The Hiatus

I can't write the word Hiatus without seeing Hiatus Hernia, which of course is an entirely different thing. I mean, I guess sometimes you could compare my writing career to chronic gastric pain that comes and goes.

I had a moment recently, that I'm still trying to get over. I was telling my lovely editor Sarah about it, and honestly I was so mortified about what it revealed about my mindset the last couple of years.

So Lana, my eldest is now 16, it's crazy to think that when I started this author journey she was only six. Where did that time go? Anyway, I digress. She had a friend over and when her mum came to collect her later in the evening she popped in for a quick glass of Prosecco (you know how it is). The lovely lady, who is a headteacher of a local primary school asked me what I did... and instead of saying, "Oh, I'm a romance author, it's what I do, I write books about kissing," I said... "I manage a wraparound school setting."

I mean, sure I do, well, did, because I've quit that disastrous part of my life now... BUT REALLY?? Is that what I see myself as. No longer an author. The whole thing left me so traumatised. I couldn't stop thinking about it.

Had I finally lost my author self? My voice?

Let's be real here I haven't written any new content in two years, at what point do you transition from being an actual author to someone who once used to write books for a living.

This whole thing got me on a crisis collision course that ended in wreckage this morning, and a well needed epiphany.

I AM AN AUTHOR.

And this boss lady isn't going to lie down and let her dreams whittle away until their nothing but polite conversation with a stranger over a glass of Prosecco.

No thank you.

So Anna Bloom is back. Officially I won't be releasing anything until first quarter 2024 - you don't just decide to come back and click your fingers and a book is magically done. Nope, you have to write it, breathe it, live it. But while I am doing that, I am most certainly BACK.