The Stone Road is on the Ditmar preliminary ballot, which is very exciting.
I've never won a Ditmar, but this is my fourth time on the ballot, and I'm always thrilled when it happens. Thank you to those who nominated me! If anyone is interested and exploring their Ditmar voting options let me know and I may be able to send you an ARC of the book - I've still got a few lying around.
Also, the audio book of Stone Road is now available. It is read by Katherine Littrell and they have done an amazing job bringing the story to life.
It's been an exciting few weeks here, after a very busy start to the year, and hopefully I'll have something new that I am absolutely over the moon about to announce soon
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Finally, I've been thinking about my career lately. I've been working at writing for publication for over thirty years now, slowly building up publishing credits, watching my career leap ahead, and then lag, and it's never been clearer to me than now (particularly with little kids) that the mo
st important element to any writing career beyond even a facility with words is regular writing.
Sitting down and writing regularly, getting the words down, consistently. It almost doesn't matter how many words that you write, but that you just keep doing it. Targets etc don't really matter. Just getting down the words, being gentle with yourself, and open to where those words take you.
I've had periods where I have had loads of time (and they're great) but I've also had periods where I have had less than a few hours a week, and the output (as long as I am consistently writing) is about the same.
You write, you read, you try and get better. They're the only things you have ultimate control over. Every other writing strategy is really just built on that. It's the hardest thing I do, I'm never satisfied with what comes out, but it can also be damn fun.
I love this writing business, and it has taken me places I never would have expected, far beyond my dreams scratching out Dr Who stories in Primary School (honestly, that pretty much happened from the first professional story I had published).
It's heartening to
think that every story started with me just sitting down, looking at a blank page, and seeing where the words took me.
I sometimes feel like the least professional writer in the world, but there's magic and joy in this craft, and any success I've had has just come from sitting down, filling the pages, bit by bit, and dreaming for the stars.