As I did not receive an offer of publication from a mainstream publisher for Part I of Bron, though some positive comments accompanied rejection letters, I decided to self publish. At my age, I could not afford to wait around. In earlier days, it was considered good practice to send an MS out to one agent or publisher at a time, and some of them took seven months to reply, if they replied at all. Nowadays, with the email facility, it is acceptable to send to several agents at a time, as long as you let them know that is what you are doing. I have continued to self publish, pleased that readers are enjoying my novels and keep asking for more.

First, though, I have paid to have all my manuscripts critiqued by various editors. It is always advisable to have another, objective, pair of eyes look over your work before publication.

Always remember, the work is yours and you can do with it what you like. You can take notice of criticism or ignore it all together.

I remember receiving seven A4 pages of criticism from one editor. I hid it in a drawer then went back to it, more calmly, a day or so later. A writer has to realise that this is only one person’s view. I soon discovered that there are three ways of dealing with criticism: 1. Yes, I had a gut feeling about this and have to agree with her and will alter it. 2. I’m not sure about this point and will think about it and alter it if I come to the conclusion that she is right. 3. She has not understood this at all and is quite wrong so I will stick to my guns.

Regretfully, the publishers of my five Bron books, Pen Press, went out of business and the novels were taken over by Author Essentials, who published Flash Black. I did not realise that this was a one-woman set-up and, when she sadly died a few months later, her company also ceased business.

Consequently, Amazon have some of the books listed as "unavailable". However, I have a stock of them at home and can supply any reader, charging the cost of the book plus £3. postage. Just get in touch – my details are available through the 'Contact Me' banner.

As I paid for help to publish Hunterswick Green through CreateSpace (if you are cleverer than me, you can do this yourself at very little cost), this is readily available by print or Kindle from Amazon.

New Generation Publishing have published my latest novels, My Lady Marian and Dancing at D'Avencourt, at a sixth of the cost I paid my first publishers.