Well 2021 has been a strange kind of year hasn’t it?! As the end of the year approaches I like to reflect on what’s happened over the past twelve months and start to plan for the new year.

For me, this year has been an emotional rollercoaster. I’ve moved house – an interesting process during a time earlier in the year when we had more Covid-related restrictions in place – but well worth it. I’ve also, like so many people over the past eighteen months, experienced the sudden loss of a close family member.

2021 has also been the first year for five years that I’ve not had a new book published which has felt quite odd but that doesn’t mean that I haven’t been busy.

As well as doing novel critiques and coaching new and more experienced writers as part of www.crimefictioncoach.com I’ve been putting the finishing touches to the first book in my new Retired Detectives Club series.

DEATH IN THE SUNSHINE will be published in March 2022 by Thomas & Mercer, and I’m currently writing the first draft of the second book in the series. I’m super excited about this new series and can’t wait for it to be out in the world.

It was lovely that after very few crime writing events being able to go ahead in 2020, there were more able to take place this year. I was on a panel at the always brilliant Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival in Harrogate back in July and it was huge fun to meet up with readers, bloggers, reviewers and fellow writers over the four day festival – all united in our love of everything crime fiction. There have been more virtual festivals starting over the past couple of years which I think is fantastic as it makes festivals even more accessible. Hopefully (Covid-safety permitting) 2022 will see even more festivals – face-to-face, virtual and hybrid – able to take place.

My first task in 2022 will be to finish a polished first draft of Retired Detectives Book 2 and send it off to my editor by my deadline at the end of January. I’ll then be focusing on the editing of that book before starting the planning for the third instalment in the series. And I’m really looking forward to launching DEATH IN THE SUNSHINE in March.

Whatever your 2021 has been like, I’d like to wish you health, happiness and success in 2022.

Steph x