Can you believe that it is already 2014? Personally I find it all a bit of shock. I knew it was coming, I knew it was going to happen but it still crept up on me like a ghost in the night – BOO! Happy New Year!

I can truly say the past twelve months have been a roller coaster for me. Early in the year I lost my dear cousin, Dorothy, to cancer and this was not only hard on me but also the rest of my family. We took strength in the knowledge that she was finally at peace but she left behind three beautiful daughters who somehow found the strength to carry on without her.

Spring came and went and thankfully my mind was kept busy with publishing the second novel of the Magic Trilogy, Betrayers of Magic. The first port of call was a book signing at Freshney Place, Grimsby which was a great success and I met some truly wonderful people, some of whom have supported me from the very beginning. I also made some new friends too and promised them that the third book (Defenders of Magic) would be out to buy by Christmas.

In the meantime I became a member of a new writing group which is based in Grimsby. I have to say that every single person who comes to the group is startlingly talented, although I must confess I don’t think we have written a single word between us as a group. We decided very early on that due to the commitments we had already accumulated as either writers or bread winners, that we would simply support one another any way we could and have a bit of a social gathering instead of having assignments to complete. Personally, I thought this was a great idea and we all meet up once every three weeks to talk about agents, scripts, writer’s block or anything else that is interesting to the group.

Later in the year and true to my word, Defenders of Magic was published in early December after a very dedicated six months of writing. My only wish was to bask in the knowledge that on Christmas Day those who wanted to read the last book of the trilogy would be able to own a copy of my latest book, even if it was only available on Kindle at that time. I was very excited about Defenders of Magic being published. I felt I had created a story like no other. A tale which, I hope, brought dragons to life and where two mothers, from two completely different worlds, would be brought together to help save their daughter.

Since then I have been busy promoting my books and I am pleased to say I have made some wonderful, new connections via social media. I have to admit I love Twitter for all the superb people I meet there. Facebook is a wonderful place to visit too and many of those who I now call friends continually help to promote my books and raise my publicity.

So what is ahead for me this year? Well, firstly I am hoping to do another book signing in Freshney Place, Grimsby. I also have a date with a radio presenter on SHCR Radio on the 9th February so please tune in if you can. I have been invited to the Oasis Academy in Immingham to be a part of their ‘World Book Day’ so that will be very interesting indeed. I also have a few irons in the fire but nothing definite, however, it’s always good to know that there are possibly more events in the pipeline.

For now though, I must try and focus on writing my next novel which will be all about a Windigo called Clump. For those of you who are not familiar with Clump, he is a changeling and is a very important character in Betrayers of Magic. What is a Windigo I hear you cry? Well, they are usually very hairy creatures which are a cross between a Yeti and an Ogre and they transmute into timber wolves at night. The worst thing about Windigos is that they eat humans. Of course I couldn’t have Clump eating Crystal, my protagonist, so I made him a vegetarian which had devastating consequences because he was ostracised by his family purely because of this fact. So, because so many of my readers wanted to learn more about Clump, I have decided to dedicate my next novel to him. Please keep your eyes peeled later on in the year for my next book, which will be called The Tale of Clump, a Changeling’s Story.

Happy New Year everyone and I wish you a year filled with love, happiness and utter prosperity.