God, I’ve no idea how people find the time to write daily blogs! Updating this writing diary every six weeks or so is pressure enough for me. No sooner have I got it done than I have to put it on my ‘to do’ list again, where it sits for the next month, taunting me until I get to the stage (like now) where I say ‘All right ! I’ll do it, I’ll do it, just get off my list!’

The trouble is that I haven’t really got anything to say this month. I am in the mid-book doldrums, having struggled to the end of Chapter 6 last night. I hate this stage where it feels like I’ve been writing this story for ever and yet there still seems for ever to go … As always, I have left it to the last minute, and if I am to have the draft finished before Easter, I need to write four chapters in the six days I have left. It’s not unfeasible, and I’ve done it before now ( Contracted: Corporate Wife was written in an absolute panic) but I haven’t even got notes for the ending yet, and I am not entirely sure ...

It's taking a very long time to settle back into a routine after Christmas, and I am finding it hard to concentrate on any one thing, let alone the new book. I am beginning to think that I may have taken on rather too many new projects this year. I feel as if I have thrown a whole lot of balls into the air, and am now paralysed with indecision about how and when to catch them all, with the result that if I'm not careful, I'll end up catching none at all. That's what comes of being cocky and saying 'I'll do that . yes, I can do that . no problem . yes, I'll do that too . and that . and that'. I may be eating a lot of humble pie by the end of the year.

Still, it's early days. I have come up with a plot for my next book, and the synopsis is with my new editor at the moment. It ended up being rather different from the plot thrashed out on the moors that I talked about in December, but that's the way it goes. Depending on my editor's comments, it may change yet again. I'm not proud at ...

I got home yesterday after three weeks in Wiltshire over Christmas and the New Year and am still feeling a bit strange, as if I've suddenly found myself in someone else's house. My computer had a crisis two days before I went away, and I was rather hoping that ignoring it would solve the problem, which is my usual strategy, but sadly it didn't work on this occasion. A new desktop is on the cards. I do quite like the idea of a clean, smart new computer, but get so bamboozled when I try to choose that I end up backing out of the showroom, stammering nervously about having a think about it. I just wish I could find someone who would understand that there is no point in talking to me about rams and megabytes. All I want is to be told what to buy, and for someone to bring the boxes to my house, unpack them, set everything up, ensure that I have everything I need and then to disappear, preferably taking the empty boxes and my old computer with them. Is this really too much to ask

As soon ...

Well, after all the fuss (see last entry) the book went through without any revisions, so I was a very happy – and relieved! – author, and my last deadline of the year has been met … always a good feeling! I have had a very relaxed year, and have enjoyed every minute of it, but things are going to get a bit busier in 2006. I’m starting two new projects, and am committed to writing another three romances, as well as moving my life down to Wiltshire every other month. Oh, and I have already planned six holidays next year, so am not entirely sure how I’m going to fit it all in …

I did dither a bit about only doing two books next year, but was offered the chance to do a duet, two linked books, as well as a stand-alone, and as duets and trilogies can be good for sales I decided I would be a fool to turn it down. So all the holidays and sundry other projects will have to be worked around producing a book by the end of April, another by the end of October and the th ...

Oh, dear, this book is proving hard work. My original idea, which I mentioned in the last entry, turned out to be a damp squib. My editor very cleverly made me work out for myself that plot – and especially the hero – just didn’t have what it takes, so rather than her saying it was an absolutely crappy idea (which it was), I had to talk her through it and eventually come to the conclusion that the hero simply wasn’t heroic enough and it wasn’t going to work. And as soon as she’d got me to this point, I marvelled that I could ever have thought it was even a possibility as an idea. I came up with another plot that night (using the trusty hot bath and gin technique) and this is the one I’m going with … or rather, plodding with.

I don’t know why I’m struggling with this one so much. I’m happy with my hero and heroine, and I know how the plot works out. Perhaps part of the problem was that I had it all so worked out in my head that if felt as if I’d already written the book. Whatever t ...

If you thought I looked smug after my graduation, you should have seen me on July 31st … and in fact, you can, because here’s a picture of me after hearing that I’d won the Rita award for best traditional romance. It’s a bit blurry, but that’s because we’d already been through a couple of bottles of champagne before remembering to record the occasion. I’d finished revisions on my manuscript at midnight on July 30th, and was due to set off on holiday at midday on the 31st. The phone rang at 8.00 that morning, and it was Kim, ringing from Reno with the news that I’d won. As you can probably imagine, it was a huge thrill and I found it very hard to concentrate on my packing after that, but it was the best possible start to our holiday. And when I came back from Turkey, I found so many generous messages of congratulation, especially from my fellow authors, that I got to have the ...

NEWS FLASH! Jessica's book Christmas Eve Marriage won the Best Traditional Romance section of the Romance Writers of America's annual RITA contest.

OK, I’ll admit right now that I didn’t get into that red dress for my graduation, in spite of squandering a fortune on gym fees and even a personal trainer for a few sessions. All to no avail, though, so I had to go out and buy new black dress instead (well, rude not to, really). Here is picture of me looking extremely smug in my doctoral bonnet, and if you’re wondering why I’m holding the cardboard roll that is masquerading as my PhD at an odd angle, it’s because I was trying to hide the fact that I hadn’t had time to do my nails. I had a wonderful day, and was made much of by those I love most in the world. It did feel a momentous occasion, marking the end of nine years’ work on my thesis. Funding a PhD was the reason I started writing romance in the first place, so it did work out … although both the writing and the research took rather longer than I bargained for!

Anyway, the t ...

I’ve just re-read what I wrote on 8 th May and was touched by my confidence that I would have a complete draft of the next book completed by this stage … you’d think I would learn, wouldn’t you? It is all very well planning these things, but as it turned out I needed the last three weeks to faff around, go out for coffee, decide to lose enough weight to get into my red dress for my graduation in July (another plan that has yet to see any actual action), admire my new kitchen, buy the most beautiful pair of jewelled sandals and three outfits to go with them, and then worry about my credit card bill, and so on and so forth.

So really I have nothing to show for the last month, although I have done a synopsis, which I discussed with my editor today, as a result of which I am cutting the marriage of convenience angle but keeping the children. It is always really useful to throw ideas around with an editor (nearly as good as a bottle of wine at the bar at City Scre ...

I’ve got to admit, I was a few days late sending in my manuscript, but if I hadn’t had to spend a Saturday stripping wallpaper so that the plasterer could come in the following Monday (tip: don’t arrange to have a new kitchen installed the same week as your deadline – madness!) I would have scraped under my deadline by the skin of my teeth. As it was, I still had about ten pages to go before going away for the May long weekend, so I didn’t in the end finish until I came back last Tuesday. In spite of having four full months to think about and write this book, it ended up with the usual deadline frenzy in the last couple of weeks. I do seem to need the adrenalin rush of a looming deadline to pull my finger out and get down to work, but it is exhausting at the time – and (I am reliably informed) utterly exasperating for my loved ones who have to put up with me while it’s all going on.

Anyway, it is done out of my hand for now, while I wait to hear back from my editor about whether ...