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One of the absolute privileges of being an author – especially one fitting writing around a busy life – is connecting with readers. Sometimes, an email or message lands in your inbox that does more than just provide feedback; it offers a window into the reader's experience and provides a powerful jolt of motivation.
I received one such email recently that truly brightened my day, and with the sender’s kind permission (keeping their identity anonymous, of course!), I wanted to share a little about it, because it highlights so much about why reader engagement is incredibly special.
The Deep Dive
This reader had recently discovered The Paul Robertson Saga and apparently found it hard to put down – they devoured the first three books in just three consecutive days. They even joked that “sleep is vastly overrated,” which I’m sure many fellow bookworms can relate to. Hearing about that kind of immersive reading experience is honestly one of the highest compliments an author can receive. It tells you the world you built felt real enough to get lost in.
The Moment of Panic (We’ve All Been There!)
Upon finishing Book 3, they immediately went looking for Book 4. When it wasn’t easily found where they looked, they described that sinking feeling many of us have felt when engrossed in a series – the sudden fear: Is this all there is? Life happens, authors get busy, and sometimes, sadly, series don’t continue. It’s a real risk readers take, especially with authors who aren’t household names.
Relief and Reassessment
Thankfully, their search led them here, to the blog, where they found reassurance that Paul’s story is indeed ongoing. Phew! That feeling of relief they described is something I felt too, reading their email!
They were also incredibly candid, mentioning their initial thought that, being less well-known, perhaps I was an “amateur.” (A term I don’t shy away from, by the way. Writing is my passion and hobby, squeezed in around a full-time job, so while I strive for professionalism, “hobbyist” is accurate.)
But reading the books changed their perspective. They offered truly generous praise about the characters coming to life, calling the writing skilled – using terms that genuinely humbled me. It was a wonderful reminder that readers connect with the story itself, regardless of labels.
The Power of Emotional Connection
Perhaps the most touching part was their honesty about the story’s emotional impact. They shared that a certain character’s passing moved them to tears, even though they saw it coming. In a follow-up, they even admitted another poignant scene later in the series had the same effect – something they confessed with humour about potentially needing to hand in their “man card”!
As an author, hearing this is profoundly meaningful. Knowing that characters you’ve crafted, scenes you’ve agonised over, can evoke genuine tears and strong emotions in a reader… well, that’s the magic connection you hope and strive for. (And don’t worry, reader, your tearful moments remain completely anonymous, your reputation secure.)
Why Your Feedback Matters
This reader graciously allowed me to share parts of their experience, and I’m so thankful – not just for the permission, but for the time and thoughtfulness they put into their messages.
Emails like this are fuel. They are validation. They are the encouragement needed to keep going, to push through edits, to wrestle with plot points, and to keep sharing these stories. It’s a reminder that there are real people out there embarking on these journeys with your characters.
So, to this wonderful reader, and to everyone who takes the time to read, review, or send a message – thank you. You have no idea how much it means.
Now, energised by this connection, it’s back to work on bringing the final, edited version of Book 4 to life!
This entry is a summation of the last few updates I posted on my Website, covering the month of March.
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It's been an eventful few weeks in my world, including but not limited to writing "A Healing Love," and I wanted to share some updates on the progress, the process, and a few challenges along the way.
Back in late February, I found myself needing a short break from the manuscript. Writing the recent chapters (around Chapter 35) proved to be incredibly rewarding – some of the best writing I feel I've ever done – but also intensely emotionally draining. Living with these characters (Paul, Clarissa, Emily, Mark, Imogen, and the others) for over a decade means they feel very real, and their experiences resonate deeply. Crafting a particularly moving speech for Paul at the launch of "The Clarissa Trust," where he speaks directly to the award recipients, hit me quite hard. Sometimes, you just need to step away, even if briefly (in my case, for some GTA Online!). But after that short pause, I was ready to dive back in.
My return to writing led to completing Chapter 36, though it turned out differently than I initially expected. After finishing the emotional arc of Chapter 35, I found that the subsequent section I wrote, intended as the start of Chapter 36, felt like a natural continuation rather than a distinct new chapter. They were connected yet relatively short on their own.
