A stolen week...

We stole away to Tarzali for a week and it was gorgeous. Clear, crisp autumn days, wide blue skies with just a few fluffy clouds – and fabulous sunsets.

E took the photo here. Every evening was different and beautiful.

We laid paving stones, watered plants, harvested pumpkin and citrus fruit. I finished writing my Mother’s Day novella and I read another fabulous book – Hunting and Gathering by Anna Gavalda.

This was one of those books I didn’t want to end, even though I still read rapaciously to get to the end. Isn’t it fabulous when you find a book like that – one that immerses you completely in the characters, draws you into its world and utterly entrances you? This book is set in Paris -- and the characters are all misfits and their story is difficult and simple, complex and romantic.

Tarzali was a little like that, too. We didn’t really want to come back. On the last night, we sat out under the stars to enjoy our pre-dinner drink and we put little coloured lanterns on the stones steps we’d made, and it was just magic.

That night I was so conscious of leaving – of blowing out the last candle on the veranda, of the last sip of wine, of the last track on the CD, which happened to be Shiver Me Timbers on a compilation one of my writing friends gave me.

But the next morning, as we were having breakfast, the builder the plumber and the electrician all arrived. Things were happening. At last! It was time to go!

Now, a little office tidying is in order, to get the feng shui right, before I start on a new writing project.

Name that rooster...

The photo was sent in a batch of email photos. As I love birds and I'm a romance writer, I couldn't resist sharing this one.

I think the rooster's name is Sylvester, after Georgette Heyer's wonderful hero, (not the comic strip cat!!)

I'd love to hear other suggestions for his name.

High Society Weddings

Who doesn't love a royal wedding?

I can remember playing "princesses" for hours as a child. My princesses and their ladies in waiting were frangipani flowers. Did you know that if you turn a frangipani upside down it becomes a beautiful ballerina in a tutu, or a princess in a pure white gown with a lovely slender neck and neat little head?

No wonder I loved the chance to create my own Princess Isabella. But of course, I couldn't let her sit around, twiddling her thumbs, in a white ball gown. I had to send her into the Outback, and not to somewhere pleasant, such as a comfortable cattle station homestead.

Fleeing for her life, poor Isabella ends up in the true wilderness of the Northern Territory, where she stumbles upon Jack Kingsley-Laird, a widower, retreating from life.

If you missed this story, don't despair. (You were about to fall into deep despair, weren't you?)
Now, Princess in the Outback has been reprinted in a special By Request edition with Liz Fielding's An Ordinary Princess and Barbara McMahon's The Tycoon Prince.

You can find out more details about each book on the Mills and Boon website. Or read an excerpt from Princess in the Outback on the Past Releases page of my website.

Or you can buy it here.

Oh My God, I Might Have To Smile

Yesterday I went to another library talk, but this time I was in the audience rather than out the front. I was listening to a woman writer from Cairns – Letizia De Rosa, who has written three books – Antonio’s Niche (about her Italian father’s struggle to survive in Naples during World War2), Conversations with My Mother (philosophical musings about being a woman), and Oh My God, I Might Have To Smile (a collection of Letizia's thoughts and quotations).

Letizia was inspired to start writing after her two babies died and she is also a very effective and inspiring public speaker and she has created her own publishing business Sorrentini Publishing.

Quite a woman.

I think it's important for writers to band together and support each other even when we write in very different genres and for quite different audiences. Our local library has always given me fabulous support. They've even added Claiming His Family to their Book Club reading list.

And it was great to see libraries and service clubs here all supporting Letizia -- a true woman with altitude.

I wanted to share with you a quote I loved from Oh My God, I Might Have To Smile.

The answer to life is focus, fortitude,

Fun-filled responsibility,

Happy thoughts, honest reflection and

The company of genuine friends.

dark moments

I'm at that point in my current story where the slow build of a warm and sweet romance must be torn apart.

