It’s Tuesday. New Zealand went to RED at midnight on Sunday night. We cancelled our “Inside Quote Marks” event yesterday. Our authors are wonderfully supportive and kind, and all understand that this is how it has to be.
I don’t think I ever believed we would be able to run this event. I’m not overly upset or disappointed. Sure it sucks, but no one wants to be responsible for illness or deaths, so the right decision was made quickly.
The bookshop is still open. You can still buy books. But, mask up and have your vaccine pass ready for scanning, otherwise, off you fuck.

At the moment [Leave a Message] is with three beta readers. My eldest daughter (some of you know Bex from Twitter), a dear much trusted author friend (Margot Kinberg), and a trusted awesome human (Pete from Break it Down Show).
For me, this is the MOST nerve-wracking time of all. It’s harder than a launch day, it’s worse than a gloriously clean and edited copy going out for review, it is the hardest of author hard things. 🙂
This is a naked, raw, bunch of words out with people who will tell me how I much fucked up the story, screwed the characters, and got all the technical details completely wrong.
This is where the writing begins.
Sure this book has a beginning, middle, and end. And there are probably some redeemable scenes (Yes, my fingers are crossed) but this is also the stage where it needs guidance to make it better – to add detail, to move threads around, beef up scenes and characters.
This is the beginning of what it will eventually look like.

A few things that really fucked me off were included in this story. I thought about whether I should include one thing in particular because it was disturbing. I did and it’s verbatim. My BFF/sister may have something to say about that, from a legal perspective -so I will run the entire scene by her before it goes to my wonderful editor.
You all know that when someone truly pisses me off they die in a story. Sometimes it’s not one person but a group, a faction. Makes me feel better. 🙂
Sometimes it’s a character I quite like but their name makes me feel ill because of completely unrelated things. They too must die.

Today my brain is trying quite hard to be a dick. I’m not sure why exactly – maybe the weather is changing.
I was 100% until I sat at my desk in the bookshop. I’m now wondering if there is a fluro tube on its way out and flickering. I am wearing blue-blocker glasses but they’re blue-blockers not flicker blockers. 🙂

We have a new family member. He is called Omen.
Yes, Diesel does like him.
Patrick is interested and has given him a wee kiss. Amazed he didn’t decide to chomp. Cats will be cats. He is VERY closely watched.