Last time I wrote was early 2020 and I was recovering in hospital from an accident. Little did I know what was coming down the tracks.

Covid hit us in March of that year, shelving all my publicity plans and tours for Our Little Cruelties. Nevertheless, heroic bookstores quickly pivoted to online or telephone sales and my little book found its way to number 1!

It was a bittersweet time though. My poor Dad's dementia really took hold that year and the family had to accept that he could no longer live independently. But because he was in a nursing home, all visiting was cancelled. For four months of his final year, I could not see my Dad and when we were allowed, I was forbidden from holding his hand or hugging him. He died in November 2020, (not of Covid) but I felt privileged that I and my eight siblings could be with him as he slipped from this world.

While all this was happening, I was still trying to physically recover from my own accident but couldn't access physiotherapy for four months. I was also quite heavily medicated to deal with pain and muscle spasms, so I regret to inform you that almost no writing was done in 2020.

By about March 2021, I was able to write again, but Covid had such a strange effect on my writing. I realised that in order to write about the world, I have to be able to partake in it. I tried so many different angles to my writing, but having finished the new novel now (won't be released until April 2023), I realised that I unwittingly wrote about a very isolated character. Those of you who have read me will be shocked to learn that for the first time, my central character is likeable! Although she does something absolutely terrible at the beginning of the story, I hope she will win your hearts the way she crawled out of mine.

Maybe Covid made me a slightly softer writer? Although the book is as sinister as the others, you will have a character to root for this time, without having to question your own morals. Ha!

Towards the end of last year, I got to attend a few scaled down festivals, Harrogate, Borris Festival of Writing and Ideas, Hinterland, West Cork Literary Festival and Iceland Noir. I got to interview some of my writing pals: Val McDermid, AJ Finn, Graham Norton and Marian Keyes as well as being interviewed myself. I'm finding myself comfortable on both sides of the microphone these days.

It's hard to celebrate the end of Covid when Russia has just invaded Ukraine and we do not know what the future will look like. So far, in 2022, I have been booked for festivals in Oxford, England; Toronto, Canada; Sopot, Poland; and Reykjavick, Iceland (I will put details on my website liznugent.com as soon as they are confirmed). Of course I am hoping they will all go ahead but the future, in Europe at least, looks uncertain.

I was interviewed recently for a tv programme called The Meaning of Life and that was one of the questions. What is the meaning of life? What are we here for? The best answer I could come up with is that we must do our best.

In this part of the world, Spring is approaching (although you would not know it on this miserably cold and grey Dublin day) and with Spring comes new life, hopes and dreams. Have a good one everybody! x