Rick Rawes

So, this is my first author update. Seems weird to be saying that, because I suppose every other post is a lil’ update and insight into the wacky world of progress. Progress that occasionally appears like interval training for the masochistic author, but progress nonetheless. However, this formalises and crystalises it for anyone who happens to be paying attention. Here’s what’s happening…

The Website and Blog

Very much a work in progress, but the website (as you can probably tell) is up and limping like Bruce Willis at the end of every Die Hard. The blog will be fortnightly, on a Monday, with new posts ranging from occasional musings on things near and dear to my heart, the occasional insight into my writing processes and inspirations, and at least once month a little update about my writing shenanigans. Updates a bit like this!

Paperbacks

As much as I love the world of kindle and eBooks, in real life I am very much a Gwen-Stefani-esque Paperback-Girl. Already the first three books in the Heroes & Demons series have been released in paperback as well as eBook, so that is us off to a good start. Avalon and Insomniac, the first two novels in the New Knights novels are underway and should be released sometime next month (though the eBooks of each are already available). Avalon: Faerie Tales, which has never before been in print and only online, should follow shortly after. As the dark months grow closer, snuggling up next to the fire with a hot coffee and a paperback a la Rick Rawes will be easier. As will stabilising wobbly tables, no judgment.

Bastet

The next big release is now well underway, and I’m very happy about it. I’ve always enjoyed experimenting with writing different genres and styles (though somehow always manage to hear myself within them). In this case, we have an action-adventure of mythic stakes. The novel begins in Ancient Egypt, in a time when Gods and humanity lived alongside one another. The world is incredibly different and yet eerily familiar. A world of family strife, political intrigue and royal exploitation. That world will collide across space and time with another, as the novel moves to the present Egypt in 1923, during the so-called ‘golden days’ of Egyptology. Evocative of tales like the Mummy or Indiana Jones, with more than a touch of Agent Carter style British espionage. It’s hard to describe (and yes, I get that’s my job).

Underneath it all what I’m enjoying incredibly about this novel is getting a chance to write about the character of Bastet herself. As a deity I’ve always found her interesting, being a cat lover myself. As I’m finding her voice, she’s surprising me, challenging me and becoming one of my favourite characters to write for. And, without spoiling things for regular readers, getting a chance to write again the story of a certain martini-soaked lady of the lake is a dream come true.

Finally, the story is becoming one of love. There have been romances in other novels I’ve written. Artie and Matt of Avalon, Liam and Kate of Insomniac. They’re there, but they’re part of the tapestry. What’s emerging differently here is the core of the story is love. A queer love story between two powerful and glorious women, that I hope to do justice.

Bastet is scheduled for release February 16^th, 2026 (perhaps the 103^rd anniversary of a certain well known ‘cursed’ event…) and I’ll be letting everyone know when pre-orders go live. So excited to share more as time goes on.

’til the End of the World

Another new project underway is my companion short story ‘television series’ which is starting to find it’s feet: ‘til the End of the World. With the novels in the New Knights series taking place around 2018 onwards and Heroes & Demons existing around a decade after that; the chance is ripe to go back in time and explore the mystical threads of this universe in a shorter, more episodic format. Thus, returning to my very first writing project as a teenager, I’ve been drawing once more on my Linkin-Park-and-Nickelback-angst-ridden-youth to explore the early days of some background characters.

Specifically, Amy Donaldson of MOO (Avalon: Faerie Tales). We follow the tale of how she came to be the formidable head of the Magickal organisation we saw, back in her teenage days. In a small sleepy Lancashire town, nestled amongst the valleys, we find a world of hidden dangers and supernatural threats, ignored by a mainly ignorant adult world. Beneath, Amy and her friends begin to discover the dangers and threats that exist beyond the daylight hours – and, in true young adult style, begin to fight back. The project is a love letter to the influences of my own youth – Buffy, Supernatural – while bringing in the flavours of small town British life. The setting is circa 2005, the world in which I made the same journey between childhood and adulthood. A world before all-encompassing smart phones, where dialup and Wi-Fi existed side by side. As the world was transitioning from pre-to-post millennium it was a time of great shift. Technology rapidly integrating into people’s lives, events like 7/7 shifting people’s understanding of safety and radicalisation, views on the representation of minorities and LGBT issues on television – everything was change and shift. Our characters, like me and my friends growing up, will find themselves changing along with them in equally unpredictable ways.

