After publishing my debut novel, Worlds Away, last month, I have been overwhelmed by the support and encouragement I’ve received, from friends and strangers in equal measure. One question, though, is always the same. “When are you writing the next one?”

Surprisingly, that’s a tough one to answer. I have made no secret that Worlds Away is the first in a trilogy, a trilogy that I have already planned  (on a spreadsheet, no less) and have even, cautiously, penned an ending for. I love the characters, and I want to write it.

The problem, though, is that I’ve also had another idea, an idea which is niggling and biting at my subconscious each day, and I therefore feel like I’m cheating on my first love.

When writing Worlds Away, there is no question that I partially inhabited that world. I would be jogging, pushing the pram, cooking tea, whatever, and something about Kolwick or Oscar 70 would occur to me and be the most important thing. I’d have to write it down with a genuine degree of urgency, before carrying on with my day.

Unfortunately, I’m not a full-time writer, so I feel like I can only commit to one project at once.

So what to do? Which world should I inhabit? Will it be the already ongoing project that readers are actually asking for, or my new, exciting, secret love?

It seems that it’ll just have to be both of them.

So long, reality.

Inhabit