So, I made the decision to combine them. While I worried this might dilute the impact of Chapter 35's original ending, I found it actually strengthened the narrative, carrying the themes forward seamlessly. The result is that the "Chapter 36" that's now complete serves as more of a transitional chapter, moving the story forward from recent events towards the book's conclusion. This process also saw the manuscript grow significantly, pushing past the 165,000-word mark and making me reconsider my initial estimate for the first draft's final length.
More recently, the infamous financial year-end crunch has descended. As many of you know, my 'IRL' job is managing finances for a law firm. March (our company year-end) and early April (the UK tax year-end) create a perfect storm of deadlines: closing deals, invoicing, budget planning, salary reviews, and this year, an added rush from changes to Stamp Duty Land Tax. It's hectic, stressful, and leaves little energy left at the end of the day.
This inevitably impacts evening writing sessions for "A Healing Love." While I'm still trying to squeeze in writing whenever possible, progress is slower when your day job is so demanding. Compounding this is a challenge with the writing itself: crafting the book's ending.
When I started "A Healing Love," it was meant to be the final book in the Paul Robertson Saga, complete with a planned happy ending. However, the story grew far beyond my initial scope. It became clear that, unless I wanted a single book far longer than any previous one (the current draft is already nearing 170,000 words, significantly longer than "A Tortured Soul"), it needed to be split into two.
This means the ending I'm writing now isn't the ultimate conclusion, but rather the midpoint – the end of book four, which serves as the catalyst for the final happy ending in book five. This presents the difficult task of writing a bitter-sweet ending, which I find the hardest kind to craft. There's also a character complication: someone I originally intended to act poorly to drive the plot forward has evolved as I've written her. I've grown attached, and making her act against the grain of who she's become feels wrong. It's a classic case of falling in love with the heroine all over again!
It's definitely a "me" problem, and one I'll need to navigate to serve the story. Despite the hurdles – the emotional toll, the necessary restructuring, the demands of the day job, and the complexities of a bitter-sweet, catalytic ending – I'm determined to push through and bring this part of Paul's journey to its conclusion.
It’s been a while since my last update on here, partly because I concentrate on posting updates to my website, but also because I've been in for minor knee surgery and have been in recovery. Yep, I finally got that lump on my knee that’s been bugging me for a decade removed. Day surgery, so I was back home before I knew it.
The procedure was smoother than I expected. It was under general anaesthetic, so one minute I’m talking about what I do for a living and the next, I’m waking up, groggy but able to tell that the annoying little lump was gone immediately. Years of pressure and pain, gone. Poof! Just like that! It was amazing. From leaving my room to go to theatre to getting back was about an hour and a half at most. I went into the hospital before breakfast and was back home for teatime.
Recovery? Mostly chill, with a side of ‘ow, my knee!’ You know the drill: slice it open, remove a vascular tumour, and suddenly, sitting still feels like torture, and moving feels like a marathon. It’s a delightful balancing act, let me tell you. My hips are staging a mini-rebellion because I’m walking like a wonky robot to avoid putting too much pressure on the operated knee.
But, as I must have repeated to a couple of dozen people when they’ve asked how I am, I’m doing okay. Got a follow-up this week to make sure everything’s healing up nicely.
I had this grand plan of using my downtime to crank out a ton of ‘A Healing Love’ chapters. Turns out, ‘not being able to sit still’ and ‘writing for hours’ don’t exactly mix. I managed to finish chapter 35, though, which is a win. That marks the end of a little ‘section’ of the story.
I’m am really pleased with Chapters 30 through 35 and think they may represent the best writing I’ve ever done, especially given the content, which has been a tricky tightrope to walk between drama and getting a bit ‘preachy.’ Two character’s give speeches in two separate chapters in this section of the story and it’s been hard work to find a balance between just parroting the speech and weaving in enough movement and introspection, but not too much introspection, if you know what I mean.
The manuscript is now over 160,000 words and I still think I’m no target for around 170K, maybe a bit more.
While I’m thrilled with my progress, I recognise that the book is far from complete. And Paul’s story is even further from a resolution—although I’m now very confident that the fifth book will indeed be the final one.
