A reader messaged me on Instagram this week to say they cried when they got to Karo's death in The Monkey State. This caught me off guard. When you're writing a novel, you're so focused on making the story work. You're thinking about scenes, dialogue, pacing and all the moving parts. It's easy to forget that readers aren't consuming it like that. They meet characters. Spend time with them. Start to care about them, maybe. It's an odd feeling when someone has such an emotional reaction to a...

Some ideas find you in fun places. Early on in the writing of Book 1, I was visiting my sister and now brother-in-law in Glastonbury. A strange spiritual home of sorts due to its epic musical festival. It was before they had the boys (my two wonderful nephews!) and I found myself alone in a coffee shop, nursing a latte and letting my mind wander. Later that same day I climbed the Tor, ideas brewing, and somewhere between the coffee and the climb, something found its way into the mythology of...

No, I'm not plotting another sequel. No, I've not replaced Claude. No, Tia hasn't had a baby. Today, I wanted to shout out another author with their own monkey. A charming one too. Serena Choo is back with The Dancing Monkey and Living The Way of Zen. I wrote about the original a few moons ago and was delighted to see an email from her recently mentioning a new book ready to launch. I've already devoured the Advanced Reader Copy (ARC) and am now reading it again on Kindle Unlimited at a more...