I had some good news in December - the long awaited publication of my second crime fiction The Fens finally came to fruition. Getting your manuscript into print is certainly not for the faint-hearted or the impatient – the process is lengthy and daunting right from the first design and especially through the seemingly endless proofreading phase – that is definitely my least favourite part of the process.

The most enjoyable part for me (and I suspect this will be true of many writers) is sitting down with a blank piece of paper and a pencil (I know - I’m very old school when it comes to my writing) and crafting all those tiny threads of ideas that I have been keeping safe in my head, into plots and characters and communities and storylines which weave together (eventually) and form a manuscript which you work on for months or years until you finally reach the stage where you are happy for someone else to see it.

All the effort is definitely worth it though when you see the finished project and get to hold it in your hands, and even better when people have read it and want to ask you questions about the characters and the story. When readers start to discuss it among themselves, that’s when your little project begins to take on its own life, and it stands on its own as a project that is completely independent of you - that’s when you finally feel a sense of satisfaction and achievement.

It’s not just an individual achievement – much like raising a child, it takes a village! And for me, I’d like to thank all of my friends, family and readers who are always so supportive and encouraging of my work – thank you, you make it all worthwhile.