winning the eLit Gold medal for my only audiobook (SUSAN) is to launch a campaign on Kickstarter to make an audiobook of DARCY.

Before you ask, because I have friends who narrate their own books, I can’t. This is because my British accent is sinking slowly somewhere in the middle of the Atlantic - not to mention that my acting is lousy.

Soooooo please consider supporting me, as I have some great rewards on offer. It’s not just the the Austenesque swag or the chance to name a character in my next book... It’s free expertise!

Most of you lovely people won’t know my backstory. As a professional London cellist, after unexpectedly landing a three-novel contract to Orion/Hachette in my thirties, I endured six failed IVFs in a row, got depressed, never finished writing the third and got dumped by my big-five publisher. (Hey, it happens! A mega-publisher is for Christmas, not for life!!!)

Anyway, when our seventh IVF worked, I decided to give orchestra work a miss and our long-awaited kidlet a chance. With the kind help of my then-agent, I got stuck into developmental editing/ghostwriting. I’ve been too busy writing recently to have continued with it, but I still, secretly, developmentally edit every single book I read!!! – So  I’m offering read-throughs and editorial advice as some of my rewards for supporting the Kickstarter/new audiobook.

(Back to the naming-a-character-in-my-next-book: yes, that IS on offer but within reason. Not committing myself to Candy Sue: A Jane Austen fantasy/horror epic featuring murderous hedgehogs…)

Anyway, do check it out HERE

I got such a lovely note from Gail P., who loves her ‘I’d rather be in Pemberley mug’ on my last newsletter. This time I’m offering a whole collection (see photo).

The little earrings are of books, the keyring says OBSTINATE HEADSTRONG GIRL, the keyring is of the original cover of Pride and Prejudice, and the invitation (VERY of the period!)is to the Meryton ball. The pencil case is, of course, one of my fav. quotes from MANSFIELD PARK.

Enter HERE

Sign up for it here once you’ve finished reading this!! Speaking of which, I got a good laugh from LinkedIn, who congratulated me – they must be desperate – on six years of working from home. It's not the Booker Prize but well, I’ll take it!!!

Thrilled to say - that PRIDE AND PERJURY made the finals of Chanticleer’s International Book Awards. Have to wait till April to find out if it wins, though I feel that, once you’ve made the final, it’s already been wonderfully worthwhile!!! And because I wanted to try out my Lady C de B wig, I made this!!!

If you’ve enjoyed PRIDE AND PERJURY, do please consider reviewing it, btw!!!

And here’s empowered women!!! – ALL genres represented here, so something for everybody (mine is contemporary here, and not a romance, though about half of these ARE…)

Enter HERE

Here we have – well, it’s called historical – Vikings, WWI, WWII, regency, Australia in the early 1900s… whew!!!

Enter HERE

Latest interview if interested, was for the grant-winning Jane Austen summer project at Chapel Hill in North Carolina...

Read it HERE