​PLEASE NOTE: Whilst I do my best to make sure that all of the cozy mysteries included are free to download at time of writing, they do sometimes revert back to their regular price as the promo period ends. I have zero control over this, the authors themselves set the price promos, each author lives in a different time zone and even then, glitches with technology, etc can mean that the book is no longer on offer. Make sure that you double check the price before downloading. 

We're almost at the end of British cozy mystery month and there was no way in the world that I wasn't going to post a collection of cozies set in the wonderful county of Cornwall. I mean, what's not to like. Think of Cornwall and you'll probably think of Poldark, Cornish ice cream, clotted cream and scones, Cornish pasties, mermaids, basking sharks, pirates, piskies, saffron buns, smugglers and wreckers, shipwrecks, copper mines, fishermen, Celtic language and arts, King Arthur, and fudge. You may even want to visit the Museum of Witchcraft and Wizardry or explore the reasons why J.K.Rowling used Cornwall as one of the locations for hiding the horcrux in Harry Potter!  I say we find a nice Cornish beach somewhere, grab a load of local delicacies to feast on, and sit awhile with a lovely collection of cozies. Who's with me? 

When I first tell people that I'm a full-time author they generally have one of two reactions. Either they wrongly assume that I'm some rich writer with a 7 figure publisher deal, or they tell me how they had a dream of being an author but that it would never be possible for them. So I thought that I would share some of the lessons I've learnt since deciding to become an author back in November 2018.  I'm still learning and figuring things out, but I hope that by sharing some of my experiences, you can cut to the chase on your own author journey, if that is genuinely, in your heart of hearts what you want to do for a living. I should warn you now, that the road is long and hard, but it isn't impossible, provided that you want it enough.  

OK, so first things first. I should tell you up front that at no point did I intentionally sit down and decide that I would become a full-time author, it kind of just happened, by accident. You see, I was living happily in the Lake District but my my landlords suddenly notified me that they were selling the property I rented for them, and so began my struggle to find a place I could afford, that would allow pets, It was impossible. They all wanted at least 6 months rent upfront, plus two months deposit, a sum of around £9000 for a manky old place with no heating and lots of damp. I was working like crazy to make ends meet each month, and when I sat down and thought about I realised that all I wanted in life was to have time to go wild swimming as much as I could, and to have lots of lovely hikes with my little dog and time to play with my three cats. It was an incredibly stressful time, because no way would I give up my pets and the prospect of being truly homeless was terrifying. 

As luck would have it, I found a property that I could buy, on the other side of the country, in a place I'd never been to before, and it looked like I might just be able to get a mortgage, and the total cost of the mortgage would be a fraction of what I was paying in rent. Plus it would be a place of my own, brand new, with no damp or mould or dodgy floorboards.

I sold everything I owned and travelled by train with one rucksack and a pet carrier. Three trains in total. I found a guesthouse as close as I could to the property that allowed pets, and was supposed to complete in 7 days time. But that all changed, when the mortgage company suddenly decided that I wasn't meeting their 'affordability' assessment even more. All because I was £4 short on what they considered affordable, and even though my mortgage would be around £100 per month compared to the £1000 a month I'd been paying in rent! My world was turned upside down and the feeling was awful. I felt trapped and helpless in a place where I knew no one and missed everything I had come to love.  

Once I had calmed down and started to re-evaluate the situation, I actually came to the conclusion that this was likely the best thing that could have happened to me, and that if I continued to work from 'home' with my couple of regular clients, then not only would I be able to make ends meet, but I would also be able to pursue my writing - something I had only recently started doing after participating in NaNoWriMo. I did a lot of sums and realised that not only would I be able to buy a house in the Lake District for cash, but I would be able to buy the house of my dreams  - provided that I work hard. The working hard bit hasn't been easy at all, and I'll share more about that in future posts, but the important thing to note here, is that if you are currently stuck in a rut and feeling really miserable, and all you want to do is to become a writer - then go for it, but be prepared to make sacrifices. 

Had I known then, what I know now. I wouldn't have messed around so much or wasted time and money on trying to buy a house and getting a mortgage. Instead, if you want to be a full-time writer, my advice would be as follows:
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• Sell everything you own (I moved to the guesthouse with one pair of pajamas, one pair of shorts, a t-shirt, and some undies, and my pets) and put this money aside for your new author business or your first month's accommodation costs.
• Put everything important on a digital cloud or storage base, like Dropbox so you don't have to pay for storage or have to cart all your papers or photos with you. 
• Move into the cheapest possible accommodation you can find (short-term sacrifice for long-term gain). That might be your parents' home, a smaller flat or house, a house share, or a hostel or guesthouse. It will really depend on your personality and circumstances. 
• Downgrade and cancel any memberships or regular outgoings. Living in a guesthouse meant I didn't have to pay council tax or utilities, and I downgraded my data package for my phone which saved a small fortune.
• Stop spending money as much as you possibly can. No more magazines, coffees (we'll tackle coffee in a future post), and no more socials with friends. You'll be able to enjoy all of these to your heart's content next year.  
• Work out the absolute minimum you can survive on. For me I need to cover my guesthouse accommodation which is about £22 per night, plus £5 per day for my food, pets, mobile phone, and anything else I might need. So I estimated that I needed to bring in around $40 a day from my freelance work (we'll tackle income  in a future post too). 

