In spite of spending the last two weeks telling myself that today is the day I am going to sit down and start writing, I have only managed five pages of rough notes so far.  It’s extraordinary how much time I can waste doing anything other than sit down at my computer and write.   Actually getting to the computer isn’t too much of a problem; it’s the opportunities for procrastination that it offers, especially now that I have broadband.  I have never been one for surfing the internet, but as soon as Chapter 1 beckons, there I am, Googling like mad on the tenuous grounds that it is really “research”. 

I’ve decided to open the book with my hero and heroine meeting on a leadership development course.  There’s not much call for leadership development when you’re an author, but I have plenty of friends who seem to spend their whole time being sent on these courses.  One was very miffed to find that on some psychometric tes ...

Well, here I am, blogging for the first time, but the truth is that I’ve nothing exciting to report, so don’t hold your breath.  Like everyone else I’ve spent the last few weeks preparing for/recovering from Christmas and New Year.  I had a sad start to the festive season as I had to have the last of my beloved tabbies put to sleep just before Christmas, and Mungo had a dire prognosis at the same time, but he at least seems to be on the mend now.  I spent Christmas in Scotland, and New Year in Wiltshire. 

Most New Year’s Eve was spent on an obstacle course in the dark in the pouring rain ... which I sincerely hope is not an omen for the year to come, although it’s a pretty good metaphor for last year.  Oddly, as you can see from the photo I appear to be smiling, ...

Oh, dear, I have been very, very slack about updating this diary. I can’t believe I last did it in May … whatever happened to June and July??? I have been drifting lazily through summer, loving the sunshine but finding it almost impossible to do any work. In fact, when I look back at the last two months, it’s hard to know what I’ve been doing. I did write a very rough draft of the next two books when I was away in June, and the plan was that I would set to and write a proper draft of the first one when I got back to my computer in July.

But first I had to go the Romantic Novelists’ Association Conference in Penrith, where I had rashly promised to give a talk. Since I didn’t feel able to talk about anything useful, like how to give your novel pace (the original request) – I don’t know how I write - I ended up giving a tongue-in-cheek guide to survival for romantic novelists, which would have been fine except for the fact that I decided to have some visuals to go with my talk and s ...

Well, the roses have faded and have had to be thrown out, but the bowl and the glow are still there, much aided by not having to do any revisions at all on the last manuscript. If this goes on, I will begin to think that maybe I can write romance after all …

I’m now in the blissful position of having no deadline until the end of October … it feels wonderful! I have to keep reminding myself that I can’t afford to relax too much, as there is very little of the summer unaccounted for, and the October deadline will swiftly be followed by one at the end of November, which effectively means writing the two books together. This is to be a duet, two linked books, and my brief was that one should be set in outback Australia and one in London. For a long time, that was all I had, but then I went out for a drink with the two friends who constitute my City Screen plotting team, and that was all it took for the ideas to start flowing. I’m not one of those who believes that writing ...

What a difference a month (and a prize!) makes, eh? I can safely say that I’m enjoying being a romantic novelist again now, so let’s just ignore my gloom in March!

I struggled to the end of my manuscript just before Easter (phew!), and then was delighted to go away for a couple of weeks and forget about it. I had a lovely time in Scotland, and then back down in Wiltshire, and then, of course, it was April 20th and I had to get myself to the Savoy in London. I had to get up very early that morning, with much grumbling about not wanting to go ( I won’t know anyone/no one will want to talk to me/I hate wearing tights etc etc, the usual pathetic stuff that I should have grown out of, ooh, about forty years ago) but I made it to the train on time. My heels were so high that I could only totter a few yards in them, so I had to wear my ugly, but extremely comfortable, drongo sandals ( not a good look) until I made it to the National Gallery where I was meeting a friend for coffee and ...

Note from the webmistress: Jessica is still celebrating winning the RNA Romance Award but when she returns home I'll get her to give a full report on the RNA awards lunch at the Savoy in London on Thursday. In the meantime, here is a photo I found on fellow Tender author Fiona Harper's blog of Jessica accepting her award. Well done, Jessica!

God, I’ve no idea how people find the time to write daily blogs! Updating this writing diary every six weeks or so is pressure enough for me. No sooner have I got it done than I have to put it on my ‘to do’ list again, where it sits for the next month, taunting me until I get to the stage (like now) where I say ‘All right ! I’ll do it, I’ll do it, just get off my list!’

The trouble is that I haven’t really got anything to say this month. I am in the mid-book doldrums, having struggled to the end of Chapter 6 last night. I hate this stage where it feels like I’ve been writing this story for ever and yet there still seems for ever to go … As always, I have left it to the last minute, and if I am to have the draft finished before Easter, I need to write four chapters in the six days I have left. It’s not unfeasible, and I’ve done it before now ( Contracted: Corporate Wife was written in an absolute panic) but I haven’t even got notes for the ending yet, and I am not entirely sure ...

It's taking a very long time to settle back into a routine after Christmas, and I am finding it hard to concentrate on any one thing, let alone the new book. I am beginning to think that I may have taken on rather too many new projects this year. I feel as if I have thrown a whole lot of balls into the air, and am now paralysed with indecision about how and when to catch them all, with the result that if I'm not careful, I'll end up catching none at all. That's what comes of being cocky and saying 'I'll do that . yes, I can do that . no problem . yes, I'll do that too . and that . and that'. I may be eating a lot of humble pie by the end of the year.

Still, it's early days. I have come up with a plot for my next book, and the synopsis is with my new editor at the moment. It ended up being rather different from the plot thrashed out on the moors that I talked about in December, but that's the way it goes. Depending on my editor's comments, it may change yet again. I'm not proud at ...

I got home yesterday after three weeks in Wiltshire over Christmas and the New Year and am still feeling a bit strange, as if I've suddenly found myself in someone else's house. My computer had a crisis two days before I went away, and I was rather hoping that ignoring it would solve the problem, which is my usual strategy, but sadly it didn't work on this occasion. A new desktop is on the cards. I do quite like the idea of a clean, smart new computer, but get so bamboozled when I try to choose that I end up backing out of the showroom, stammering nervously about having a think about it. I just wish I could find someone who would understand that there is no point in talking to me about rams and megabytes. All I want is to be told what to buy, and for someone to bring the boxes to my house, unpack them, set everything up, ensure that I have everything I need and then to disappear, preferably taking the empty boxes and my old computer with them. Is this really too much to ask

As soon ...