I’m pleased to announce that my second novel, Staking a Claim, is finally ready to go to my editor. She has a list of works in the queue to get through first so I’m not sure when she’ll be done with it, but what it does mean is that I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel and I can get on with working on the next book, whatever it turns out to be. After the two years it took to write my first novel, I was optimistic I could finish the second one in a shorter time frame. As it turns out, that hasn’t been the case and almost three years have passed since Taking the Plunge was published.

There are multiple reasons why it’s taken so long, not the least of which was I kept falling asleep while working on it. I don’t have a home office, or even a desk, so I’d get up early every morning before work to sit on the couch and write with my laptop resting, funnily enough, in my lap. With a cup of coffee on the bookshelf next to me, it was the perfect setup, cosy and comfortable, and it worked well for my first book. However, it was clearly too cosy and comfortable because the second time round, day after day, more often than not, I’d fall asleep. Writing a book while asleep is very difficult, hence my progress was considerably impeded.

A few weeks ago, after months of struggling to stop myself from sleeping on the job, I finally arrived at a simple solution. It’s so simple that I don’t know why I didn’t figure it out a couple of years ago, but there you have it; life’s like that sometimes. My solution was to move my writing setup from our cosy couch to our ancient dining room table with its petrified and bum-numbing wooden chairs. When I say ‘petrified’, I’m not exaggerating; sitting on one of our dining chairs is literally akin to sitting on a slab of rock.

I still do nod off occasionally but, unlike the couch, where I can easily fall asleep and wake up an hour later, our dining chairs are not conducive to prolonged snoozing and after a few moments, my subconscious brain tends to snap me awake with the warning that if I sit still for much longer, I’ll be so stiff there’s every chance I’ll never move again.

The result has been much-improved progress over the last few weeks and I’m feeling more optimistic about my writing. It helps that we’re through the worst of winter. It’s my least favourite season and the lack of sunshine always takes a toll on my mood. Now we’ve got daffodils blooming in the garden and there were at least one day last week where it didn’t rain, so things are looking up. Roll on, Spring.

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A gritty and engaging story of human faults, fears, and frailty, What Friends Are For is the prequel short story to my tragicomic novel, Taking the Plunge. Introduce yourself to the characters from the novel and find out where it all begins for Kate, Tracy, Evan and Lawrence.

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