I always hope these blogs might be of help to aspiring writers, so this little tale might give some encouragement to others, or at least help them not to panic if things start going wrong.

My next book is called ‘Debbie’s Gift’, but it hasn’t half been a struggle.  I’ve had it plotted out for over a year, but for some reason it just didn’t want to be written.  I’ve had the distinct feeling of banging my head against a wall whenever I tried, even though I knew what the story was.  In the end I filed it and wrote ‘Martine’ instead, which I had planned to publish slightly later.  But still ‘Debbie’s Gift’ wouldn’t co-operate.  So I wrote a complete first draft of a future book, ‘Sofia’, and when it still wouldn’t play nice, I wrote a draft of yet another future book ‘Wyeburn Station’.

Meanwhile, the clock was ticking.  I want my next publication out in time for Christmas, preferably sometime in mid to late November, and it really does need to be ‘Debbie’s Gift’ If I’m to keep the ‘Saltbury’ series in the right order.  So I finally sat and tried to get it going.  Two weeks later I have it half written, around 45,000 words in two weeks.  It’s just poured onto the computer.  Just please, please let it keep going like this is all I can say.