Ouch.
Can you feel my pain? I know once I get into it I will probably quite enjoy the drama and the emotional tension of this "dark moment", but right now, I'd just like to leave my couple kissing and kissing and getting all steamy...


Oh, well...
Meanwhile, E is still away at Tarzali. Apparently he excelled himself in his culinary efforts on the weekend. He steamed a duck and then smoked it over Nerada tea leaves and his guests were so impressed they left with the carcass, to turn it into some clever kind of dip, which they then invited him to their place to enjoy. Don't country folk have fun?

See what I'm missing out on by staying back in the city, chained to my computer, and obediently tapping away? Let's hope my muse rewards me with loads of inspiration today.

A year in the country...

This year, we were supposed to be spending a year in the country.

At one stage, we were planning to spend a year in the north of Scotland. Both of us have Scottish heritage and I love books set in the Scottish north and we had it all worked out. We'd even picked our cottage -- a lovely keeper's cottage at Portmahomack. A year with the four seasons! I was so excited.

But then I was attacked by doubts -- after all we had our own cottage in the country in the north of Australia. Surely, we should spend a year there first. So that was plan B. To add a spare room and dining room at Tarzali and live there for a year.
But we hadn't accounted for builders.
We have a builder, who has already done some work for us and understands our "vision," so we've been patient -- incredibly patient, while his commitments to other jobs take precedence.
Hmmm...
E's up there at the moment chatting with him... and long story short, we at last have his promise that out modest project will be completed by the end of May.
So, that's the new plan... to start our year in the country in June. At least it will be lovely and cold. Yes, when you've lived in Townsville for 30 + years, you can put both those words in the same sentence.
Will keep you posted. Meanwhile, I have to finish my Mother's Day novella.

LOVED this book...

Have just come back to say I have finished The Rose of Sebastopol by Katherine McMahon and as the publishers promised, I did absolutely LOVE it.

It was wonderful, stunning, so rich in historical detail and characterization and plot that I want to give a copy to all of my friends.

It's one of those books I feel privileged to have read and I've just voted for it on the Richard and Judy book club.

Go Rose go!

Secrets of the Bestselling Sisterhood

Now that I’ve actually put my hand up to take part in a workshop at the Romance Writers of America conference, (gulp!) I’ve been looking through my notes from past conferences and I thought it would be rather stingy of me not to share them.

Please note: these are entirely my perceptions of what these great names were saying. If there are mistakes, they are my mistakes.

One of the most fascinating workshops I attended was Secrets of the Bestselling Sisterhood, conducted by Susan Elizabeth Phillips, Patricia Smith and Jayne Ann Krentz.

And here are my notes – extremely patchy, (you’ll have to connect the dots, I’m afraid). I missed stuff because I was too busy pinching myself that I was actually in the same room with these three stars of romance.

Susan Elizabeth Phillips

One size does not fit all

Protect the work! (Your work) Protect it from what you’re hearing (industry gossip, well meant advice etc) – you don’t have to follow one way of writing.

Protect yourself.

Dealing with others

Don’t get too caught up with contests, reviews, amazon etc.

You cannot please everyone. Liberate yourself and please yourself.

Find your own path

Craft is not the top priority

Readers want to be sucked into the story.

Patricia Smith

Write with absolute sincerity –follow your own imaginative vision of the world.

Celebrate universal and timeless values – courage, loyalty, honour (The Odyssey is a good example)

Embrace issues that go beyond culture – good versus evil. Go beyond the current social issue.

Create characters who embody powerful ideals about human beings.

Be willing to create characters who are very different from yourself. Feminine, quiet women can write strong, fierce characters.

Jayne Ann Krentz

Respect your writer’s voice

The only sin is to have a flat, boring voice. That equals forgettable.

Readers always go back to a memorable voice.

Voice is not just style. It’s also your world view, your code of ethics and your understanding of right and wrong.