Basically you need to take a long hard look at every single penny that you spend, and every item that you own or subscribe to, and see what you can do to get your overheads down as much as you possibly can. A really good book that helped me with this was Alvin Hall's 'Your Money or Your Life.'  I purchased a copy second hand from Amazon, having read it several times when it very first came out. This is one of the few things I would spend money on at this stage, but you could also get it on Kindle as an ebook, or from your local library for free. Start saving the pennies now. But you'll likely come back to this book in the future or when you need a gentle reminder so it's a avery good investment in your future. It is more geared to the UK audience since it accompanied the UK TV series, but it will still be of benefit wherever you are in the world.  

I'll be tackling things step by step in future blog posts so don't get overwhelmed by how much there is to think about. For now, just write a list of what you spend and see if you can find ways of cutting down your costs. Even if you stay in your current home, look at comparison sites and see if there are any better deals out there for utilities or credit cards and things. Good luck!  

With the summer soon upon us and a first day back to work for many folks after this weekend's Bank Holiday, I figured that it was time to turn our attention to the cozy mystery books set in the seaside town of Brighton, on the south coast of England. So grab your buckets and spades, Punch and Judy shows, sticks of rock, and a portion of fish and chips and we shall begin! 

OK, so technically I shouldn't be including Isle of Man books under the umbrella collection of 'British Cozy Mysteries' but I'm going to anyway, because there are way too many treasures here to miss.  You see, the Isle of Man (or Mann as most people call it) is an island in the Irish Sea, right between the west coast of England and the east coast of Ireland. 

Now, I've sadly never been to the Isle of Man, but funnily enough I did have an 'Uncle Douglas' (my granny's brother) and an 'Aunty Kathleen' (whom I sadly never met because they died when I was a tiddler) who lived in the island's capital also called Douglas! I also discovered recently that my paternal grandfather (who died long before I was born) was stationed on Mann as a teen when he first signed up with the Royal Navy. I shall post the video below so you can hear the full story for yourself. But I really should go and visit one day because it's a place filled with Celtic and Norse history and that really interests me, especially having discovered my Scandinavian and Irish ancestry as part of the Channel 4 documentary series.   

Just take the Kirk Malew Church, for example. This is the burial place for the Norse kings of Mann, as well as being the final resting place (so legend has it) for the Manx vampire! And near the summit of Meayll Hill is a stone circle known for its ghostly hauntings, prehistoric rituals, and Viking burials. Jurby Church has Pagan and Viking burial mounds, and St Trinian's Church is connected with an ogre (Buggane or shape shifter) who got so fed up of the noise from the church bells, that he eventually tore off the roof of the church. All of which makes the Isle of Man a perfect location for a paranormal mystery or two in my humble opinion! What do you think?

​PLEASE NOTE: Whilst I do my best to make sure that all of the cozy mysteries included are free to download at time of writing, they do sometimes revert back to their regular price as the promo period ends. I have zero control over this, the authors themselves set the price promos, each author lives in a different time zone and even then, glitches with technology, etc can mean that the book is no longer on offer. Make sure that you double check the price before downloading. 

When I was about 4 years old, my dad got a new job, selling greenhouses for Capability Brown at Haskins Garden Centre in Ferndown. This meant a big move from the Royal County of Berkshire to the south coast county of Dorset, right before I started at school for the first time. There were lots of nice things about the move, firstly we would have a little garden, surrounded by what was called 'the common' - ideal for a tomboy like me to find baby adders and catch lizards. Secondly, as I grew up I learnt a lot about the ground that our housing estate was built on, and it turned out that there were tunnels used by smugglers as well as a druid burial site, and an old gallows. 

But best of all, was that we started to go to the seaside on really hot days after school and if we were really lucky then on a weekend or on school holidays. One of my favourite places by the sea was Kimmeridge Bay and to me it was heaven, full of mysteries to be solved and nooks and crannies to be explored. It was the ideal place for making up stories and imagining what life must have been like in other times - important for an only child like me at the time, because I needed to keep myself entertained and not be too bothersome around grownups.

Kimmeridge Bay was the best playground you could want as a child (and as an adult). The cliffs were made from black shale that would collapse in heaps throughout the day to reveal fossils of dinosaurs, and the large rock pools would get warmed by the sun so were never too cold to swim in. Sometimes, we'd have a barbecue and I'd set fire to the oily rocks. Further along the coast there was actually a cliff that would spontaneously catch fire, owing to the high content of 'fossil fuels' within. Just around the headland was an army range, and if I wandered off when the red flags were flying then I might just catch sight of a tank firing. That was where the best rock pools were, and where you could find the biggest crabs and brightly coloured fish and better still, where there were no other people to interrupt your thoughts.

Close by the cliff top there was an old World War II pill box made of concrete that always smelt like wee, and right on the top of the cliff, was an abandoned tower looking as if it might just drop into the sea at any moment. I'm always at my happiest when I'm at the seaside in Britain, and that is why I just LOVE cozy mystery books set by the sea, because it brings back a sense of nostalgia. I'd love to know what your earliest memories are of the seaside, and if you have any favourite beaches in the world.   

I just love London. In fact, I was lucky enough to live in London for quite a few years, right before I went to work on a childhood research project  in Tamil Nadu, India. You see, I used to work at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery in Queen Square (you might know it from the TV series 'The Brain Hospital'), and during that time I lived in an apartment right by the Thames Barrier, before moving to the more village-feel of Muswell Hill and Highgate. It was an incredibly exciting time in my life, not just because I found myself working alongside the people whose theories I had studied as part of my earlier degrees, but because I was on the cutting edge of developments and treatments for conditions linked to forensic and developmental neuropsychology -. from phantom limb pain, to autism, acquired brain injury, migraines, parapsychology, and synesthesia. 

