Watson and what’s happening with me

Hello Detectives,

Thank you so much for your patience and understanding these last few months. As you know my father died in January, and I took some time off to mourn him. Sadly, just as I was coming back, I had another small tragedy to deal with: Watson, my pet bearded dragon, died at the age of 11.

11 is very old for a lizard, and Watson led a fantastic life. It was absolutely her time to go, and I know that she’s at peace now, but I feel very sad to have had to say goodbye to her. Pets really are important, and for me Watson was a companion during many difficult times in my life. I got her just as I was beginning work on the first Murder Most Unladylike book, and she was with me all the way to the end of the series – it feels both enormously sad and fitting that she lived exactly one Murder Most Unladylike of time.

I know she was very special to lots of you too – you sent me so many beautiful letters about her, and fan art of her, over the years – she will be so very missed, and the Murder Most Unladylike fandom won’t be the same without her!

Because of all these sad things happening, I’ve struggled to work as normal this year. Although I’m back online more now, I’m still rushing to catch up with everything I missed – I still have a lot of author emails to respond to, I haven’t updated this website with a new prompt for a while, I haven’t filmed a YouTube video this year … all is not as it usually is! If you have sent me a message, please be patient as I try to work through the backlog, and know that I’m going as fast as I can. And the things that have to take priority are VERY exciting indeed!

At the moment I’m focusing on the proofread for Once Upon a Crime, my book of short stories coming out in August this year. A proofread is the final checks before a book goes to print – so we really are nearly there with this one! I’m also helping my publisher Puffin finalise Once Upon a Crime‘s cover – which will NOT be black and white, as a lot of you assume! It’s really beautiful, and I’ll be sharing it soon – that’ll be the subject of my first video this year, as well as my first newsletter.

And after that … I’m starting to write Ministry of Unladylike Activity! The first book will be set in autumn 1940, and will star May Wong and two new friends, one of whom will be the series’s main narrator! I’m working hard on their characters, and am almost there with both – I can’t wait to tell you more about them!

So keep watching this website and my social media for updates, and remember that good things are on the way, even if it’s feeling tough at the moment.