Out into the wild…

Yesterday, my son turned 21! Yes, 21! And I made a mistake. Every April book, usually comes out on his birthday and for some reason, I thought this year’s was the same. So I thought Hayden’s birthday was today, rather than yesterday. Good thing I worked out on Sunday that wasn’t the case! So it’s…

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Where Rising Dust came from

Last year I made a decision I wanted to go camping a lot more than I had been. When I was a kid, our family used to camp a lot; we saw some amazing and wild parts of Australia, places I’ll never forget. So with all that in mind, I bought this little ripper (which…

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The Mysterious Life of Writers

  Writing is a mysterious business. It’s a lot of smoke and mirrors; living with imaginary people, crazy google searches and staying in my head a lot. My imaginary friends talk loudly to me sometimes and too quietly for me to hear at others. Sometimes they fight me. I’ll want them react a certain way,…

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Who am I?

Here we are on the 4th of January. It’s only going be what feels like a few days time we all say: ‘wow, it’s December already, where has the year gone?!’ Anyway, I wanted to start the new year with a bit of a ditty on me for all the new people who have recently…

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Choice

A new rose for a new year. Gorgeous isn’t it? I’m not sure what rose this is – I think it might be Peace, which if so, if the perfect rose for me coming into 2022. What about you? At the end of almost every year, I write a blog about how I’m going to…

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Working with facts

  I’m not one for maths. Which makes writing a really good profession for me! And, you would think there isn’t any maths at all tapping out words on a keyboard. But this is a myth! I’ve been told a few times, that the only way to make good decisions is to base it around…

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Ideas from nowhere

  As you can see my white boards are beginning to fill up with ideas, character descriptions and a few other things. I don’t always use everything that goes up on these boards, and there’s nothing plotted here, only a place to throw ideas and thoughts at. I’ve been troubling over how to start Book…

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Two at a time…

  Last week I wrote about a needing to write two books at at time to make my deadlines. I was getting involved with NaNoWriMo to help do this. Deciding to spend one week on each book, would mean I should get about 25k into each book by the end of November. Best laid plans…

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What it takes to write a book

  I’m often asked what it takes to write a book. Having finished my 19th novel about twelve hours ago, I reflected on the question, whilst sitting on the patio with a wine, screaming: ‘thank god that’s done!’ So, I compiled a list. A workable laptop. Not one that dies with only copy of your…

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Where the magic happens…

I’m often asked what my office looks like. Usually it’s too messy for me to take a photo – I’ll have research and papers all over my desk so it’s all at my fingertips as I write. But when I started the new novel (tentatively called Swindler’s List!) I tidied the desk and took a…

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My books and music for 2020

Well, what a year, huh? Who would have though that the words ‘unprecedented’, ‘Covid normal’, Self-isolation’, ‘social distancing’, ‘Black Lives Matter’, and ‘Karen’ would have made their way into our everyday language? That the news would be full of Corona Virus information, forsaking all other news! That Zoom would have become part of our ‘norm’.…

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My friend, Anxiety

I’ve always told my kids that “if we don’t share our stories, then how can we help people?” That’s why they don’t mind me talking about the challenges they live with; they embrace them and are what makes them who they are (that doesn’t take away, they’ve had extra challenges to deal with and hard…

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All about Detective Dave Burrows

I just love the love we all have for Detective Dave Burrows. The amount of emails and questions I get about him are amazing. The most asked question is: what order does he appear in the books. Well, let me put that to rest, with this post. Dave came into being when I wrote my…

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Another novel

  I love the ‘new feels’ of starting a new book. It’s exciting, fun and the possibilities are endless. Trouble is, those feelings don’t always hang around. I find I get to about 20,000 words in and get a bit stuck. Those first 20,000 come with a rush of adrenalin and enthusiasm. The next 50,000…

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