Though, to be clear, I did not fight demons, vampyrs and the forces of darkness while growing up. Honest.

The idea is that this series will become more of a ‘short story’ compendium, each short-story or novella being like an ‘episode’ that will collate into a season at a time, with ongoing storylines and themes. The first episode ‘Stand By Me – Part I’ has already been written, and I’m hoping to make available soon – through this website. It will be online only for the foreseeable future, with subsequent episodes made available in the same way. If you’re a fan of YA, then definitely bookmark this space.

And Beyond…

There’s a whole world beyond this update. So many things to do and exciting projects to get stuck into. Doing this isn’t easy, balancing alongside a full time job, a Masters degree, a gorgeous fiancé and seven beautiful pooches. But telling stories will always be worth it to me. Knowing someone, somewhere may occasionally pick up something I wrote and feel some kind of way. Maybe smile a little. Maybe just get taken away from their troubles for a bit. That’s priceless.

My thanks go to you. For reading this, whether this is the first thing of mine you’ve read, or if you’ve worked your way through every word. Telling stories is a privilege, and any read gives it purpose. I’m going to keep doing it for a long time to come, as long as fate allows, and I hope to see some of you there along the way.

Take care, look after each other and as always, peace and love.

Rick Rawes
14^th September 2025
Leeds, West Yorkshire

P.S. Please like, subscribe, share because every little bit helps! Cheers!

* all opinions and research are my own. I may be wrong. I frequently am. No hate, just peace & love.

King Arthur.

The name alone is the stuff of fairy tales – and I think it’s safe to say one which no longer solely exists in British childhoods. It evokes, for me, a kind of Britan that never really existed. A mystical land of savage beauty and heroic deeds, steeped in myth. It’s there, somewhere, but in an ever more complex world is getting lost between arguments over fishing boats and some unsavoury politics.

The Britain of Arthur feels a million miles from all that. A land of unspoiled forests and misty mornings, the sunlight breaking through. A more natural land, dotted with the occasional castle owned by noble Knights. And not the brutal, sex-mad knights of certain modern fantasy television adaptations – side eye to a couple of blonde siblings. That’s not to say in the complex, and somewhat multinational, origins of the King Arthur legends there isn’t a bit of unsavoury scandal. A flash of ankle here, a bit of rumpy pumpy over there. But by in large, the Arthurian knights were chivalrous, courageous, quest-oriented. They existed in a land blended with otherworldly forces, some of which were friend and some of which were foe. Magick users, Merlin in particular, intrigue and dastardly plots. Watery vixens and knights with a keen interest in shrubbery. In short, King Arthur feels both the version of a swashbuckling knight you can bring home to mum, and like the granddaddy of all modern fantasy fiction. Of course, I’m generalising in the most horrific way – but bear with.

Just in case you’ve never heard of what I’m talking about, I’ll give you a conflagration of everything I know of the key players. Bear in mind, there are about 1,500 years worth of influences and stories, with endless interpretations, so what I’m including here is merely a general backbone of some of the most common parts. Heck, look far enough down the rabbit hole and you’ll find Merlin helped to build Atlantis (thank you Stargate). Anyway, you’ve been warned.

So, there’s a sword in a stone. Only the future king of Britain can pull it out. Along comes Arthur, who pulls it out (hearing Kenneth Williams in my head here). He becomes a super badass warrior with proper fancy armour then ultimately King of a united Britain. Which generally I take to mean England and Wales, because Ireland was still very much doing it’s own thing (more or less) and Scotland had yet to encounter Mel Gibson and begin it’s fight for independence. Heck, even the Italians had left behind a big wall to keep the Scots out, so maybe Arthur popped up for a Haggis and a good craic once in a while, but likely didn’t stop to rule.