Persistence

Retail therapy

Ask someone else what they remember most about the story. What emotional punch?

Buy a kitchen timer When you can’t work, set yourself a time limit. You can’t get out of the chair for 45 minutes.

JAK’s best piece of advice ever…. You can’t run this career if you’re scared all the time. And.. The best ideas often come out of the act of creating rather than out of thin air.

Finally her war cry… ‘Guts, ladies, guts.’

I hope that perhaps one little phrase or idea here gives you something to think about... And thanks, in their absence, to 3 great authors.

Emotional tension

In July, I'll be giving a workshop in San Francisco with fellow Romance authors Jessica Hart and Barbara McMahon. We'll be talking about emotion, emotion , emotion and its global appeal and one of the sections that I'll be dealing with is emotional tension. For that reason, I have my antennae trained for ways others writers develop emotional tensions.

And tonight (on Australian ABC TV1) will be screened the series final of BBC show Life On Mars. If you’ve ever wanted to learn about writing tension, this is an episode you shouldn’t miss.

For those of you who live in Oz and haven’t been watching the series, it’s about Sam Tyler, who had an accident and woke up in 1973. He doesn’t know if he’s mad, in a coma or has travelled back in time. Throughout the series, he’s been trying to get back where he came from. He believes if he doesn’t get back he will die!

For me, the big draw card besides the plot, is the character Gene Hunt played by Philip Gleinster (I’ve had a small swoon on this blog about him before. E’s not all that happy about how I like this guy so much, but at least he and P.G. share the same birthday. That’s supposed to keep E happy.J)

Last week, we were out but our son copied the episode for us and we caught up with it yesterday (just in time).

Normally, Sam and Gene are detectives solving crimes and hunting down criminals, but approaching their jobs with entirely different perspectives. Gene, a 1973 man, is very un PC and little more than a thug, while Sam is the careful and cautious 21^st century cop with knowledge of all the modern technology, which is frustratingly no longer available to him.

Last week the tables were turned on Gene.

Wow! Talk about racking up the tension!

Gene became a murder suspect. Sam managed against all the odds to discover who actually committed the crime and he saved Gene’s bacon -- or so he thought.

However, in a last minute twist, the baddie (for want of a better term) told Sam that he can’t save Gene. If he tries to help him again, he will never be able to go back to his real time!!!!!

Which leaves Sam with the hugest of dilemmas. This is the stuff that makes a really good story – a choice that is truly difficult, when a character has to give up his long cherished, vitally important goal, or do something self-sacrificing, but very worthy. (I’ve often wondered if Claiming His Family won the RITA because Erin faced the challenge of giving up her very important goal to keep her son Joey, and was prepared to let him go with his father, Luke.)

Anyway, back to life on Mars, I can kind of guess what Sam might choose, but I’m hoping tonight’s episode will answer all the questions the series has raised (we have to at least see a glimpse of Sam in 2007 surely) and still keep me on the edge of my seat.

As a writer, I find the story options open to fellow writers and the choices they make endlessly fascinating

Love this book or your money back

That's the publisher's promise on a big gold sticker on the front of the book I'm currently reading.
The book is The Rose of Sebastopol by Katherine McMahon and it's a historical novel set in the Crimean War.
So far, I'm only 65 pages into it and I'm very much enjoying it. I'm wondering if I'd be game to ask for my money back if I didn't enjoy it. Somehow, I doubt it. (I'm not very bolshi about that sort of thing.) But wouldn't it wonderful to have that kind of publisher support?
My current reading tastes are tending towards historical novels and Young Adult fiction. Two YA books arrived from amazon yesterday and I'm keenly looking forward to reading them, too. One is a romance set in WW2 by Eva Ibbotson. I just adored Which Witch? and used it every year when I was teaching Yr 8. This was pre-Harry Potter and much cleverer, in my humble opinion.

We've just had a lovely weekend at Tarzali, gardening, cutting grass and relaxing. I wish I could share with you how lovely it is to sit on our veranda and watch the soft misty rain drift across the hills and valleys and to see the way the different folds and layers of landscape are brought into sharper perspective or diminished by the ever changing light. Here are a couple of pictures that we took on the weekend, but they don't quite bring the experience to life.
Yes, there's been more rain in FNQ. Wish I could parcel some up and send it to Bron Jameson.

Rita nominations

What an exciting week it's been hearing about friends who've received Rita nominations this year. I've written before about how much I love Kelly Hunter and Anne Gracie books. Both these fabulous Australian writers have scored Rita nominations and believe me, these gongs are so well deserved!
Kelly's was for Best short contemporary with her fabulous book set in Penang, Sleeping Partner, and Anne's is for Best Historical novel for The Perfect Kiss, the final book in her fabulous "perfect" series.

Another very clever Aussie writing friend, (who served me a delicious lunch on the Sunshine Coast at New year) and who's made a huge splash in the romance world in the past twelve months is Anna Campbell, who has two books that are Rita finalists -- Claiming the Courtesan, and Untouched. Wow! Can her feet still be on the ground?

Oh, and I was particularly pleased to see a Young Adult book that I really loved when I was judging my pack of Rita books is also a finalist. Am keeping my fingers crossed that it wins!!!

Much more modest excitement arrived for me yesterday in the form of two new books. Well, one (Princess in the Outback) is actually an old story that's being reprinted. Will tell you more about that when I can show you the cover.
Also received hardbacks of Adopted: Outback Baby, my July Romance release. I tried to scan the cover, but my elderly computer is no longer up to the task.

Oh, and I noticed on amazon that I have a book out in Mills and Boon Polish. Apparently, there are so many Poles living in England now that M&B are selling Polish books in English bookstores. I have no idea which book it is.

Here's what the German edition of In The Heart of the Outback looks like, newly titled You Have Inflamed My Heart.

Meantime, I'm plodding on with the Mother's Day secret baby novella. A secret baby plot always involves a lot of back story, and the trick is working out how much about the past to tell and when. My aim is always to give readers enough information to make them care about the characters and want to read on, but to raise questions in the readers' minds, which will also, hopefully, keep them reading the pages.

So this week has involved a lot of writing and then dumping. I keep a dump folder for bits I've written, that I then discard, but don't want to lose, because they might come in handy later. It's rather sad watching my word count go up and then down again. But I think it's been worth it. I feel as if the juggling and pruning is paying off and my story is starting to show through the mist.

Always so much to do. I met two interesting people recently whom I want to interview to help me with background for two different story ideas.

But I must be disciplined and not get too distracted from this book. There's nothing more alluring than a wonderful new idea, when you're stuck in the middle of the WIP.

