The nights are getting lighter and the garden is looking particularly lovely with the late arrival of the daffs swaying gently in the breeze - or at least they were last week - this week they are being battered by the rain, hail and wind - again!

I finished the novel and sent it off six weeks ago. As soon as it had been set free I wished I had not been so hasty as there were various tweaks and twitches that needed ironing out!!!! However, I thought, there's no point lying awake at night worrying, it won't make the story any better, so I started work on the next story with the promise to myself to make sure I PRINT THE BLOODY THING OUT BEFORE I SEND IT OFF NEXT TIME!!!! It's amazing how different it looks in hard copy rather than on the screen.

But it's amazing what a new wip can do to calm your nerves. This story is an historical saga too, set in a different time. I've done the plot outline, the character profiles, the chapter sketches and I'm now in seventh heaven researching.

There is a divided school of thought here; To plot or not to plot? That is the question. I like to plot because I have a memory like a sieve and if I don't, at least, do a sketch that grows into an outline then on to a story etc I feel as if I am fumbling blindly in the dark, and due to the carbon footprint someone has turned off the light at the end of my tunnel!

But there are writers who like to plunge right in and let the story unfold and surprise them as they write. They think that the plotted story doesn't give them the 'zing' (nothing wrong with that) - but it does for me. Something always springs out and surprises me even when I've plotted to the hilt, my characters always do something I didn't expect, however, I know where I'm going when it happens and can then work around it.

This will be my fourth novel, two of them are snuggled down at the bottom of my desk drawer, what I like to call my 'practice runs' -but the one I have just finished and the one I am doing now are the ones I like and have real hope for - But I would say that, wouldn't I?

Happy Easter everyone xx