Hello! Hi! Gosh has it really been nine months since I stopped in here? It must be, because my son is now nine months old! And wow, how the time has flown.

The last writerly thing I did was attend the Romance Writers of Australia annual conference in August last year, where I spent a whole weekend in Sydney attending talks, panels, workshops and some fabulous evening events. Oh, and trying to rest my swollen ankles by Sunday afternoon, because the conference took place only one week before I had the baby! And yes, the below dress was EXCELLENT at camouflaging the fact that I was nine months pregnant, because nobody really wants to walk around being known as 'that pregnant lady' when you're at a work event!

Although I had grand plans to continue writing with a newborn, those plans quickly went out the window. Anyone who’s had a baby I’m sure will be smiling knowingly at that. There’s been many, many days when he’s gone down for a nap and I go and turn my computer on, bring up my current manuscript, orient myself in the story and am just about to get writing when the baby starts crying. And then I start crying. (Not really, but the frustration is real!)

So lately I’ve just been leaning in to mum life, and acknowledging that I’m not going to be working on a new book any time soon. I’m listening to writing podcasts and audiobooks when I go out walking and jotting down notes in my phone when ideas strike.

Everyone says that this baby phase passes by so quickly, and I know that it’s true. Some days I look down at my feet and think how amazing —  and bizarre — it is to have a tiny human now crawling around the place. (More often than not this thought strikes moments before I have to run over and scoop said tiny human up and away from the dog’s food bowl!) And here is said tiny human, fascinated by the rain outside.

However, I am slowly starting to do bits and pieces of author-life again. Like a few hours snatched on the weekend to do a bit of work (hello – writing this blog post right now!). And hopefully by the end of this year I’ll have some news to share on the release of my next book.

So that’s me at the moment. Full-time mum & very sporadic author. I’ll post again once author life starts to pick back up, or if I have book news.