Breakfast with David Attenborough

I hope you had a Happy Easter!
Yesterday morning, Easter Monday, Elliot and I decided to go out for breakfast. Where we live in the city, we're lucky enough to take a short stroll over a bridge and through a park to find any number of restaurants (although, on Easter Monday in Townsville, not many of them were open!)
Anyway, we went the long way, so that we worked up one or two credit points before we dined out. For me a walk through the park, by the river is just that -- a pleasant little bit of exercise. I enjoy the autumn sunshine, I invariably start thinking about the characters in my current work in progress.
For Elliot, walking in the park is a very different kettle of fish. To start with, fish are on his mind literally! He cannot observe at a body of water without looking for fish. But yesterday his observations were rewarded by the discovery of a baby plover swimming.
When he pointed it out, the screeches of adult plovers all about me registered. Until that moment, they'd merely been background bird noises.
Clearly, at least three adult plovers were very agitated that one their young had forgotten it wasn't a water bird. We watched this tiny little thing valiantly swim to shore (which took some time) but then it had the Titanic task of climbing the steep concrete bank. I was sure it would be exhausted before it reached the top.
The bird was tiny, the bank so steep -- and it had already had a long exhausting swim. Baby plovers, however, are plucky. (I hope that's not an unfortunate adjective to apply to a bird.)
Anyway, it reached the top, but then -- as happens to so many mountain climbers, there was a final, sheer vertical lip that was impossible for it to scale.
This was where Elliot stepped in. Holding my handbag over his (bald) head to protect himself from avenging plover parents (he had memories of being attacked by the spur wings on plovers in his boyhood) he boldly went forward, and rescued not one, but two baby plovers crouched helplessly on the river side of the concrete lip.
One ran off immediately (plovers nest -- rather dangerously -- in grass), but the other, presumably the swimmer, crouched, clearly needing recovery time. We went on to breakfast.
Returning through the park after our leisurely breakfast, Elliot pointed out mother lorrikeets feeding their young in an overhead tree -- another sight I would never have noticed on my own.
The plover family had vanished, so we can only hope they are well and happy.
But I would have been completely oblivious about this huge drama if I'd walked on my own. It's rather nice to have my personal "David Attenborough."

If you are in Sydney...

and if you like the Outback... you might like to check out a wonderful collection of photographs at the Bondi Pavilion Gallery. (Queen Elizabeth Drive, Bondi Beach, Sydney, NSW -- open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day)

It's called OUTBACK BY THE SEA and it is a collection of 24 years' worth of photographs of Australia's largest cattle stations taken by fabulous North Queensland photographer Fiona Lake. It's on display till March 30th.

I can guarantee that the photos are terrific, as I have Fiona's wonderful book A Million Acre Masterpiece, which I keep by my desk and use as a constant source of inspiration for my outback books.

I'm only sorry I can't be there to see the exhibition. Fiona's love of the Outback and the life on cattle stations shines through her work. So if you have the chance, treat yourself to a uniquely Australian experience. Oh, and Fiona will be in attendance, so say g'day from me.

Competition result...

I hope you are enjoying a peaceful and pleasant Easter weekend. I have just made a terrible discovery -- I forgot to draw a winner for The Bridesmaid's Best Man last month. I must admit, I've got rather out of the way of running competitions in recent years, but thank you to everyone who entered this one for my 25th book, either via this blog or by email from my website.

Ta da!!!!!

I'm very pleased to announce that the winner is Eleni of South Australia.

Congratulations, Eleni. A copy of Bridesmaid will be on its way to you shortly.

I've had word from my editor that she will be sending revisions for my latest submission next week -- something to look forward to over Easter. :-) So, in the meantime, I'm trying to get as much of the Mother's Day novella under my belt as I can. I don't like losing momentum on one story, while I stop to work on another. But I know other writers thrive on interruptions.
One thing is certain. After reader feedback from Bridesmaid (mostly very positive), I will definitely be adding an epilogue to this next book. Readers love their happy endings and I must make sure I don't cut this one too short.

And I can promise you that the next two books in 2008 -- Adopted :Outback Baby and Blind Date with the Boss -- both have epilogues!!

A short break

We're heading to Tarzali for a couple of days. Hope to be back before the Easter rush. Think of us intrepidly crossing flooded rivers ( it's hardly stopped raining in North Queensland since December), or noting the growth of trees we've planted, bemoaning the weeds, starting up the brush-cutter...

Oh, and I'll still be trying to maintain my daily word count. I'm writing a mother's day novella at the moment, while my editor reads my latest submission. Two very different settings -- variety keeps me inspired -- although I understand that readers love a writer who gives them the same kind of story over and over.

But I can't resist setting this new story on a tropical island. Here I am, surrounded by islands other people can only dream about. It's only fair I put one or two into books, isn't it?

What we can learn from the movies...

One of the things I love about living in the city is the access to movies, concerts and theatre. I've mentioned before that I belong to a cinema group. This week, we watched the powerful Australian movie September. A very restrained and moving account of a friendship between a white boy and an Aboriginal boy in Western Australia in 1968.