I was at the height of my career, had a beautiful flat, an amazing Italian restaurant right across the road, and for the first time in my life, I had started to get the opportunity to travel to other countries as part of my work. I'd really only been on school trips to France and Germany before then. Admittedly I had to wear a suit to work everyday (not nice on the hot underground in summer), and I worked long hours, with a lot of stress, but it was a time for discovering more about the world at large, and about people and cultures.

​One of the most incredible things about my work, was that the British Museum was right around the corner from the hospital, which was perfect for grabbing a coffee and sitting and watching people during my break. More importantly, I got to sit in on some forensic archaeology (and anthropology) sessions, including scans of the Egyptian mummies, to learn more about public health diseases and what life might have been like for them. What did they eat, what diseases or injuries did they have, and why did they die? Were they perhaps murdered or injured in battle? I even spent time in an MRI scanner as a volunteer, to learn about my own brain, and see what happened to it when I tried to learn new skills, like learning a new language, or when seeing different images or photos. I attended radiology rounds, found patients for case demonstrations, looked through hundred year old archives, worked on my own research, and attended as many brain dissections as I could. Whatever opportunity I spotted, I grabbed it with both hands! My brain and senses were hungry for knowledge and everywhere around me were things that intrigued me, like museums and architecture, and streets to walk along. 

​In my free time, I joined the Royal Geographical Society in South Kensington and attended as many of the lectures as I could, hanging out with some great explorers and personalities at the 'Explorer's Bar', like Michael Palin, Stephen Fry, and Douglas Adams, eventually becoming a 'Fellow' myself. I soaked up every tale I could and I must have asked each guest at the RGS a hundred questions about their adventures. I was fascinated! Just to be in an old building, surrounded by so much history was inspiring. A pocket watch that had belonged to Ernest Shackleton, or a painted portrait on the wall of an early pioneer, hundreds of years old. I stared at every object for hours, sat in the map room, and read through original travel journals, wondering what stories those items held if only they could talk. Little did I know that one day all of these little experiences would somehow find their way out into my own cozy mystery books!! London is certainly a place to become inspired to write.

No wonder there are so many cozies set in London, and I just know that you will find at least one new book to read from the collection below. Don't forget to add any more books you've enjoyed, in the comments section too. 

You will be completely forgiven for thinking that I am just pulling your leg with today's blog post, but I promise you I am not. If you are going to write a bestselling cozy mystery book, set in Wales, then you can't go far wrong with the Anglesey village of...wait for it....and I bet you can't pronounce the name....Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch! 
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Llanfair (as it can be shortened to) would actually make a pretty awesome setting for a paranormal or historical cozy mystery since it was originally a Neolithic settlement (that's about 4000-2000BC), and with so many different folks living here in history - kings, Romans, monks, farmers, it would be perfect for some ghosts and ghouls and epic battles. 

And just in case you were wondering how to actually pronounce Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch here are a few pointers to help you on your way!! Let me know if you've come across any other difficult to pronounce Welsh words, or if you have any other cozies set in Wales to recommend. I'm sure there must be more to find. 

​PLEASE NOTE: Whilst I do my best to make sure that all of the cozy mysteries included are free to download at time of writing, they do sometimes revert back to their regular price as the promo period ends. I have zero control over this, the authors themselves set the price promos, each author lives in a different time zone and even then, glitches with technology, etc can mean that the book is no longer on offer. Make sure that you double check the price before downloading. 

There's nothing I love more than a visit to a proper British tea shop, with teapots and tea strainers, milk in ceramic jugs, and freshly baked cakes under glass domes on the counter. Coffee and walnut cake is my all time favourite tea shop cake!! Closely followed by carrot cake, and if available, a well made Victoria sponge. If you get those little sugar lumps on the table then you really know that you've entered a fancy tea shop. Likewise silver cake forks and china saucers. That's when you know that you have to stick out your little finger (pinky) when you drink your tea. It's no surprise that the tea shop cozy mystery has proven popular, and the only way to serve that kind of book is with a nice slice of cake and a cup of cha. Enjoy!   

I couldn't find many tea shop cozy mysteries set in Britain, so I've gone with a worldwide collection instead! I'd love to know of any other tea shop cozies that need adding to this collection. 

Ahhh! The British (English) city of Oxford. City of Spires. Home to many a famous writer and academic, and of course the world renowned 'University of Oxford'. A city that has a rather personal connection for me too as it happens. You see, my father was born in Oxford, and my nan spent many years of her life as a patient at the santorium where she lived in as part of the treatment at the time for tuberculosis. It was also where I was based for my work with the Royal Navy, and in my earlier career as a Neuropsychologist I was very involved with neuroscience research at the hospital and the university, spending long summers involved in different projects, including research on phantom limb pain, and on autism.

Oxford was the place where my nan would take me for treats when I stayed with her, and we would often catch the bus there and nip into one of the department stores for a cup of coffee, something my nan found quite exciting since most people just drank tea at home and coffee shops were a relatively new thing. It's hard to imagine an Oxford pre Starbucks or Costa Coffee, or McDonalds!

For me, Oxford was always really exciting, but it must have held different memories for my nan, as she would only really visit for hospital appointments or spend her hours desperate to get back home to her family whilst residing at the sanitorium. For me it is a place filled with memories of dining in my Royal Navy Uniform at fancy balls and drinking a little too much port as part of the maritime traditions! Lots of late nights polishing boots or doing drill practice, or working on improving my knots.

Funny how a single place can mean so many things to different people, and I suppose that is what I love about cozy mysteries that are set in Oxford. Each author draws on the thing that most inspired them about the city, experiences they had there, or people that they met. That's the beauty of books, and there is definitely no shortage of wonderful places to read a good book in Oxford. And plenty of lovely bookshops to visit too. I don't think I ever came back from Oxford without at least one, brand new, sweet smelling, and shiny covered paperback!   

It would be remiss of me to not share a selection of amateur sleuths as part of British Cozy Mystery month now, wouldn't it. Here are some of the characters that immediately spring to my mind when I think of an amateur sleuth, who are some of your favourites? 

I've a little confession to make! When I very first came across the words 'cozy mystery' it sent my teeth on edge a bit. You see, as a Brit I've been brought up to use the letter s instead of the letter z (pronounced zed rather than zee, of course) in my words, and being a little bit OCD when it comes to things that seem out of place, I needed a lot of therapy before I was finally comfortable with calling myself a 'cozy mystery' author rather than a 'cosy mystery author.' I'm on a very steep learning curve as a new author anyway, and I frequently have to try and re-educate myself on things like grammar, but after reading reviews on cozy mystery books by other authors, whilst hunting down books for Free Book Friday, I've come across two things that have got me thinking recently.

My first observation was that there are a lot of British authors on Amazon who seemingly get poor reviews because of 'bad spelling and grammar', but when I actually looked at the book for myself, the spelling and grammar were absolutely normal - at least to me as a Brit. It also seems that British authors tend to use the 'Oxford comma' but American authors don't, and this was the main reason for the references to 'terrible grammar and punctuation' in the reader reviews. My second observation was that the British and Australian authors seemed to have a disclaimer on their book description, no doubt in a desperate attempt to avoid the poor reviews for their spelling and grammar....'this book is written in British English, and uses British grammar and spelling'. And yet, as Brits and Americans and Australians we apparently share a common language - English!

This got me thinking...should it actually be 'Cozy' or 'Cosy,' is there actually a right or wrong, and does it even matter? Technically, you could say that since Agatha Christie was one of the first authors in the genre and she was a Brit, therefore it should be 'cosy', and you might even argue that 'British English' was around way before 'American English.'  But the fact remains, that the genre is still relatively unknown here in the UK, but is the second most popular genre after romance in the US.   

This led me to another question. As a British author, I prefer to write in my own language of British English, but I can't deny that I have very few readers in the UK, and that the vast majority of my readers are in the US. If I want to please my readers and avoid the bad reviews for spelling and grammar, then there's a strong argument for me switching to American English in my books, but that would feel really weird, especially given that most of my stories have British characters and settings because that's what I know best. I've only been to the US briefly, passing through on my way to other countries and I just wouldn't feel right writing about a culture and places and in a language that I know so little about. America is a big place, and I wouldn't know where to start when world building! I would feel like I wasn't being authentic, and that I'd be doing a disservice to my readers.  I'm not saying that you have to be a Brit or even have visited Britain in order to write cozies set in Britain, it's just that for me personally, I wouldn't have the first clue about writing an American English or cozy, but I have written a story set in Austria even though I've only been there once.  I just happen to have had enough exposure to the setting I was writing in, that I felt I could write the story with a fair sense of authenticity.  

But perhaps, therein lies the reason why I don't have many British or Australian readers. You see, I use the word 'Cozy Mystery' on my book covers and in my keywords, blurb, and description. So maybe that puts the 'Cosy' Mystery readers off my books, because like me when I first found the genre, I cringed at seeing the use of the letter 'z' instead of the letter 's'.  I'm a little bit the same when it comes to audiobooks, because my brain has to work that much harder to get my ear around American narration, because I'm more used to hearing the varied dialects of Britain, even though I've lived all over the world, from India, to the West Indies, to the former USSR.   

The other thing that I now find myself contemplating when I write, is the different words for objects, on top of all the weird and wonderful expressions that we Brits use in daily conversation without even 'batting an eyelid.'  I feel like my readers are educating me with each new book that I write, and I love having a go-to community of lovely humans from around the world that I can ask for questions about word usage. Some words are rude in American English but not in British English (I once had an American editor who used the word 'period' rather than 'full stop' and I cringed each time I saw and heard the word used), and vice versa.  Language is hugely important, and it can completely set a relationship off on the right or wrong foot. I'll give you an example...

I previously worked for the Ministry of Education and Science in the former Soviet Republic of Georgia, and one day happened to be introduced to the young daughter (about 4 years old) of one of the government Ministers. Without thinking about it, and after spending a fair amount of time interacting with his daughter, I happened to call her a little 'bossy boots' in jest. It's one of those British subtle and sarcastic ways of telling someone in an affectionate way that they are being a little bit too bossy and should reign it in a bit, in this case, rather harshly giving her poor baby brother the run around by getting him to do her bidding.  Unknown to me at that time, was that there is a word in Georgian 'bosi' which basically means 'hoar.'  No wonder all the Georgians in the room stopped and stared at me in horror!  I had to very quickly explain that the word meant something entirely different in the English language!    

It's these subtle differences between languages and culture and traditions that make me love my craft of writing. I get to explore what it means to be who I am, and to understand my own history, and where the language I use in daily life comes from. It also means that I get to explore the world through the eyes and ears of my readers too, to work out those branches where we divided in our shared history and to see how things change so quickly. You only have to look at the prose in a Shakespearean story or sonnet to see how much the English language has changed in Britain, and in a relatively short length of time. There are new words added to the English dictionary each year, words that didn't exist when I was a child, that are now used on a daily basis in normal life and situations. I find that quite exciting as a writer! 

Anyways, I would love to know what you think. Are the books 'cozy' or 'cosy' where you live, and does it matter to you whether they are written in British English, American English, or Australian English? Are there any words that grate on you, like the word 'period' does with me when used in place of the word 'full-stop?' Or any British words or expressions that you would love to know the meaning of? I'd really love to hear what you think in the comments section below.  

This month is all about celebrating the British themed cozy mystery books, and today's post is all about mysteries with a Scottish theme. Think haggis, Hogmanay, Highlands, and Hamish Macbeth! If you love stories set in Scotland, then you will certainly find something here to whet your whistle.  

Flippin' eck' I can't believe that it is already 180 days since I first launched my cozy mystery business under the publishing house Isla Britannica Books Ltd. In some ways it feels like I have learnt and achieved a lot, and yet, in other ways, that I haven't progressed and still have a long way to go. My aim in sharing my personal journey as a new author, is firstly that I can have something to look back on and see where my path led, and secondly, that it might help others, as well as allowing readers of my books to get a feel for the behind the scenes of life as an author.

When I imagine the life of other authors, I think of them sat in beautiful wooden panelled studies or libraries, with an old wooden desk and lamp, leather armchair, and log fire. The stereotypical author, much like a character from an Agatha Christie book. That they spend their day writing and their evenings out at social events or dinner parties. Of course, real life is very far from that, at least for most authors, especially ones like me who are just starting out.  

I moved to the guesthouse where I am currently living, on the 15th June 2018, expecting to be here for a matter of weeks, before moving into a house I was in the process of buying. That didn't exactly go to plan, but on reflection it was one of the best outcomes possible. 

Prior to my move, I was renting an overpriced, not especially great house in Kendal, in the beautiful Lake District in the north west of Britain. Up until my landlords decided to sell the house and gave me notice (that house is still for sale!). It felt like the end of the world. No way could I find anything locally that allowed pets and was affordable, and all of the properties I was eligible for wanted 6 months rent upfront, two months deposit, and charged for application fees (that's about £8000, the equivalent of a deposit to buy a house!). I was working all hours, just to make the rent, council tax, and utilities each month. If I had been eligible for a mortgage and not been self-employed, then I could have bought the same house I was renting, and been paying four times less for a mortgage than I was paying in rent. A ridiculous situation! But as I'd been living abroad and the amount they were asking for the property was more than I could get a mortgage for, buying the house was not an option.

But I did find a property that I was eligible to buy, in the north east of the country on a shared ownership babis. I wouldn't know anyone, it was away from my outdoor swimming and friends, but at least I would have a roof over my head and for less money. That property ended up falling through, just after I had moved into the guesthouse where I am now. But instead of being disappointed, I felt a huge sense of relief. Shared ownership wasn't really where I wanted to be in terms of having control over my own life. My solicitor had sent me the contract to sign, and what I saw was clause after clause about what I could and couldn't do with my property. I would have to get written permission to even paint the walls of a room, and couldn't put in a garden pond or build a rockery. It felt like a trap. That once I was in the property, I would never be able to sell it, and since the house was supposed to be my stop gap to getting my forever home, back in the Lake District, I knew in my gut that to buy would be a bad choice. But I didn't want to be homeless either, nor did I want to end up losing my pets.

As it turned out, my three cats and small dog settled amazingly well into our one room at the guesthouse, far better than I could even hope given that they were used to playing outdoors whenever they wanted. I also realised how devastated I was to lose the things that I had come to depend upon and trust - our veterinary practice, dog walker, my dentist, local doctor. The local services were not a patch on the relationships I had built up over a long period of time. Those things were priceless and more important to me than I could have realised. 

It was clear that I needed to be back in the Lake District, and the silver lining was that my overheads were now a fraction of what they were where I was renting. I realised that I could now focus on becoming a writer and building up my business, one that would eventually not only allow me to buy a house, but to buy an amazing house for cash, provided that I focused on my writing and put in the hours. It was also pretty scary, because being in the guesthouse meant that I couldn't leave my pets for work each day since I no longer had my pet sitter, but that didn't matter because if I built up my own business, then I could simply work from home. This would be a good thing longer term, since I knew that I wouldn't want to keep travelling so much for work as I grew older anyway.  

I spent a good few months researching my chosen genre, watching podcasts on YouTube, speaking with other authors, and putting out test books, and trying new things to get a feel for the market and world of publishing. My testing gave me the confidence to know that the future I had in my dreams was ACTUALLY possible, now I just had work on the psychology side and start to believe in myself and treat my writing as a business.  It would be along. hard road, with a lot of sacrifice, but it would be worth it.  

At the moment I'm frustrated with myself, but equally know that this is a phase I simply have to go through as well. I'm sure that very soon, something within me will just fall into place, and that the resistance I currently feel will disappear. I should be further along as a writer than I am!

However, over the past 180 days I have built up a newsletter of almost 3000 people from scratch, and having started to offer my publishing services to other authors on Fiverr, I now have a fairly consistent stream of repeat clients that I Vellum format and do book promo for. This has definitely grown organically in ways I wasn't expecting, an important reminder that hard work eventually starts to pay dividends in the long game. To be honest, I was really surprised to find other authors recommending me on sites such as K-Boards and in their blog posts. For example K-Boards here and on Nicholas Erik's website. I only become aware of these because some of my clients told me that was where they found me, and I have a lot of romance authors to thank too, because they began recommending me to others in their writers groups. It was hard to accept such positive comments at first, I still have imposter syndrome in all walks of my life, it's just who I am, but for the first time, I feel like I'm starting to embrace what it means to be a small business owner. I'm someone who actually has 'clients' now....even if I still can't quite get my head around that!     

From a business perspective, am I earning money from offering my services on Fiverr, or would I be financially better off if I put that time into my writing? I admit that one out of three enquiries I get on Fiverr are time wasters. People trying to get rich quick and wanting to use me to do jobs for their clients which they then get credit and charge twice as much for. Those make my blood boil, especially as they aren't serious about quality or longevity and sem to think that publishing is a really easy way to make your millions.  I dislike the orders I get where the client tries to bribe me or lure me with promises if I'll get their book on the promo sites immediately, even though I don't make the rules for the promo sites themselves. I get irritated when people place orders without reading through the information I provide on what services I offer. And I find it irksome that Fiverr penalises me when I cancel an order because a client has set me up for a job that I don't even offer because they think they are somehow special and the next big thing. That hurts my ratings and takes months to build up. But on the whole, I love my serious authors, the ones who appreciate a quality job and understand how many hours I invest in making their book interior look just how they want it. Business wise, I should be charging a lot more, especially taking into account the hours it takes me to do a job, but that isn't why I'm offering my services to other authors.  

A traditional or old school business person would say that I am wasting my time with Fiverr, and that what I should really be doing is investing my time in writing and publishing my own books. But I actually don't see it that way. I see this as my apprenticeship, a stepping stone to producing better quality books in the grand scheme of things. I get to experience books from many different genres in the space of a week - see their covers, blurbs, description, layout, book stuffing and what not to do's, and answer any questions they have. I'm always learning and improving my own craft. Only then do I realise just how far I have come in my own education and I get a little confidence boost as I realise that I am capable of being a great author and publisher, that I know my field, I have a toolbox of expertise now, skills I have unknowingly mastered on my journey. What's more, I get a huge sense of satisfaction, seeing other authors do well, or being over the moon with how their book looks. I'm growing into my own skin little by little each day and I'm learning important lessons in marketing, communication, and knowing when to say no. 

What's more, the money I am earning on Fiverr gets paid into my Paypal account and aside from the exchange rate between dollars and Stirling fluctuating to my detriment, I'm now super close to being able to access Paypal Working Capital. This is money that I can draw down into my Paypal account, based on my annual earnings. I want to invest heavily in my books - in editing, covers, ISBN numbers, all of which costs money. Paypal Working Capital will be the biggest step up in my career, and I have a strong sense that as soon as that happens, my business will snowball quickly. I just have to be patient as I try to get to that financial starting line. 

Since my 90 day review, I have made some really scary moves financially. I've gone from having no credit cards or loans, to taking out credit cards. I don't like having debts, I like to be as independent as I can with no ties or trappings. But I realised that if I wanted to publish books, then I would need to buy covers, pay for editing, and invest in my business. It also turned out that if I took out credit cards, it would help me to get my credit rating up, just in case I wanted to get a mortgage in the future. Which seemed ridiculous to me.

I did some shopping around and used a platform called Noddle to see my credit rating and which, if any credit cards I would be eligible for. In a short space of time, I went from a near perfect credit rating and zero debts, to taking whatever credit cards I could and watching my credit score plummet. It should seem counter intuitive, but I'm not worried even though it is logically insane. I used those cards to buy ISBNS and covers and a desk and printer and chair. The cards are zero percent interest for a year and my plan is that every penny of that money is invested into my business and will earn that money back, and more within the space of a year. It should allow me to publish a lot of books, and the more books I have out, the more chance I have of being able to buy a house for cash, back in the Lake District. I'm starting to get enough money in from my business on Fiverr that I pay back £1 a day on each card for now, reinvesting that money in upfront costs of film work and getting to paid speaking events, as these don't pay me for round three months afterwards. Flipping things in the American terminology. Again, I'm focusing on long term gains here. I don't make regular payments into a pension but whenever my income goes up each day, I put 1p, 10p, £1 whatever I can afford each day, aside into separate pots in my Monzo account to be able to buy things in my future life; like health insurance, pension, tax, accountant fee, book covers, and I put £1 into an ISA as my 'emergency fund' as well as paying into my Share Dealing ISA and my Share Dealing account. I've so far bought a couple of shares, and am now starting to get quarterly income into my account from those, not a lot, but still growth on my original investment, that I can then invest back into my account and into more shares. This will become my passive income stream for my pension longer term (alongside my pension plan). I'm 43 now and though I have no plans to ever retire, I'm aware that this will be important to have as I get older. 

I have downsized to the maximum I can to reduce my overheads, and am investing heavily in my new business, without taking any money out for myself, or wasting it on things that I don't need. I am living as frugally as I can. I eat homemade soup each day from reduced price veggies which costs me around £4 for a week for all my meals. I work long days at my computer, and sleep for around 4 or 5 hours a day.  At no point does it feel like a chore, it instead feels like a step closer to my dream home and lifestyle. It's a year of my life on hold, but the long term gain will be more than worth it, especially when compared to my monthly struggle of making rent on a house with damp walls and a leaky roof.

Mindset is definitely something that is shifting all the time with me, especially as I reflect on the past 180 days since starting my business. I've become more goal focused, I waste less time, and I don't tolerate others as much as I did.

It's very easy when living in a guesthouse, to procrastinate. To put off jobs because you are waiting to use the microwave or bathroom, or waiting to clean your room or change your sheets. It's also very easy to get the life, energy, and time sucked out of you by doing a quick nip to the toilet, only to get drawn into a conversation with another guest who is bored and killing time. Initially I felt rude, or would politely make small talk, but I soon realised it was detrimental when writing and getting yourself into the creative flow and voice of a character. As soon as I bumped into a guest in the hallway or dining area, I would come out of that flow and lose the voice or place I was in writing that story. I could easily lose a whole day that way. I've learnt to be more blinkered, to not switch on Facebook or Twitter or to check my emails when writing, and to try and time my pee breaks or breakfast at times when I know there is likely to be no one around. I'm not quite there yet, but I've clawed back hours of each day just by keeping myself to myself, including writing at night, often until about 4am because it is quiet then. It's the only way I'll ever be able to write my books and get my own home. Sometimes in my frustration I would start looking at houses to rent or buy, but I've learnt that this is another form of procrastination. That it doesn't get me anywhere other than feeling depressed. The only way I'm going to be able to move into a place, is if I focus on my writing. Simple as that.

I've started to use a free app on my phone called 'BeFocused'. I was struggling to get any sessions in with a 25 minute sprint setting, but have started to do 5 minute sprints on the timer for absolutely EVERYTHING I do in the day. I intersperse this with little physical exercises because I know that my health is deteriorating and I've gained a lot of weight with being inactive. I'd like to get 10,000 steps in per day really, but I don't enjoy walking here as much as I did in the Lake District, and this leads to me faffing around and sleeping in because I can't find the motivation to get started with a walk. There's a lot of glass on the streets here and that doesn't make for nice dog walks. I was beating myself up for not achieving my desired walks and number of steps each day, but I've decided to switch to just walking at the weekends, and do exercises between sprints during the week. 

Back when I lived in the Lake District, I could write 10,000 words a day and had a lovely structure, even with working a full time job. Because it was easy to get up at 5am, hike around the lake, have a quick lake dip, and then catch the bus home before going to work at 9am. Getting a structure has been tough. Even with it being summer and lighter earlier now. 

Another free tool I'm using recently is Habitica. It's a way to turn your habits into games, but I'm not so interested in the gamefy side. For me, it just helps to have a list of things to do each day, which I get the satisfaction of ticking off, and I like it when I get the psychological sound or noise of success - just like on the Be Focused app, Habitica is great for things like remembering to stay hydrated and for ticking off my 5 minute sprints because then I get a sense of reward when I'm on track.

The other change is that I'm no longer afraid to admit when things aren't working, or to mix things up a bit and experiment. Psychologically this would have felt like failure before. The old school world I was brought up in, was about sticking with things until the end, and putting up with them as part of life. You made your bed, now lie in it kind of attitude. I suspect that this change in my attitude is due to me now feeling like I'm a business woman. I'm a creative and an entrepreneur, I'm supposed to be a bit more ad hoc about things. One of those big decisions was to switch from Instafreebie to BookFunnel for giving away copies of my books to subscribers. I'd been unhappy with the attitude of Instafreebie's customer service and their lack of interest in stopping erotic romance authors from spamming my book collections.  I was paying Instafreebie each month for a service that was just making me irritable and draining hours from each day in removing romance books from my cozy mystery collections. It was taking away my time, energy, and money.  Switching to BookFunnel has been a Godsend, albeit a little frustrating at having to learn the set ups from scratch  and setting up 18 months of promos from the start again. But it's lovely to have a sense of respect and being treated seriously. I've also dropped one of my agents for film work and joined a new agent, which was incredibly refreshing to be treated professionally. And now, instead of long suffering through things that aren't working, I'm able to quickly and easily try something new for a bit, see if it works for me, and if not, then I drop it, no feelings of guilt. 

I loved Schedugram for scheduling Instagram posts, but it was pricey for where I am in my career and that money was instead invested in the SPF 101 course. So I cancelled my subscription and now only post once or twice a day on Instagram, whereas before I would schedule months ahead. I also decided to drop the Cozy Mystery Book Explorer page on Instagram, and at the start of May began daily blogging on my website again. That one little tweak alone, has increased my affiliate income on Amazon by a couple of cents each day, and saw my Pinterest view jump from 45k per month to over 100k. I'm also averaging $100 a month in affiliate income. In terms of the SPF 101 course, I'm not sure that I've learnt anything new so far since I'd watched their videos religiously over the last 18 months, but the course has come with a lot of discounts and offers, chance to be in a special Facebook group that I'm enjoying, and I now have a kind of Bible or manual full of resources that I can go to directly whenever I need to know something. So I'm still glad that I took the course, even though it is a huge investment each month compared to my income. Psychologically it was an important investment and step in terms of taking my career more seriously. 

