Welcome to The Resilient Author!

I’ve spent twenty-five years surrounded by professional authors, publishers and creatives, first as an editor then as a novelist, and now I’m bringing all that experience and insight into The Resilient Author, to talk to you with hand-on-heart honesty about the immense challenges and incredible joys of writing and publishing.

Writing isn’t just a career: it’s a lifestyle, and a way of being that affects every part of our lives.

Authors go through so many battles just to keep going: whether it’s prioritising time, finding an audience, overcoming self-doubt, needing to pay the bills, or enhancing our craft. The challenges are immense, and yet we don’t have government sectors or publishing departments dedicated to creative support. We’re mostly left to glean comfort and guidance from others like ourselves, taking what we can from those like us whose paths we cross. Therefore, we all desperately need honesty, insights, encouragement, occasional tough love and ongoing support from others who are traversing the same path and understand the passion and pitfalls around writing for publication. 

So many authors start with big dreams only to see their books don’t sell and their publishers lose interest. Authors often take this personally without realising the industry is flawed and relies on a model where some books must fail for others to succeed. Therefore, financial realities or demoralisation pushes talented writers out of the industry when they’ve hardly begun. I’ve come up against many pitfalls during my time as an author, but I firmly believe there are always ways through them: we just need some creative thinking, to knock on new doors, and to know that we’re not alone.

Here’s what you’ll get if you subscribe to The Resilient Author:

I’ve based The Resilient Author around four things I think we all need to thrive as creatives:

1.       The right mindset

Failsafe ways to support ourselves through the ups and downs of writing and publishing. I look to beat back the overwhelm and look for hacks to support you in finding the time and right headspace to write.

2.       Practical tools

Advice, resources and time-saving tips to accelerate your writing productivity. This includes a look at the latest news and views in the publishing industry.

3. Insight and inspiration

Looking at the life of a writer in ways that can encourage, sustain and delight us.

4.       A respect for the alchemy of the creative journey

The continual dance between your unique perspective and everything you know about the world – wrapped in how you meet the moment and channel your creative expression.

Here's how I break this down, and everything you’ll get when you subscribe to my free weekly posts:  

Writing resilience: craft, creativity and mindset insights with tools to set you up for success. Here I’ll tackle the difficult topics and stumbling blocks that leave us vulnerable, in order to support creative mindset and growth. There are so many factors that go into producing a first-class book that it’s important to continually cut through the overwhelm and stay close to your essential needs and goals as a writer.

Publishing resilience: behind-the-scenes knowledge of the business of writing and marketing books, based on my 20 years of industry experience (this includes my monthly ‘Author Notes’ round-up of the latest publishing news and recommended reading). It’s essential that writers understand how to navigate the constantly changing publishing industry, because commercialising our work is a very different beast to our writing endeavours, and knowledge of the industry is inextricably linked to our careers and success. Here you’ll also find practical advice and time-saving resources to grow writing careers and earn money from your work.

My writing journal: once a month, this is the place where I share all my passions and my personal stories with you. I’ll give you insights into my books and writing, my setbacks, wins, behind-the-scenes stories, and everything I’ve learned along the way, along with reviews of books I love and personal essays about my passions and the topics that fire me up. This includes deep dives into some of the motivations and experiences of both historical and contemporary creative women – and the challenges they’ve faced while bringing their work into the world.

All my weekly posts have the same essential purpose of encouragement and support. I want to help you to keep writing, to love and celebrate your work, and to fulfil your potential. Each of our creative voices is unique, but when it comes to living and working as a writer we’re all in this together – and taking a broad, balanced and big-picture perspective will help us all to breathe, relax, refocus and then dig in to our creative goals. I want you to take my insights and use them to do the work that only you can do.

My paid community:

I write for my entire community, so my paid subscription is first and foremost a patronage, where those of you who are finding value, and who can afford it, can support my work. I’ll always keep these prices low - the monthly subscription is less than the price of a coffee a month, and the yearly subscription is even cheaper.

As a thank you, every month I provide paid subscribers with some more of my personal resources and insights: anything from plotting charts and character questionnaires, to breakdowns of bestseller lists and next-level mindset practices. These are usually delivered in my writing journal posts, or as extra resources and posts. I also offer paid subscribers discounts to any courses and events, and first looks at my new books. A paid subscription supports my ongoing work here at The Resilient Author, and will help my future plans come to life - as I’d love to continue to build more valuable resources for writers.

A little more about me and my writing journey so far:

I’m the author of eight published novels and one novella, and my work has been published in Australia, the US, the UK and Europe. I’ve hit bestseller lists, had international and translation deals, moved publishing houses, self-published, written for Audible, worked as a ghostwriter, had two books optioned for TV, and my novel You Don’t Know Me was adapted into a chart-topping drama podcast. My work has also been rejected many times and I’ve had to rehome my novels on numerous occasions. In other words, I know about both the highs and lows of a writing career!

I’m also a mum - and mothering has impacted my career on so many levels: inspiring me in ways I could never imagine and making me more determined than ever to thrive. Of course, this has also had a substantial impact on my time and emotional resources, and added more layers of complexity to the challenges of writing and promoting. I know what it’s like to battle for time, and to work through the juggle of different, competing priorities. However, I’ve loved bringing my girls along with me in this creative journey and watching them grow up alongside my book babies!

I write mostly psychological suspense, mysteries and thrillers, and as a reader I look for variety, but I especially love psych suspense, crime and thrillers, dystopian and YA fiction, commercial and literary fiction (with a special place in my heart for books that celebrate and empower women), and I’ll always champion environmental fiction (often known as cli-fi). I also love reading inspirational nonfiction and autobiographies, and I draw on all of this in my work. I wrote my near-future dystopian novel The Hush as part of my PhD, which looked at the missing mothers in dystopian fiction with young adult heroines. My ongoing aim is to write psychological page-turners that centre female characters across generations and explore contemporary issues around culture and identity. My next novel, When She Was Gone, will be released in April 2025. You can read all about that - and all my other books - here on my website!