I’m starting to feel like the Douglas Adams of my own little world – this is turning into a “trilogy” in five parts.
Gemini continues to be a very useful writing partner and, at times, it really does feel like I have a human editor in an instant message chat as we go back and forth with revisions to a scene. Is it perfect? Not by a long way, but is any human editor perfect, either? Despite its flaws, Gemini is proving to be an invaluable tool in my writing process. Its ability to provide instant feedback and suggest improvements has, I think, significantly enhanced the quality of my work. With its help, I am confident that “A Healing Love” will be my best novel yet.
Of course, there’s not really any way for me to know that until the book is out in the wild, so to speak. Once readers get their hands on it and start offering feedback, then I’ll know if using AI in this way has been a help or a hindrance.
The information in this post first appeared on my website a couple of weeks ago.
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I've now completed chapter 27, bringing the book’s total word count to 122,500—just a few hundred words shy of A Tortured Soul, which remains the longest of the first three books in the series, and my longest book to date.
From a timeline perspective, we’re nearing the end of this part of Paul’s story. There’s about a month left in-universe, and I estimate that I still need to write eight significant events until we reach a natural break-point in the narrative where I end Book 4 and begin Book 5.
This means we’re probably looking at another 8 to 10 chapters. With the current average chapter length being about 4,500 words, that’s roughly 30,000 to 50,000 more words to go.
I expect the final word count of the first draft will fall somewhere between 150,000 and 170,000 words—significantly more than I initially anticipated when I began this journey.
So, how long will it take to finish? At this point, it’s anyone’s guess. I completed Chapter 25 on December 10. I completed two more chapters by the end of the first week of January, so if I keep up that pace, we’re looking at about two weeks per chapter. That would put the first draft’s completion around May—though I’m not making any promises or setting firm deadlines.
My hope is to finish the first draft before then, but once that’s done, I plan to set it aside for about a month before returning to revise and edit.
I would very tentatively and optimistically suggest a summer release.
This post originally appeared on my website
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I don’t like to set myself “deadlines” with my writing, mainly because I never, ever hit them.
The late great Douglas Adams famously said, “I love deadlines. I love the whooshing noise they make as they go by.”
Yeah, that sums up my relationship with deadlines, too.
After publishing A Wounded Heart in the first half of 2023, I had hoped that I’d get the next book in the series finished within eighteen months. But then at the start of 2024 things got awfully busy at work with staff changes and various other issues which left me essentially doing the job of two or three people and drained both physically and mentally at the end of each day.
Fortunately, the staffing situation got sorted out, and my workload is back to the kind of manageable level it really should have been for the past four or five years but never was. As a result, I’ve been able to refocus my non-working hours on making progress with the book that is now called A Healing Love.
Yes, there have been distractions—there always are—but I think I’ve made really good progress in the last six months. I now have a draft manuscript that’s in excess of one hundred and ten thousand words, making it my second longest manuscript to date, and a clear idea of what I need to do to bring this portion of Paul’s story to a satisfying end and move on to the fifth and final book in the series.
It’s been a long journey. It’s not over yet, but I can see the finish line. I had hoped to cross that finish line by the end of 2024, but that’s clearly not going to happen. But it was never a deadline, so it won’t make a noise as it rushes past.
In terms of a more concrete update this week, I’ve completed chapter twenty-five, which is another chapter in the “business” plot thread of Paul’s story, and I’m now moving on to a chapter I’ve really been looking forward to writing. Do you remember me saying I was trying to tell three different stories in this book? Well, this next chapter will advance one of those three stories.
The “hook” of this series—the “Big Mystery” if you like—is who Paul is married to in the prologues and epilogues that take place in the future. My hope is that by the end of this fourth book, the reader will have a good idea who that person is, will be happy with who they think it is, and will be looking forward to a final book that (finally) tells the story of their romance. Can I pull that off? I don’t know. I guess we’ll see.
On a different topic, I’ve been using a service called Fotor, which is an online AI photo editor and AI image generator to generate images based on passages from some of my books, including A Healing Love and I've shared some of them (and the text used to create them) on my website.
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