Deadly Desires was the book that let me finally believe I could be a full-time author. It's the third book in my DI Zoe Finch series, which was my first crime series, and three books in is the point at which a series seems to become viable.

I wrote the first three Zoe Finch books in the first half of 2020, when the world was turning to chaos on the one hand but also, with so many of us shut away at home, becoming oddly peaceful. I took advantage of the time at home to write. It was perfect timing for me, as in January 2020 (when we were still predicting that the new virus in China would turn out to be nothing) I'd decided to double down on my writing and publishing efforts and turn it into my full-time job.

At that time, my system was to finish writing the first draft of a manuscript at the time when the previous book in the series came out. I finished writing Deadly Desires in September 2020, which was when Deadly Choices was published.

The pre-order sales for Deadly Choices had been really strong, meaning it launched well, and pre-orders for Deadly Desires were also looking great. So I had a triple celebration: my 50th birthday and the publication of Deadly Choices along with the pre-order release of Deadly Desires. I celebrated with a book-themed birthday cake.

Writing Deadly Desires had proved to be a little more challenging than the first two books. By that time, my family were getting stir crazy and the boys wanted me to play board games with them every day instead of occupying themselves with schoolwork, reading and gaming while I wrote.

Which would have been fine, were it not for the fact that when not playing games (namely Settlers of Catan) with the rest of the family, my eldest son was spending his days practising online with his friends.

Every evening we would start a new game of Settlers of Catan... and he would thrash me.

I kept suggesting we played a game at which I (or his brother) had a chance of beating him, but every time, he insisted on Catan. If I wanted to win, he suggested I should practise too.

But I was a bit busy being a grown-up. Cooking and cleaning and home-schooling and doing my day job... and trying to write.

So, by August 2020, I was being roundly beaten at Catan at least once a day, I was up to my eyes in chores, and I was struggling to write.

And the world was starting to (temporarily) open up again, even if only a little bit. Which meant I could rent a flat for a few days and hide myself away to write.

Bliss.

So I left the boys with their dad for a few days, rented a flat in Bristol (far enough from Birmingham to feel like a trip, close enough to make the drive in one go without having to enter service stations), and headed off.

The owners of the flat were fully prepared for Covid-caution. I was sent instructions for contact-free access, provided with keys in a plastic bag, and the one person I did come into contact with was fully masked and gloved. I knew that nothing would be open so I took food with me, along with my laptop and lots of books, and I settled into my temporary writing retreat.

There was just one problem.

Why, oh why, do self-catering apartments never have desks, or at least comfortable chairs for working?

The flat was lovely, don't get me wrong. It overlooked the water by Castle Park, and I was able to watch the University of Bristol rowing team scull past every morning, as well as the people taking their daily exercise in the park opposite.

But the writing set-up...

The flat had a dining table with chairs. I'm sure the chairs were perfectly comfortable for eating, but for prolonged periods of writing? Not so much.

So I improvised some back support...

A towel to cushion the hard plastic seat, and a pillow as an attempt to provide some back support.

It wasn't perfect - it was a long way from perfect - but it sufficed. So I got down to writing.

And in my four days in Bristol, I managed to write 30,000 words. Which broke the back of the book, and gave me the momentum I needed to finish when I got back home, and meet the deadline for sending it to my editor.

Hurray for meeting deadlines!

So a month and a bit later, Deadly Choices was out, Deadly Desires was on pre-order, and thongs were looking good.

My goal was to be consistently selling enough books to make a full-time income by the end of the year, and I was feeling optimistic about that.

In November, Deadly Desires was published and at last I was making a living from my writing. Three books in a series shows readers that there's enough to get their teeth into, and that they're not just going to read one book and find that there are no more to follow. And it's the point at which many advertising platforms become profitable.

Which is why you'll very rarely see a serves of fewer than three books. Fantasy books, for example, often come in trilogies. Romance series often have six books. And crime series can have anything from six books to... well, to as many as readers want to read and the author wants to write, really.

In December 2020, when Deadly Desires had been out for a month and Deadly Terror was showing strong pre-order sales, I finally took the plunge.

I ditched my day job and went full-time with my writing. And I haven't looked back since.

So... to everyone who's read Deadly Desires and the rest of the Zoe Finch series, I'm truly grateful. And if you haven't tried this book yet... well, I hope you enjoy it.