So why did I start writing fiction so late in life?
Because I’m a slow starter, I guess 😂
I have always been a writer, but only of non-fiction for various business magazines, corporations and newspapers.
But incredibly, it turned out that people like my books.
Here’s a quick overview …
… of the brainwave I had during the 2020 pandemic.
Do you remember how at the beginning of the pandemic, few of us could work and none of us knew if we would live to see 2021? Well, my biggest regret was that I’d never got around to writing any of the books about a woman called Niki who’d lived in my head for about twenty years. (Since I was forty-ish, in fact as Niki McKnight is in the Gretna Green Gateway books.)
Authorised exercise 🤦♀️
Do you also remember how in the UK we had ‘authorised daily exercise periods‘ during that first lockdown?
I spent mine walking my fluffy white Bichon around our tiny villages of Gretna Green and Springfield. She was super-stressed because she’s the most social dog in the world and knows everyone for about 3 miles around. Almost no-one knows me – I’m just Lucy’s mum. Which is actually a pretty great thing to be.
But during that first lockdown, people thought animals might spread the virus. So one day, as Forrest Gump might say … ‘For no particular reason’, everyone stopped giving Lucy her expected daily rations of love, fluff ruffles, admiration and affection.
Whoops :Sad puppy:
That didn’t go down well and my little one was unhappy and very confused about why no-one loved her anymore. So on our lonely walks I started telling her (in a low voice, c’mon, no-one wants to be the crazy lady, right?) about Niki. And her adventures. Her problems. How she was bullied. How her gran, who’d brought her up, died and left her a bunch of new and more interesting problems.
Then it got a bit … mad?
I showed her the house where Niki now lived and the magical portal in Niki’s back garden that we called the Gateway. And the seven Celtic worlds it led to. Those might have been the ones that linked into the more interesting parts of local history – but they were heavily disguised and made far more interesting as every slightly crazy day passed.
Let’s fast forward a year
There was a vaccine, so the world got a bit more rational, but just as things were looking up here in the UK, we had yet another lockdown.
I took early retirement and then I got cross.
So I dumped my laptop on the kitchen table and wrote down all the stories I’d told Lucy. But this time I wrote for adults who needed a giggle and something fun, heart-warming and different. Rather than for stressed-out puppies.
And I plotted 10 books.
Seven major books that cover each of the realms or kingdoms that the Gateway leads to and three minor diversions just for fun—cos heaven knows we all need more fun.
The books in order so far are:
1: Midlife in Gretna Green
Published on July 4th 2022
Niki’s introduction to the whole confusing world in the Gretna Green Gateway (Green on the Gateway star) including a sentient house and some other wonderful characters human and not-so-human.
2. Painting the Blues in Gretna Green
Published 5th November 2022.
Dola, along with Niki and her best friend Aysha fix a 1000-year-old injustice for Queen Breanna in the Pict kingdom. (Blue)
Niki is re-introduced to the man she had a crush on when she was 11.
3. Ties that Bond in Gretna Green
Published 9th February 2023.
It’s Valentine’s week in the Gateway and Niki’s first bondings don’t go to plan. Cue hilarity, heartbreak and prophecies for some of our favourite characters.
House Party in Gretna Green
Published in August 2023
A 100-page novella which fits between Ties and Seeing Red. Dola is 1400-years-old … on Sunday. Niki decides to throw her a surprise birthday party. This was a thank you to my readers for their support. You can read the story about it here.
4. Seeing Red in Gretna Green
Published 28th September 2023
Niki reluctantly sets off to visit Dai in his ‘lovely mountain home’
Along the way, she learns more about Dai and the Red Celt dragons’ politics than she ever needed to know.
5.Code Yellow in Gretna Green
Published 28th March 2024
After the events of Seeing Red, Niki is headed for Angry Town with a side trip through Blind Fury County. But surprisingly quickly, the usual fun re-emerges.
6.Market Forces in Gretna Green
In process.
Latest publication date is December 6th 2024. (But it will probably be before then)
Niki is quietly determined to put into effect her resolution that ‘Smarts not Swords’ is the modern way forward for the realms. Whether they like it or not.
After all, she has a life to live and doesn’t need it to be filled with hassle and conflict.
7. Half an Orange in Gretna Green
Will be out in 2025 – I have no idea when.
I might take a little time off after Market Forces over the winter to visit some friends. More news closer to the time.
Orange is the book about the Galician realm and I can’t say any more, as it would include spoilers for Yellow and Market Forces.
If you need the most current info
You will always get the latest info on this page which gives you all my current dates and ‘The State of the Author’
How I can read them myself?
They are all on your local Amazon store.
You can see the whole series here.
Buy ebooks or paperbacks or borrow my books through Kindle Unlimited
If you’re wondering, it makes absolutely no difference to me how you read it. As a lifelong reader, I love KU myself.
Get value from your KU subscription with my blessing and gratitude – as long as you actually read them, I don’t care.
If you’re determined to give me more money, then read it in KU and if you really like it, buy your own copy afterwards.
But the most important thing is to just enjoy them and please, please, review them …
PLEASE? Pretty please? I have been known to beg 😀
Reviews are stupidly important on the Amazon ecosystem. I wish they weren’t, but they are.