I'm pleased to announce that the first novel of the Offspring Trilogy is now being edited by a real life professional editor, check out her website if you want to find out who I've trusted with my work: https://www.racheljrowlands.com/.

Much as I'd like to believe I am capable of correcting all my bad grammar and mangled sentences myself, unfortunately, although I like to think I'm pretty good at making up stories, my English language skills lack a degree of finesse (I got an A* in English Literature at GCSE but only a B in English Language, then I went on to study sciences...).

So, with The General's Son now safely in the hands of a pro, I've started work on another developmental edit of The Queen's Daughter, ready for Rachel to get her claws into it in the new year.  I'm sooo looking forwards to releasing my books into this world, can't wait to hear what you all think about my work!

Sooo, around an hour or so I woke up.  Now, before you think I'm some kind of bum who sleeps all day I should say I work nights.  I finished at 5 a.m., got home at 5:30 a.m., then had to wait for my online supermarket order to arrive (finally got round to ordering food).  After that we had to bundle our sleeping kids into the car so I could take my husband's car for an MOT before he went to work, and eventually, at 7 a.m. I was allowed to sleep!

So Amazon... the place gets a lot of bad press, folk seem to love to hate because its big and works really well and out competes all its competitors and puts small bookshops out of business (apparently), but I'm gonna be honest here, even before I worked there I loved it.   I love being able to order stuff with just one click and to get it the next day, I love how awesome their customer service was when I screwed up a delivery date for a fridge I ordered, I love how they even delivered stuff to me when I was deployed with the Army in Afghanistan.

Its huge, it makes shed loads of cash, its profits may or may not appear in the country they were made but hey, 1800 jobs have just been created at the site where I work and all of them get paid at least a couple more quid more than the minimum wage.  And yes, everyone can go to the loo when they want!

I started at Amazon in August, but this week was my first running a shift.  I admit, I was possibly panicking slightly, not sure how I'd manage to figure out the ten million computer systems Amazon insists on using, but the sky didn't fall in and things went ok.  Most of the associates I manage seem really great people too, especially my team lead who is already threatening to feed me because she doesn't think I eat well enough!

One week of shifts done, virtually no progress on my book, well, compared to a time in July when I smashed out 110,000 words in 16 days.  But I had another job then, one that didn't give me enough work to do and may or may not have given me the chance to write while I was being paid to do something else.  

Anyway, right now I'm blogging.  In a couple hours when everyone gets home I'll see the lesser-spotted husband and kids.  Not seen them all week, like ships that pass in the night and all that.  Then, as I'm now officially nocturnal, I can finish the last chapter of THE GENERAL'S SON that I need to re-write then it should be ready for professional edit!  All booked in to start next Wednesday, lets see how many mangled sentences my lovely editor fixes!

So, big night tonight, first time I'm going it alone in my new role as Area Manager at Amazon.  What is an Area Manager, I hear you ask... well, its someone who manages an area of an Amazon warehouse, for me its the pack singles area, the bit where any item you order in isolation gets put into a box.

And here's the thing... I'm 37, and most of the other area managers understand what Snap Chat and Tiktok are for.  Turns out you can do my job straight out of uni.  Found out my boss's boss is 9 years younger than me the other day too.  OMG, what am I doing with my life!

Anyway, after 12 or so weeks of training I'm running my first shift tonight all alone.  Just me, a team lead and a load of associates who are brand new to the business.  What could possibly go wrong?  

Surely an Army Major with 19 years experience under her belt should breeze this?  You might think, might you?  Except I've lost the ability to learn new stuff, from dry online lessons at least, training didn't go well and there are grads that seem to have more of a grip than me.  Arghhh!  I had a face, once.  Lets see if by the end of the week I've managed to save it.