I’ve finally sent Dreamrunner to my editor, Emma Beswetherick, and my agent, Jane Conway-Gordon, to see what they think and just got an email back from each of them saying they LOVE it – what a huge relief! Of course, there’ll be revisions to do but that’s OK, I can have a break from the novel over Christmas and then come back to it with a fresh eye and Emma’s editorial comments, and tie it up.

It’s been an uphill struggle completing the manuscript with a tiny baby to care for; a case of feeling as if my head is about to explode each time I sit down to write because I have to re-enter the entire novel and balance it all in my head: characters, plot-lines, motivations, consequences, red herrings, parallelisms… and my baby continually jerks me out of that feverish wrapping-up of things. Not that I’m complaining! I already can’t imagine life without my daughter, and motherhood just means that I have to learn new dance steps like novel-breastfeed-walk-in-the-park, or blow-raspberries-to-make-her-giggle-write-novel-scene-rock-her-to-sleep. It’s quite a fun game.

I have to say, though, I’m seriously thinking of writing short stories and poetry again rather than tackling a whole new novel, as it’s so much easier to write short pieces when there are distractions… as my agent once said, babies are the best time-wasters ever and the best grown-up toys!

Having said that, I already have an idea for another novel… J