Next he meets the love of his life, Guinevere – who because he’s a total stud muffin, falls in love with him and becomes queen. She likes doing all the queeny things, because apparently they’re often more popular than the monarch themselves. Perhaps she started a charity foundation working with water nymphs, as this was often written by men there’s not always a clear account of her day-to-day routine but you’ll just know it’ll have been bangin’. Now, Arthur decides to build a place called Camelot which is kind of a city/renaissance fair template and subsequently capital of Britain (or at least ‘his’ Britain, lord knows where the rest of the country was). It’s then he has the bright spark of an idea to gather a bunch of his mates to be Knights. He throws in a round table, because in Arthur’s Britain they’re all equal. Of course they are, like anyone’s going to push in front of him when queuing for a pint! (raises eyebrow)

Somewhere along the way, the Lady of the Lake pops up for breath while paddling in her pond (maybe in winter it was too cold for senior aqua aerobics) and tosses Excalibur at him. Excalibur being a kick-ass sword with which Arthur and his mates kick a load of ass. One of his best mates and advisors also happens to be a wizard, Merlin, who’s actually a bit of a douche and sometimes messes with the fellas a bit. Arthur’s sister, Morgan le Fay, also might be either a bit of a harlot or a witch and rival of Merlin’s, depends on who tells it. Plenty of adventures ensue, with various versions including them fighting dragons, questing after the Holy Grail (the cup version that apparently held the blood of Jesus Christ – not the one that had Tom Hanks flapping about in France twenty years ago), and all manner of bad knights. The kind that would make Sir Ian McKellan shake his head in disappointment – and you just know Magneto is always right.

Sometimes they’re all besties, sometimes there’s a bit of fall out – like in one version where his other best mate, Lancelot, tries it on with Arthur’s missus. Again, depending on the version you read, let’s just say her Anaconda might (one for the Avalon fans). Shenanigans! Anyway, it all culminates in a big battle (Camlann) in which Arthur is felled at the hands of his mortal enemy (or in some cases, incestuous child) Mordred. Happy days though, he does manage to take the bad guys down with him. He’s laid to rest on the mystical isle of Avalon (which cannot be tracked on Google Earth, but may or may not be near Glastonbury), with the promise that one day he might come back. Like a Disney-led Star Wars trilogy. Again helmed by JJ Abrams.

And that, ladies and gents, is the broad strokes of the Arthur story in a giant nutshell. Bonkers. Enduring. Lil’ bit lusty. Distilled from years of movies, television, books and, yes, Stargate. A giant tapestry of tales that reminds us of what we could be and gives timely warnings about politics, especially when it comes from strange women lying about in ponds, distributing swords. It feels like something British that we can be proud of. Idealistic, fantastical. Like modern Britain, it too was shaped (and dare I say enriched) by our global neighbours.

When I first started writing Avalon, unsurprisingly based off of Arthurian lore, it felt like the best place to start for a series about modern day superheroes in the UK. Malleable enough lore that it could tell a tale I felt needed – one about identity, belief and heroism – without straying too far from the inspiration. A world in which equality came at the head of a round table, where women weren’t just pretty bait for kidnapping villains but key powerful players in the tapestry. One where the mythical and the mundane could collide and the OtherWorldly forces could begin to bleed through. Stories of friendship enduring, caught in a shared noble purpose. Stories where good defeated evil, and there was always something worth fighting for, Mr Frodo.

I really hope that one day things will change. Not just here but around this increasingly worrisome world. Being British will be about understanding and owning our historical inheritance, without being doomed to repeat it. Being British will be about celebrating and embracing the rich diversity of all its people, without scapegoating the vulnerable. Being British will be about supporting the global community and contributing to our shared humanity, without being overbearing and taking over. It will be facing injustice, not electing it into office. It will be embracing one another, not painting roundabouts. It will be about being heroes sat together in equity, not at the head of a long table.

