I’m writing this blog on the same day that my latest novel has gone out on submission. I always find this part so daunting, although after putting together queries so many times now, I do feel I’m getting better at it. Nonetheless, it’s hard – hard to manage your own expectations, hard to think about (probable) rejection. Hard to hope.

Hope, indeed. As Emily Dickinson wrote, ‘hope is the thing with feathers, that perches in the soul’. I found myself thinking of that poem as I hit ‘submit’. In this line of work, you don’t really want to hope, but you can’t really help it. At least, I can’t.

Also – as an aside – if you haven’t already watched it, I highly recommend watching Dickinson. As well as being entertaining, that show really got me thinking about the nature of creativity, why we write, and who we write for. Also, Hailee Steinfeld is awesome as Emily.

Anyway, while I wait several months to hear back from my submission, I will be writing the second book in my Ailsa Rose Mysteries series. I’m excited to get back into the lives of Ailsa and Angus and those around them, and having done the research and prep work last autumn/winter, I’m ready to go!

I’m shortly going to be running a promotion on The Wax Artist too, so keep an eye out on my social media and on here for details about that.