Let's finally get this year going.

I'm back.

I had burn out. That I'm sure of, from late 2022 to May 2023 when I started writing The Ilia's Lovers again, I was doing really great, I wrote most of the rest of the book and then I thought I backslid into burnout. Now, I believe that's when my cancer started. I'm a low energy person and it was quite an aggressive cancer, so it stole my energy.

For those of you who haven't heard, let me start from the beginning.

I have a sister either side of me. I'm going to call them A and B, to protect their privacy. They were talking about the different stages of menopause they were in late last year. I have PolyCystic Ovarian Syndrome and because of that, I had no sign of menopause. I decided to ask my doctor for a blood test so we could see where I was. She did a full panel. I was nowhere near menopause, and except for my weight problem, I was in perfect health. I made one throwaway comment, and that led to an exam, which led to a polypectomy and that led to an endometrial cancer diagnosis on Valentine's Day this year.

After a series of scans and tests I went in for surgery on the 4th of April. Everything went briliantly thanks to my amazing surgeon and my recovery went even better. The tiredness that I thought was burnout, which had plagued me for two years was gone and my creativity barrelled back demanding to be unleashed.

Finally, I could get on with my plans.

Then the set back. At the beginning of this month I got an infection in the operation site. Now, for those of you going through the beginning of this journey, people don't get infections here. None of my doctors had ever seen an infection in a seroma before. I'm sure it's happened elsewhere, but this is incredibly rare. Listen to your doctor, it was the best thing I ever did.

The infection has been brutal and even now, 25 days later I'm still fighting it. I'm on antibiotics until the 2nd of July and I'm having a blood test on the 4th to ensure it's gone. I was in hospital for 12 nights on an IV drip for the antibiotics for much of that, I lost 16lbs in weight due to lack of appetite even though I felt hungry. It was hell. The hospital was great. The staff, those amazing nurses, men and women, were so empathetic and supportive. They made everything so much better. I can never thank them enough.

I'm determined to get back to work. It's going to be slow, and that's why I am serialising The Ilia's Lovers on Ream.

But not just Ream. I start serialising The Ilia's Lovers on Ream on July 7th. To respect the fact that there are people who are paying for that, I will wait one month, then start serialising it for you all here on my website. If some of you choose to cancel your Ream to wait, I completely understand. If you want to, and more importantly, can afford to support me on Ream, you can find me here.

The money I raise from there will help to pay for the editing of The Ilia's Lovers duology, as well as the cover and editing for Teyr which I will be writing as soon as I've finished The Ilia's Lovers. On that note, I'm days away from finishing the first book and I can feel the first chapters of part 2 chomping at the bit. The version you will get will be raw and unedited. The finished version will be polished, so please keep that in mind as you read it.

I am still working on Uneasy Accord, but this is a different kind of novel and it's taking much longer than I thought. I'm determined it will be out in 2026.

My writing is going to slow down. But I am back and this time, it is for good.

I'm now on Substack. I'll be sending out my Newsletter from Substack from now on. I will send out one newsletter a month, but I'll also be writing articles and sharing things on there so if you want to subscribe, no charges, then you can find me here.

I'm going to write some Substacks about my books, my progress and plans for the future, so if you want to keep up to date on that, check it out in the coming days.

Thank you, all of you, for your support while I've been in this fallow place for the last two and half years. I can't tell you what it means to me. 💜💜💜