I'm excited and it's not just because the sun is shining.

I’m starting to feel excited. After a short period of enforced rest (thanks to an emergency operation) things are starting to look brighter – and it’s not just because the sun has decided to shine in England.

What is the reason for my excitement? My second book has taken its first shallow breaths! No, it’s not published yet, but hopefully it will be this summer. Over the past few months it has been forming on my laptop. Perhaps it would be a bit melodramatic to compare it to a baby growing and developing in a womb, but seeing it come together and starting to resemble a book rather than numerous character profiles, timelines and story threads does remind me of a foetus forming to look like a little human being. Forgive me for the comparison, but if a writer can’t get all poetic and melodramatic - who can?

I’m now at the stage of proof reading it, which will take time, but the cover is complete and the book trailer is almost done. It will be a few more weeks before it is ready to make its first brave steps into the wide world, but it now seems achievable.

I’m really pleased with the cover. It is colourful and meaningful (when you have read the book), as was the cover for my debut novel Old Sins Long Shadows. I look forward to sharing the title with you in the coming weeks!