The theatre was packed an this was the main attraction. A lot of people didn't stay for the second movie, but boy, they missed a treat. This time we watched The Lives of Others, a German film that won the Oscar for Best Foreign Film last year.
It is set in East Germany in 1984 (the likeness of Orwell's novel 1984 is quite scary) and it's about a Stasi agent, Wiesler, who must to spy on a playwright (Dreyman) and his actress girlfriend, because the playwright is suspected of seditious intent.

I have to say, I've found a new actor to swoon over in Sebastian Koch, who played Dreyman. I've since watched him in the Dutch movie Black Book and he was dreamy in that, too.

But what I found totally compelling about The Lives of Others was the change that occurred Wiesler as he listens in to every aspect of the playwright's life.

As Anthony Lane says in his article in The New Yorker...

'See him crouched in a loft above Dreyman’s home with a typewriter, a tape deck, and headphones clamped to his skull. Watch the nothingness on his face as he taps out his report on the couple’s actions: “Presumably have intercourse.” '

Slowly, the tables turn. Wiesler listens to a conversation between Dreymann and a director he reveres. He is privy to Dreyman's grief when this director commits suicide. He listens to Dreyman play the piano -- A Sonata for A Good Man and tears stream down his face. Eventually, he steals Dreyman’s copy of Brecht and takes it home to read; he starts to omit details in his official account; and, for some fathomless reason—guilt, curiosity, longing—he lets the lives of others run their course.

It's the step by step transformation of his personality that fascinated me. Wiesler changes from a machine, faithful to the party, to a human with a conscience, facing new moral dilemmas he wouldn't have formerly considered.

I know I write 50,000 romance novels that must steer a fairly tight course, but I found so much to learn about character growth in this movie. I hope some of it translates into my books somewhere.... sometime...

Walking

I have dreadful feet. Actually I have all kinds on inherited problems from the knees down. But at least my feet and legs still work… for which I’m extremely grateful… because I think walking is one of life’s greatest pleasures.

When my first child was a baby, I used to go for long walks every afternoon, pushing her in the pram. At the time, I did it because I’d read in baby books that it’s very stimulating for babies to be out and about, exposed to new sights and sounds and smells. I was so into being a great mum I didn’t think about the benefits for me. Back then, young mothers weren’t jogging with prams to keep fit the way they do now. I’m sure if exercise had been trendier then, I would have been into that, too – pushing the pram up Castle Hill, no doubt.

These days, I do go for walks for exercise. Writing is such a sedentary job, I need to make an extra effort to get moving each day. But although I groan as I roll out of bed each morning, once I get going, I know that walking is about so much more than boring exercise.

I can listen to audio books – my new favourite indulgence, or I can people watch along The Strand. I can dream about my work in progress and I can drink in the beauty of Cleveland Bay and Magnetic Island just off shore.

Best of all, I can just let my mind wander… it’s amazing the thoughts that pop in when I’m least expecting it. Countless story ideas have evolved from these walks.

So no more complaining from me that there are only two pairs of shoes in the whole of Townsville that fit me.

As my dad used to say: “I had no shoes and I complained until I met a man who had no feet.”

Juno

Let me tell you quickly about Juno. I say quickly because I have a young Japanese fellow staying here at the moment and sleeping in my study and I think he’ll be back from a trip to Magnetic Island very soon.

I saw Juno 2 nights ago. I had already heard my friends raving about it and I watched the young script writer, Diablo Cody (pictured) get her Oscar on Monday night and I decided I just had to see this film. You’ve probably all seen it already, haven’t you?

No? Do yourself a favour. It’s a movie any romance fan will love. And I’ll tell you why – because it does exactly what we all try to do and does it so well. It takes a familiar theme – unplanned pregnancy – and deals with it in a totally fresh and innovative way. Isn’t that what editors are always asking for – the same only different?

