I have finally packed the kids off to school to start a new semester, and now it is my time to get back to what I love best – writing!

 As with every ending, a year is no different: it is a time to take stock, look back, reflect and then move forward.

Last year, I set myself some targets for the year, kind of like a new year’s resolution but more as a ‘to do list,’ to keep my mind focused on what I wanted to achieve as a writer for the year ahead.

The list is included here. When I look back at the words on the page, they look simple, bullet points, but the amount of dedication, effort and hard work it took to achieve each one, to tick each one off the list astounds me.

I tried to explain what I had achieved during the past year to a friend and I had to stop myself, it was too much to even communicate.

 Somehow, in the last year I managed to edit and release three books: Shattered, Torn and Perfectly Ruined. I started writing a sixth book and completed my fifth book: Carnage, ready to release in the next few weeks. I wrote 30 blog posts on the subject of writing and I created my own advertising for the books that I wrote. All the while visiting 7 different countries and relocating to another one!

This is not to boast. I didn’t do everything perfectly, I didn’t do everything right, but I did it. Even with an unexpected relocation, I just focused on my list and worked hard.

Towards the end of this year, I let things slip, I couldn’t juggle being the mother of small children, a wife and an expat, adapting to a new country so different to the one I had spent the last five years in and continue the unrelenting pace of writing. It has been tough, therefore…

This year I will not make a list. I will just do what I can and accept that I cannot always do what I want to do, because right now my life isn’t just about me, it’s about my family and helping them settle down in a new country, for however long we are here.  

So, for now, I look forward to sharing my new book Carnage with you all and I know at some point this year there will be another book: Do You Ever Think of Me? This book will be my project this year, right now I am deciding if it will be one book or two…