Out in the big wide world...

UK Cover

The Return of Mrs Jones is out there. Whether you buy directly from M&B or Harlequin, pick up paperbacks from the supermarket or WHSmiths (UK) or Barnes and Noble or Walmart (US) whether you download onto an iPad, Kindle, Google compatible device or Kobo it's available.That is quite frankly terrifying.

Oh, I know that this is my goal, that I've been working towards this for several years now but still. Terrifying. 

People I don't know could be reading it right this minute, or possibly

Australian cover

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worse, people I do know! It's like sending my first born on a voyage around the world, alone, with just one oar.

My mother is going to read it. My sister. My friends. My colleagues. My daughter took it into school to show her teachers...

And of course, despite all the best intentions I can't help checking rankings and reviews. I know, I know, it's better not to look but goodness me it's compulsive. Just another sneaky peek at Goodreads, a quick check on Amazon UK - and while I'm there why not check Amazon US or Aus?

US Cover

And then last week something really rather lovely happened, something that stopped the crazy compulsive checking behaviour in its tracks, for a while at least. I got an email. It came through my website. it wasn't from a friend, or a fellow writer, or a blogger. It was from a reader. Someone completely unknown to me had read it, loved it and wanted to let me know. I was completely and utterly touched that she had made the effort to contact me. There may even have been a tear.

And then I realised. The Return of Mrs Jones no longer belongs to me, it belongs to the people who read it. Some will love it, some will think its readable and some may dislike it. And that's okay. That's how it's supposed to be. My job isn't to sit here checking reviews and rankings and worrying about my little book, it'll be fine out there on its own. My job is to keep going.

So keep going I will; book 3, now formally known as His Reluctant Cinderella has been accepted and will be out in October and I need to knuckle down and write book 4 which excitingly, will be a sequel to His Reluctant Cinderella.

If you're UK based and want to find out more about writing for Mills and Boon then don't forget I am doing a workshop on April 26th at the Chiplitfest with my amazing editor, Flo. I'd love to see you there!