So, how does it feel when dreams come true!

I just need to get this out of my system and then I'll go back to my normal calm self. At the moment I'm like a giddy teenager who just returned home from the best date of her life, but can't tell anyone around her about it because she snuck out to do it and her friends and family wouldn't approve of her crush.

Many, Many, okay not too many, say twenty-five years ago, I said to myself I wanted to write and publish a book before I died.

Life got busy, raising kids, then raising kids alone and trying to be everything they needed while at the same time keeping myself alive to do it with a few small health issues.

I was also too busy reading other people's books and thinking I could never do anything that awesome, doubting myself.

So, what changed? I really can't pinpoint one specific moment but my first accidental foray into the M/M genre, which I look at now as a life-changing and happy coincidence, was the starting point I think. My eyes were opened up to a whole new world and I've met some amazing people in the couple of years since.

How did it happen? I was reading a new series, Donya Lynne's All The King's Men, totally enraptured, one-click buying like crazy and not even checking blurbs. Book 2: Heart of the Warrior, I didn't even notice there were two men on the cover! As I read along I remember gasping as it became apparent that the story wasn't what I expected but it grabbed me and held me tight and I've never looked back.

I never knew the M/M book community even existed before this and my eyes were blasted wide open. I devoured so many and then one day I came across an Australian M/M author *gasp, they existed!* and picked up a free copy of what is still my favourite of her novels (Yes, I'm talking about you, Renae Kaye), Safe in His Arms. Hook-line-sinker. There's really nothing more I can say.

So how did this all lead to me publishing my own book? Well, I'm glad you asked, but all I can say is that during the Easter school holidays of 2015 I felt compelled to sit down and bang out a story that popped into my head. As soon as I hit the keyboard it was like a chasm opening and over that two week period Luke and Aiden's story poured out, followed by two others from a series that might see the light of day eventually. Looking back now they're rough, I cringe at the grammar and punctuation and can't believe I ever sent them off to a publisher like that, but they're still great stories, I think anyway, and I'll share them after a thorough polish one day.

I found the writing cathartic, freeing. I loved creating the characters and working them towards their happy ever after, weaving and sharing some of my favourite places, people and things into the story to make them mine. It became addictive and then the concept of I See You emerged and it just again poured out.

Why self-publish? Well, I'm still a beginner, always learning along the way, self-educated through Google and proofreading for others. I See You got rejected , I get why when I look back now at what I sent through. I can handle rejection, it's expected for an author, especially a total newb. What makes me think I can just waltz in and expect to have my stuff published off the street? I have to do my time, like everyone else. I know that. I respect that.

Simply, I wanted to get my story out there, move on and work on the next one. I'm not expecting to be the next big thing, there are so many out there way more talented. I just hope to find a few people that might read it and enjoy it, maybe want to see where the series will go. Appreciate my sense of humour, my love for sometimes cheesy and soppy characters and the glimpses of my life so far that I include in each one.

I think I'm pretty interesting, I think the story is interesting and sweet and I'd like to invite you along for the ride, see where it goes.

So, to answer the question: How does it feel when dreams come true? Bloody unreal. I'm bursting and so grateful to have had a few sales already through my friends on Twitter who won't gasp at the content, and my close friends throughout life who don't judge and just support me endlessly, no matter what I write. I shed a few tears this morning because the realisation of the dream was everything I imagined and more, thank you! xx