Perhaps instead, a round table.

Like King Arthur.

Peace & love y’all.

Rick Rawes
1^st September 2025
Leeds, West Yorkshire

PS. If you wanna check out Avalon or it’s sequel Avalon: Faerie Tales based on Arthurian Legends, pop over to “The New Knights” tab!

A Little Background

There is no right or wrong when it comes to reading books. Indeed, if I’m so bold, there’s often not a lot of rights or wrongs when it comes to writing them. A writer writes, a reader reads. Sometimes what a writer writes is right for the writer, but wrong for the reader. Sometimes what a reader reads is right for reader but wrong for the writer. Sometimes it all just gets super muddling and before you know it, you’re unsure what day it is.

Shared universes have become all the rage these days, after the success of those Avengers battling it out in quippy style on the big screen in 2012 (or I suppose four years before that in a now sarcastically debated post-credits scene for Incredible Hulk). My inspiration came a few years before that, huddled deep in the stacks of second-hand books during my father’s days of selling them. I was attempting to make it through the rather dense Needful Things by Stephen King and started to notice something. Sheriff Alan Pangborn felt familiar. Indeed, so familiar, that by the time I managed to make it to a reread of The Dark Half (one of my favourite books of all time), it finally struck me. SAME GUY!!

Yes, it should have clicked earlier, but bear in mind I was a teenager, and our minds are often stuck on other, far less wholesome, things than literary characters. The interconnected web that transcends through King stories has always fascinated me. A random RF here, a lil’ turtle over there. A shared character or a similar theme. It was amazing to think that somewhere in this multiverse, a dog with rabies was preparing the most emotionally devastating ending to a novel I’ve ever read, while a through a little door Captain Trips was wiping out 98% of humanity.

That began my love of shared continuity, and so to be clear everything I write exists somewhere within the same big world. Somewhere Dr Rick Carter is taking on the first Horseman of the Apocalypse, while in another time and place Artie Abrams is discovering what the legacy of Avalon really means. Somewhere else, in the Nutbush Lounge, Madame Flutterby is…well, fluttering by.  

Thus begins a little introduction to my world – for those inclined to stick around and read it all. You can find out more specific information by clicking the links nearby pointing you to individual series, but for a little spoiler-free insight into the differing series of books – look no further! This handy guide will introduce you to the Heroes & Demons series, the New Knights series and the Rest of the Rainbow. Following is just a quick word about order of reading. Of course, pick up anything you like, in any order you like! That’s the beauty of free will after all. But if you do pick up multiple titles, don’t be surprised to see the occasional turtle. Sometimes, all the way down.

The Heroes & Demons Series

As you may already know, Heroes & Demons is not exactly a world of heroes. In fact, as a series it can be read in complete isolation from any other book or novel with some ease, taking place as it does roughly a decade after the New Knights saga. Genre-wise you’re looking at a sprawling urban fantasy thriller series, with a lot of apocalyptic overtones. There’s elemental super powers, secret society intrigue and political machinations. There’s a touch of genesis, more than a touch of revelations, ranging from underground ancient temples to street-level fist fights.

Tone wise, there’s dark, dark humour, very tough romance, happy and unhappy endings and morally ambiguity that speaks to the deep core theme of duality. Not always an easy read, but (if I may say so myself) an important one. If you wish to understand what makes a writer tick, this can be said to be my most personal novel series, and one with timely themes.

What you’re in for with this is ultimately planned as a five-part series. Written already and available in eBook and Paperback form are the first three books. Heroes & Demons introduces us to the players in this apocalyptic game, Hope & Fury expands our mythos into new territories and Fire & Water acts as a trilogy capper by turning everything on it’s head (and allowing all the blood to rush into it). Coming soon will be Sinners & Saints (in summer 2026), while the following year will see it all end with Fall & Flood.

The New Knights Saga

If Heroes & Demons is a continuous story, a full dessert, then the stories within the New Knights saga are more like pick ‘n’ mix. You can delve into the mythic with the Arthurian inspired Avalon and Avalon: Faerie Tales. These take place closer to when they were released (so roughly set around 2018). These are still urban, based in Manchester in modern day, but fall more clearly into the contemporary fantasy genre. Expect dragons and dangers, faeries and fights, swords and martinis. Okay, so they didn’t alliterate but there are a lot of martinis. They’re where magick comes alive, threaded through deep with a gay romance (yes, peeps, these are LGBT+everything positive). No one has sex with a werewolf though. To be clear.

Well, not yet.

But say you fancy something different? A darker tone? Well, you could always pick up Insomniac. What starts as a grim and gritty crime novel, with a serial killer stalking the streets of Manchester, morphs into a beautifully ambiguous tale of mental health, guilt and a touch of metaphysical thriller. Abusive. Painful. Honest. There will always be a place for the trademark Rick Rawes dark humour – but this is not the easiest of reads compared to the other.

Where is this going? Well, if anything Rawesian is comparable to the more modern ‘shared universe’ MCU-style idea, then it’d be New Knights. Two more Knights are on the way, with the upcoming Bastet (releasing 16^th February 2026), a rip-roaring 1920s adventure as told over a cold martini; subsequently followed by the final Knight, Echo, a Sheffield-set modern tech noir thriller. Shortly after expecting a crossover event to close out the first volume, with The New Knights forming together to battle an ancient foe.

But…if team ups aren’t your thing – don’t worry. You don’t need to understand the OtherWorld of Avalon to feel the chilling terror down your spine of Insomniac. You don’t need to plunder the pyramids of Bastet’s world to face the nature of consciousness in Echo. You can pick up some or all (or none, but then this might be a boring read), and even The New Knights itself and have yourself a real good time, without depending on the others. The reading of all enriches, but does not detract from, each in turn.

If I say so myself. Which I do.

The Rest of the Rainbow

Everything else I write (and bear in mind there’s soooooo many ideas), I’ve put under it’s own umbrella term of “The Rest of the Rainbow”. So far Proud Marys sits alone, being as it is my only non-supernatural novel. There are no unicorns or pyramids in Proud Marys, despite being set in Manchester during the events of some of the other novels.

There’s real people, real friendships, real day to day problems. Proud Marys follows three gay men in Manchester as they navigate a year of relationships, inspired by the music of Tina Turner. There’s divorces, deaths and dickheads (oh and drag queens). There’s an 80s style comedy vibe, with an undeniable girls of the golden variety tone. And there is a lot of innuendo. Okay, so the tone isn’t completely different, I am me, after all.

There’s other standalone titles rattling around in the ol’ noggin and working themselves out slowly over time. When they begin to emerge, they’ll come here, to the Rest of the Rainbow section. Not sure which may be next. There’s a gay cabin in the woods horror novel, a psychic medium with depression, and even an story among the stars. There’s Superman meets Beautiful Thing, oh and that one on the Scottish Island. That’s to say, completely separate and yet still existing in the same world, there’s a lot of other tales to come. So also, please watch this space!

You Made It!

Okay, so you’ve made it to the end of the explanation – which believe me I have tried to keep brief. If you’ve got what you needed, please feel free to go and check those pages, have a browse through those Amazon pages or the GoodReads ones and feel free to go nuts. But, if you would like to be a constant reader, dear reader or simply have a lot of time to kill and a very wobbly table – below is two ways you can approach the Worlds of Rick Rawes:

1. Release Order – so one way to go for is to read through in the order they were released. It’ll jump around a bit in connections, but you’ll see how they naturally and organically evolved throughout the writing process. The books were released between 2017 and present, beginning with the Heroes & Demons series and then interspersing others in-between. The correct order would be to start with Heroes & Demons (June 2017), followed by Avalon (February 2018), Proud Marys (July 2018), Insomniac (March 2019), Hope & Fury (September 2019), Avalon: Faerie Tales (October 2024) and most recently Fire & Water (July 2025). Hopefully the below diagram helps!

Next up will be Bastet aiming for a February 2026 release!

2. Chronological Order – if you prefer to understand the novels in the order they are set then a word of warning – there’s many books to be released in all sorts of places! This might be a better option for people who want to reread (I’m a big re-reader myself, some of my spines have been tortured more than a chiropractor’s). But anyway, here we go. We start with Avalon which begins around July 2018, with Insomniac set a few months later in September 2018. Proud Marys covers the year from August 2018 to August 2019 so might be best to read next. We then return to the world of Artie Abrams with Avalon: Faerie Tales, which picks up approximately one year afterwards in around September 2019. The Heroes & Demons books have continuity around a decade afterwards, so can be covered Heroes & Demons, Hope & Fury and Fire & Water in one go.

One little note, though the upcoming Bastet is primarily set in Egypt in both 3000 BCE and 1923, it is told over a cold martini (and like a few cigarettes) in modern times and thus can be slotted in between Avalon: Faerie Tales and Heroes & Demons if you really wish (or read first if you like). Again, the below diagram should help!

And with that, my work is done! Many thanks for reading so far, please like my various social media pages if you’d like to know when new posts and books go live. There should be new blog posts with other insights at least twice a month to begin with, so there’s plenty of stuff to enjoy. And in the meantime, peace & love.

August 18^th, 2025

Leeds, West Yorkshire

On the about us section you have a nutshell. But seeing as how this is not taking up precious space in a paperback, nor gracing an Amazon or Goodreads author bio which is snappier than a crocodile sandwich, I guess I can go into a little more detail. If you like. If not, feel free to browse other more exciting sections of the website. I hear there’s some great books, or whatever, on offer.

So, where to begin? It seems a little trite to start with my birth – while I was there, I wasn’t exactly paying attention. Plus, I didn’t start writing until a bit later, anyway. I guess the biggest thing growing up was an appetite for stories. Any stories. Saturday morning cartoon? Fantastic. Kids book with inept magick users? Yup, I especially like the pictures. Any story.

Why? Even at a young age, stories were an escape. They were windows into other worlds – far more than my own little slice of Cheshire town life. Without stepping out from your door, you could sail with pirates, fight over chairs on behalf of a Jesus-Lion, psychokinetically destroy bullies. All sorts. There were worlds filled with colours you’d never seen, ideas you’d never thought and people of all backgrounds. There were people of other colours! There were boys who had earrings and girls who wore leather jackets and smoked cigars! There were beasts and monsters of all forms – including the human. Everything lay within those pages, or within those movie scenes, or through that controller. The world.

For a young burgeoningly gay kid, growing up in the nineties, in possibly the least diverse Northern town in existence, stories were a portal to somewhere else. Anywhere else. And when I realised I could create those portals myself? That I could control where the story went and how things went down? Well, then I was sold.

I like to say that my first creative work was a little “Tv Series” I called ’til the End of the World. Short stories about teen friends who fought vampires, demons and the forces of darkness. Yes, I realise very well the influences. I wrote them alone in my bedroom, on my own personal computer not much different than the one I write this one on now – only a million times older. They were miniature ways of exploring issues I felt were relevant to me which were one step removed. People lived, people died, people came out and people fought bad guys. I shared some of them with the people around me, but eventually life takes over.

The big one came in 2006, when I’d just turned 18 and was about to head off to the University of Manchester to study Psychology. The pieces started to come together for me; in a way they never had before. Swarthy openly gay psychologist? Enter Dr. Rick Carter (believe me, people have tried). His best friend? A science-geek, but also extremely angry redhead. Hello Dr Sandy Harris. Hot Spanish love interest? Ex-special forces archaeologist? Tough-as-nails CEO with the world outside the office spinning out of control? Ben, Andrew and Ruth made themselves known. It wasn’t just a story idea I had anymore, it was turning itself into a book. A book I could write. And damn did I write it, every single word. I still have that first copy, somewhere in my archives. I finished it, on February 18th, 2009, sitting in my bedroom at my parent’s flat, realising I had better get a move on with my dissertation now. A full, 126,000-word manuscript sat there in the folder.

And then…nothing. I sent a few tentative cover letters out, tried to speculate with publishers I found online. And in return? A wall of silence. Absolute. Not even a “please don’t send us this crap again”. Just nothing.

I told myself that was that. I was never going to live a life emulating my heroes, the literary giants like Stephen King or Michael Crichton. I was a nobody, possibly with or without talent, shouting into a void. Friends would politely read a chapter or two here and there, but otherwise, it was best to put such childish things to bed and move on. Get back to real life.

So, that’s what I did. I finished my degree; I went and became a secondary teacher. I got married, I moved jobs, I got promoted, I made friends. And I still enjoyed stories, just as the recipient. I watched so many shows and movies, I read everything I could get my hands on, I played every game where I didn’t have to stare down the barrel of an AK-47 with an eleven-year-old sailor swearing in my headset. Life went on.

But writing is a habit. A bit like smoking or having one too many chardonnays. It’s an impulse that doesn’t ever really go away. Ideas would come and go, sometimes I would jot them down with a ‘that’s nice dear’ approach and then toss them into a drawer which grew ever more stuffed with time. It was sometime around 2016 that I picked up the typewriter (turn of phrase, it was a laptop) again and tickled the not-quite-ivories. Looking back now, I guess it was another need to escape that drew me to it, to explore imaginary worlds again. I started all over again, the same story but told by a somewhat more confident 28-year-old me. And damn, it was better. Miles better. Still, the same impasse was coming – publishers ignored me completely in 2009, why would that have changed in a magickal 7 years?

It didn’t. I learnt about self-publishing instead, about the Kindle Direct Publishing platform. I learnt other people did it and then slammed shut the lid of the ark of the covenant once more when I started to understand the term ‘shifter’. It didn’t matter that I would be competing against the likes of ‘Werewolves to Lovers II: The Mooning” (the selling power of which is staggering, and I am in awe of), there was a way to share what I had written with the world and so I would do it. I could do it. With the click of a button.

And oh, with that, I was back on the crack again. From 2017 to 2019 I self-published five books. Heroes & Demons was quickly followed by the unrelated but still fantasy-like Avalon. Genre mixing became my thing as I pivoted onto Proud Marys, a friendship dramedy which was born out of an idea for a jukebox musical by my ex-husband. I swung over to psychic horror with Insomniac before returning for my first sequel with Hope & Fury. I was a machine, with a god-knew-how-many-year plan, and a determination to write again. And then I stopped.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s tough self-publishing. The market is saturated with people sharing their works. It costs soooo much money to do it ‘right’ (according to everyone trying to sell you their products and services). People don’t really like reviewing or rating, so its an uphill battle. But it wasn’t that which stopped me writing – I continued to write (hence Avalon: Faerie Tales that sat on the shelf for four years) – it was life. Once more, getting in the way. Work, relationship troubles, COVID-19 pandemics, crippling anxiety in a mad-arse world determined to march to the right like good little Storm-troopers. It’s a lot.

Therapy has helped. Meeting the love of my life has helped. Deciding that if the world ends, I want to go down clickety-clacking has helped. Tomorrow isn’t guaranteed. For any of us. Happiness is not an entitlement, it’s a choice. For all of us. I share my stories, and I suppose now my ‘story’, because in the writing of it I’ve come to realise that I want to. Someone, somewhere out there (perhaps dare I dream even a few ‘someones’) has read something I have written and been lifted away from their lives for a few moments. I have done for someone else what my heroes once did for me.

And that is what keeps me going.

Peace & love y’all.

31st July, 2025

Leeds, West Yorkshire