I've learnt that being ruthless and picky is liberating, that I love having freedom. Previously I would have felt bad at having a negative experience with someone, but now I just see those things as destructive and dead wood. If I don't want to work with a client on fiverr, I don't. If someone complains that one of the 100 free books to download is no longer on promotion, days after I posted the promo, then instead of feeling like I should apologise, I now tell them that they are perfectly free to move along if they don't like me or what I have to offer. People seem to have a sense of entitlement unfortunately, they expect the world for free. I've come to realise that this energy is better spent on investing in the clients and readers I love working with, rather than feeling like I failed or let people down, or need to keep everyone happy. I've learnt to stop caring what other people think, and instead to keep focusing on moving forward and doing the best job I can do now. That has given me more energy and time to focus on the people that do matter within my community, people who will actually buy a service from me on Fiverr for their book, or people who actually read the books on offer and generally love the genre. I don't want to live in a world of negative people who just moan, so I'm not doing that now.  This has had a knock on effect on my social media channels oddly enough, and I feel incredibly lucky to have some really cool and creative people who inspire me, now following me. This is really lovely to wake up to each day and see a like or comment or follow from someone I aspire to be like. I've taken a step back from a lot of author groups too, where I felt there was too much negativity, complaining, or people asking silly questions instead of using Google or at least making an effort to learn. Those sites had started to get me down mentally and were no longer giving me any benefit. I would find that hours had passed by, or that I would quickly check my Facebook notifications and suddenly get caught up in some kind of drama that had no connection at all with the group's purpose as a support for writers. 

In the past 180 days I have made a lot of headway, I'm building strong foundations, but the heart of the business is still missing and is something I am going to focus everything on as I move forward. That is the writing. It is no good me building up a mailing list, spending money on advertising, or buying beautiful book covers, if I don't have the most basic and important thing in place - the writing. I've struggled with writing a lot since I started my business, but for ridiculous reasons. I am afraid of being successful, and I feel a huge sense of guilt at earning a living from something that I actually enjoy doing. Writing is the one thing I need to become a success, to get a forever home, and yet I struggle to start. It is purely psychological. I have a story, I have a plot, a title, a cover, a desk, time to write, and yet I still struggle to get started on the writing. It is the one component that will pretty much guarantee me success as a writer, it isn't rocket science - I just need to get the words onto paper!

It isn't going to be easy overcoming this mental hurdle, but I have made big steps towards overcoming this. I've started joining author Orna Ross for a meditation session online each morning to help quiet my distracted mind and get me into the creative flow. I've switched from 25 minute to 5 minute sprints on the Be Focused app and with Habatica. I've also decided not to try and fit a big walk in each day. The silly thing is, I have zero problem at all when it comes to doing work for clients and putting them first, and yet, if I only put in as much effort with my own writing as I did with their books, I would be winning. I need to treat myself as well as I treat my clients, no matter how less important I see my work to be. As a way of overcoming this, I've decided to set up a Patreon page where I give away my books for free to patrons who pay $1 a month to support my writing and weekly newsletter. That way, I am writing for real, actual, physical clients now, rather than for myself. I don't want to let them down and I made a promise to them that I will write them books. I currently have ten patrons and that feels great for writing now. Going forward I think that will help me to make the mental shift and to treat myself better. 

If I can get the words mastered on a daily basis, and start to get more books (products) onto the market and into the hands of my readers, then I will have a proper business, at which point I think things will quickly snowball and build momentum. All I have to do is write, every day. 

PLEASE NOTE: Whilst I do my best to make sure that all of the cozy mysteries included are free to download at time of writing, they do sometimes revert back to their regular price as the promo period ends. I have zero control over this, the authors themselves set the price promos, each author lives in a different time zone and even then, glitches with technology, etc can mean that the book is no longer on offer. Make sure that you double check the price before downloading. 

If you would like to support Free Book Friday, then why not become a patron for $1 a month, and in return I will send you every single book I ever release, BEFORE it gets published on Amazon. You'll also receive first dibs on any free audiobook codes, signed print book copies, and cozy mystery swag.

​Better still, you'll be able to download the ebook as an EPUB, MOBI, or PDF file - ideal for readers who don't have access to Kindle books or Amazon.

I usually sell my ebooks for $2.99-$4.99 each on Amazon so that's a huge saving on books, because you'll be getting up to 4 books a month for just $1! This is because the Patreon platform allows me to keep most of that $1, compared to Amazon where I might receive just 5p per book. This means I can earn more money per book (keeping costs low for readers) and since this helps towards the cost of book covers, editing, and purchase of ISBNs each book, you get higher quality books, and more frequently.   

In honour of National Eat What You Want Day on the 11th May, I thought I would put together a little collection of all you can eat cozy mystery books that you can download for free to help you celebrate the day. And yes, I did stupidly forget to include my own book and missed the cut-off date for submission to the collection, even though I was the one organising it. However, you can get my Dead on Doughnuts book, and all of my other books for free by supporting this blog and my Free Book Friday newsletter for $1 a month over on Patreon. Or read for free on Kindle Unlimited with the free trial, or download a sampler of the book from Bookfunnel here. I promise I will get more organised in the future!  

Never come across #nationaleatwhatyouwantday before? Well, this national day is all about treating yourself by giving in to those cravings - for one day only. Need some suggestions for things to eat, here's a list to start you off:

Or you could REALLY live a little and mix things up! What about having lunch for breakfast, or having your pudding before your mains! This national day is all about having a bit of fun, getting into the kitchen and cooking up something tasty with the kids, or going out to that place you walk past but have never been in before. 

It's been a bit of a drizzly weather kind of week here in the North East of Britain and with the weekend soon upon us, I figured it was time to create the all time list of British cozy mystery series that you can watch this weekend. Let me know your top ten favourites, and of course, if I've missed any off the list!