I admit I wrote most of Book 3 during lockdown. It was a troublesome time with me having to learn how to home school and deal with lots of conflicting expectations. So it does not surprise me that my characters seem to be all over the place with some of them resistant to lessons they need to learn. After my editor started going through the first draft, she pointed out some of these characters who seem to stray off and doing their own thing without sticking to the mission. So now I have to ask myself some tough questions. Are these behaviours a reflection of my mind as I have persevered through the “stop start” feel of 2020? Or are these reflections of the characters’ journeys? It means I have to do some serious reflection on the suggested rewrite from my editor. As authors, we want independent creative expression and feedback is something that makes us stop and reevaluate our position. It is not a natural process for an author because feedback seems a lot of like criticism and of...

What are you wanting to achieve this year? They say there is a no such thing as a free lunch. I believe this is true. With everything you want to achieve, there is a cost. Sometimes that cost is time, sometimes it is money or relationships. I had to sacrifice a lot of time in order to write the Chronicles of Nadine. As I was writing part time, I got up at 03H00 every morning to carve out some time to write. Not much has changed. Since the start of the pandemic, I have to home school two children as well, so in order to work on the book series, I need to get up early. I changed my Television viewing material. Instead of watching the series that I used to, I watch documentaries of medieval times on YouTube. I swapped watching my Tinyhouse shows to researching medieval weapons. My daughter said I was part-time author physically but full time emotionally. I had to give up some relationships. People who could not understand my journey or who tried to dissuade me from following my dream. Som...