Spring has arrived and once again I’m faced with the uncomfortable truth that we are well and truly into the second half of this year and a lot of my 2021 writing goals are most likely not going to happen. But that’s okay. I’m currently reading a fantastic book called Trivial Grievances by Bridie Jabour, and I do like her observation that life for us (‘us’ being people in our 30s) seems to boil down to an incessant need to be achieving things. Always, we must be achieving. Whether it’s achieving a promotion or a pay rise, cooking something on-trend and delicious, reading X many new books this month, spring cleaning the house or organising the spice rack, or, yes, writing the next book. But it’s okay not to achieve anything. Sometimes it’s perfectly fine to just laze around on the floor playing with your dog all day, or just veg out in front of the tv binge-watching shows. The only thing we really should be achieving is enjoying whatever it is we are currently doing.

That being said, though I may be falling short on my over-ambitious new-years resolutions, my readers might be happy to know that I haven’t spent the whole year lolling around on the floor playing with my dog or binge watching tv (at least, not all of it). So, here’s a quick roundup of what is happening with each of my novels-in-progress: