FAQs

Planned releases for 2024 and beyond:

• October – The Planes #2 – A Devil in the Dark (Blane & Wren)
• December – Blackstone House #4 – Hard Luck (Jez & Cole)

Planned releases for 2025 and beyond:

• Blackstone House #5 – Hard Code (Alexa & Nolan)
• Audiobook – Buried Secrets
• Audiobook – A Secret to Die For
• Standalone – The Ex Files (Ally & Brooks)
• Happy Ever After – A Very Happy Easter (Heath & Gigi)
• Happy Ever After – A Very Happy Thanksgiving (Crossover with the Choir)
• Blackstone House #6 – Hard Evidence (Justin & Jess)

What genre are your books?

That's actually a pretty difficult question. They generally fall into romantic suspense or romcom, but many are a mashup of the two.

My Blackwood books are romantic suspense, but they also have a lot of humour. Dark romcom suspense is probably the best description. The darkness doesn't come from the hero, but from the plot. Death and destruction rather than dub con.

I also have some lighter romcoms – the Happy Ever After series and the Trouble series.

How spicy are your books?

Most of my books are mid-heat. This means they have open-door spicy scenes, but not too many – usually a couple.

If you don't like spice, I have clean versions of the first five books in the Blackwood Security – these have no open-door scenes (just kissing and a bit of innuendo) and no swearing. There's also Chimera, which has no open-door scenes – which wasn't deliberate, it just turned out this way, and I don't like to shoehorn sex in for the sake of it.

Spicier books are: Carbon, Rhodium, and A Secret to Die For. Rhodium is the only one I've banned my mum from reading.

How long does it take you to write a book?

How long is a piece of string? My record is six days for the first draft of a novel (Roses are Dead), and then I slept for a week afterwards. But usually around two months.

The first draft is the easy part, though. Those really aren't pretty! Editing takes around eight more months. First, I let the book sit for a few weeks, then I read it through with fresh eyes and make the first round of changes. This includes fixing continuity and timeline errors (hopefully!). Then the book goes to my team of beta readers, and I make more changes based on their feedback. Next, it's off to my wonderful editor, Nikki, for her first read-through, and once she's given me her thoughts on the story, I make yet more changes. Then I go through the nitty gritty of spelling and grammar corrections before the manuscript goes back to Nikki for her to work her magic and pick up all the mistakes I still haven't noticed. And after those changes, the book goes off to my three proofreaders for a final going-over.

Why are your books different prices?

For the most part, I price my books depending on length. Longer books cost more because I have to spend more time writing them, plus editing and printing costs are higher. Sometimes I make earlier books in a series a little cheaper (or even free) because I want to encourage new-to-me readers to pick them up 😁

What order should I read your books in?

You can find the suggested reading order HERE.

How do the different series fit together?

I write in two main worlds – the Blackwood world and the Planes world. Blackwood is the “real” world, and the Planes is mostly our world but also includes some supernatural elements (magical realism).

The Blackwood world consists of:

The Blackwood Security Series

The Blackwood Elements Series

The Blackwood UK Series

Blackwood Casefiles

Baldwin's Shore

Blackstone House

The Happy Ever After Series

The Trouble Series

Life (standalone novel)

Blackwood Security, Blackwood Elements, and Blackwood Casefiles are very closely interlinked, and you'll spot familiar characters popping up from time to time across the other series.

The Planes world consists of:

The Planes Series

The Electi Series

Coco du Ciel (standalone novel)

If you like to read romantic mysteries with ghosts, vampires, supernatural assassins, mutant trees, and the Lord of the Underworld thrown in, these are the books for you 😎

Who is your cover artist?

The artwork for most of my covers is created by digital artist Abigail Sins. You can find more of Abi's work on her Deviant Art page. Sometimes I design my own covers too.

What do you look like?

I really hate having my picture taken so I don't have many photos of myself, but here's one of me with my furry mate, Trev, where I look almost human:

Amazon

Apple Books

Kobo

Barnes & Noble

Google Play

Thalia (Germany)

Vivlio (France)

Eden Books (romance-only bookstore)

Smashwords

If you'd like to read with a subscription, you can find my books on Everand/Scribd and Kobo Plus, and if you'd like to read for free, my books are all available through digital library services (Overdrive/Libby, Borrowbox, and Hoopla).

And if you prefer to read on an app, you can find all of my books on Radish and most of my books on KISS and Dreame. A few free books are also available on Wattpad from time to time.

I also have audiobooks available from Audible, Apple, Kobo, Nook Audio, Google Play, Everand, audiobooks.com, libraries, and my own webstore.

Why aren't your books in Kindle Unlimited?

In order for a publisher to enrol a book in Kindle Unlimited, Amazon demands exclusivity. This means that I wouldn't be able to make my book available through libraries or all the other retailers and apps listed above. I would rather make my stories available all over the world (Kindle currently only serves a few countries), and also allow people to read my books for free through libraries than put all of my eggs in the Amazon basket and restrict my readership. For subscription reading, my books are all available via Kobo Plus and Everand.

Are there content warnings I should be aware of when it comes to your books?

Uh, probably? Quite apart from Emmy's swearing, a number of my books address sensitive topics and contain difficult situations. I don't put trigger warnings on my books because (a) everyone has different triggers and I couldn't possibly cover them all and (b) they're too much like spoilers.

If you're sensitive to bad language or on-the-page sex, I do have clean versions of several books in the Blackwood Security series with these elements removed. You can find more on that HERE.

Do you write full time?

I think I'd get bored if I was writing all the time, plus I like to get out and meet people, so I currently have a side hustle as a chartered accountant. I split my hours between the two.

I'm writing a book too! Can you read my stuff/give me feedback?

Sorry, but I can't. Firstly, there just aren't enough hours in the day for me to get everything done as it is. Secondly, if I read an unpublished novel and it happened to have a similar theme to one of my own unpublished books, then I could open myself up to a possible claim of copying (rare, but I've heard of it happening), and I just won't put myself in that position.

Are you a plotter or a pantser?

Somewhere in the middle. I start each book with a rough outline of around two thousand words, and I generally know how it's going to end. But the middle parts usually get changed as characters and scenes take on a life of their own, and I often end up with a very different book to the one I initially planned. And then side characters spawn their own books, or I ask myself a question and the answer is a whole new novel, and it never freaking ends…

Do you use AI?

I'm not comfortable using generative AI in my work – writing is the fun part! I also don't knowingly work with any artists who use generative AI. This is for two reasons – firstly, current AI models were built on IP used without consent, which doesn't sit right with me, and secondly, generative AI is so horrendously bad for the environment. I will continue to use spelling/grammar checks and speech to text software, as I have for the last decade.

Can you send me a free copy?

Writing pays my bills, and unfortunately, I can't afford to work for free. So until I manage to trade my other half for a sugar daddy (joke, if my other half happens to read this), then I'm afraid the answer is no. But I do run giveaways for signed paperbacks in my newsletter and Facebook group.

I live in England, and my mental age is younger than my birth certificate tells me. As well as the little voices in my head, I have a horse, three dogs and a hamster to keep me company.

My other hobbies include scuba diving and wakeboarding, and I've got a weakness for fast cars that makes my wallet weep.

I tend to talk too much, or so people say, and I have a peculiar affinity for chocolate and wine 🙂