May 2026

She wasn't supposed to feel this way

There’s something unsettling, yet addictively exciting about wanting something you’re not supposed to…

I’m nearing the end of the first draft of the follow-on to Finding the Lions, and this story has taken me somewhere deeper than I expected and introduced a new point of view, Illena, adding to those from Dameria and Karik.

This last section is seeing the characters cross the Kazakhstan desert, somewhere I have little knowledge about having never been there; the internet is a wonderous thing.  As it is a first draft, I am only roughly looking at the topography, later drafts will fill out the description, allowing you, the reader, to equally immerse yourself as you follow their struggles and the slow burn of desire. 

If you do have any knowledge of Kazakhstan feel free to get in touch via my Facebook profile.

Another exciting part of finishing this first draft is because I've been doing the majority of it on a Remarkable Paper Pro. It has been an investment that I will only find out if it has worked once I start reading through the manuscript. I purposely bought the Remarkable Paper Pro following reviews that the transcription from written to text was said to be better than most. The other reason for buying was partly sustainability and partly reducing the endless worry of losing a notebook. I like to physically write, typing it out first just doesn't flow as nicely, and so over the years I have gone through countless paper notebooks. I then have to type it up before starting on the edits. It's laborious and, besides the editing itself, was something that I was quickly procrastinating over, delaying me getting books out even more! So far I have really been enjoying the Remarkable. It isn't quite as good as a good biro on paper, but it's close and as it's a colour version, with a few taps I can use the same pen but in a different colour. I can also erase the words, so much nicer than crossing out! Plus I have notebooks for everything and it's available on my mobile or on my desktop, wherever I need it, although the pen does only work on the tablet itself, but with a great battery life and light weight I carry it pretty much with me at all times. I do feel though that the proof of how well it really works will be in it's ability to transcribe my scribble! I will let you know once I've started properly reading through the first draft, again.