In this the pregnant mother is sixteen. The prospective father is a high school basketball/running track, guitar playing, slightly dorky but sweet guy.

The dialogue is hip and contemporary and sparkly. The plot turns unpredictable. The ending awww….

What more could you ask for?

A story about translations and serendipity …

Last week I spoke at the handover dinner of a women’s service club and at the end there was the usual question time. During that discussion, I told the audience about my cupboards full of translations of my books. ‘If you know anyone who reads a different language and who might be interested, let me know,’ I told them. ‘I’d be very happy to give them away.’

A woman held up her hand. 'Do you have any in Indonesian?’

Now, Indonesian is my most recently acquired “new language”, bringing the total number of languages my books are sold in to 23. I had copies of A Wedding at Windaroo – not only that, but the Indonesian copies came with lovely bookmarks to match the books’ covers.

And so… my books are now in a classroom at the Townsville Grammar School… but here’s the emotional punch to this story. The school’s young Indonesian teacher died this year, the day before school resumed after the summer break. Her Grade 12 class, who have had her as their teacher since Gr 8, are in shock. They’re, naturally, terribly upset, worried about their final year at school without her – and ambivalent about the subject. And, the unit they’re studying this term is all about romance and relationships.

So here’s hoping the Indonesian version of Piper and Gabe’s story fills a useful, perhaps even a healing role for these students this year.

Random thoughts for unpublished writers…

I have often wondered why some aspiring writers give up very early – often after the first setback, while others plug on for years and years and finally are published. One of my friends, a very successful author now, was unpublished for something like twenty years, another tried for eleven years before she got The Call, another for twelve.

And yet, I also know a very talented woman who gave up after her first rejection. And lots of others who've never actually submitted a manuscript.

Thomas Edison said: "Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up." ~

What is the secret? What determines success versus failure? I think, primarily, it’s a matter of self belief. If deep down you can believe you are a writer, you will plug on no matter how many rejections come your way.

Perhaps the writers who gave up had memories of past failures that held them back. Most people operate out of personal history, but when you’re aiming for an important goal like publication, you have to operate out of imagination rather than memory.

I remember being astonished that I actually knew deep down that I could write these books. I’d never had that kind of self-confidence about anything else. I had no idea where this certainty came from, but I could imagine becoming an author and seeing my stories on the shelves in shops. That belief, that vision was, without a doubt, the one thing that kept me going when I got rejections (and yes, I had four rejections) or bad feedback from competitions I’d entered. (I had my share of bad scores, too) I had my husband’s support, which was wonderful, but if I hadn’t also believed in myself, I wouldn’t have kept going.

Henry Ford said: Whether you think you can or whether you think you can't, you're right.

On this subject of self belief, let me give you an example from the Olympic Games.

Until 1954, it was believed that humans couldn’t run a mile in under four minutes. Doctors, athletes, coaches… everyone… believed it was physically impossible. And then on May 6th in 1954, an English athlete called Roger Bannister ran the mile in 3 minutes 59.4 seconds.

Since then, 20,000 people have run the mile in under four minutes – even schoolboys. What has changed? People’s thinking has changed. Not their bodies. Their thinking. They now believed it was possible.

OK… back to those aspiring authors who gave up. Another possible problem for these writers is that they have spent too much time comparing their progress with the progress of others. It must be very discouraging to see other people being published when you’re still getting rejections. It can be discouraging for published authors to see their friends winning awards or making bestseller lists.

But the thing is, the going isn’t quite so tough, if you keep your focus on your personal goal. You have to accept that each of us has a different path and keep your focus on your stories, your characters and your love of writing.

Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goals.

OK, that’s my sermon for today. I’m actually on deadline, so I’d better slink back into my cave.

Just remember, you've got to believe in yourself and that means not paying too much attention to what's happening to everyone else. Now go for it!!!