After keeping things fairly quiet for a few weeks, I’ve been given the official nod that I can share the news. I’m absolutely over the moon to announce that I’ve signed a three-book deal with a dynamic imprint of Head of Zeus Publishing, Aria Fiction. Aria will be releasing my first novel, ‘The Second Chance Tea Shop’ in print, ebook, large print and audio formats in Spring 2017, with books to follow in 2018 and 2019! Open the cider, eat a platter of Cheddar cheese and let the writing commence!!

As those of you who have been following this writing adventure know, this has taken a little while – from putting fingers to keyboard at the start of 2014 to now, it’s been nearly three years in the making, but now I couldn’t be happier. Massive thanks for securing this deal goes to my lovely agent, Sara Keane of Keane Kataria Literary Agency, who has worked so hard with me to get this book out there. I definitely couldn’t have done it without her, and there really is nothing like having an agent in your corner to support you through the rewrites, critique and suggest changes and brainstorm ideas, as well as securing the deals, of course! She’s been absolutely brilliant, and I hope to be working with her for years to come.

I’m also over the moon to be working with the team at Aria, especially Sarah Ritherdon, my new editor, and Caroline Ridding, who was so supportive of the idea of the Little Somerby novels. I can’t wait to start the real work of getting the book ready for publication, and am so looking forward to finding out how this process works.

There’s work to be done, not least the writing of two more books, but I’m hoping that this will be the start of a new career for me, and it’s one I’ve always dreamed of having, ever since those early days when I filled notebooks with scribbles and read them to various (indulgent) friends and family. Perhaps there’ll be another blog post soon about the nitty gritty that got me to this point, but for now, I just want to ‘officially’ put the news out there. Here’s to Spring 2017 when the first book comes out – and if you’d like to buy a copy, it would make me, and my new publisher,  really happy!