 I'm pinching myself here as I share a very special moment. I've just heard that we've sold more than 250,000 copies of I Am Watching You in less than 6 months. This is simply HUGE for me; something I never expected to happen. Regulars to my blog will know that it took me ten years to get my first book deal. Before that, I wrote four novels that were 'near misses' with publishers; a long and often tricky apprenticeship before I finally got 'the call'. I then published two women's fiction titles that sold in six languages. But it wasn't until I published this first psychological suspense novel that things took off in a way I could never have foreseen. When I wrote I Am Watching You, I did the same thing I do every time I sit at my writing desk; I simply wrote the best book I could. Did I know it would become this big bestseller? No, I didn't. I hoped, of course. I dreamed. But it still feels surreal to me that all this has happened. So I need to share what a privilege this feels when all the stars align; and to repeat my thanks to my publisher Thomas & Mercer, to my agent Madeleine Milburn and to all the wonderful readers who have bought the book, reviewed it...and so kindly recommended it to others. This simply would not have happened without you.  The other special thing going on right now is...globetrotting! We have sold I Am Watching You for translation to seven countries so far and it's just making an appearance in Italian bookshops right now. Some kind bloggers and readers have been sharing photographs of my novel 'in the wild' and this makes me more excited and proud than you can imagine. So if you spot my book over the coming weeks and months anywhere in the world, do please tag me in your photographs on social media. It makes those ten long and difficult years of rejection all worthwhile.   The first reviews are coming in for my second psychological thriller THE FRIEND and I mean it when I tell you - this never gets old! This is my fourth published book - my second in this new genre - and I should be getting used to this. But the truth? I learn that the excitement and the nerves, launching a new book into the world, simply never change. It just feels such a huge privilege to have people reading your work. So my thanks again to the many, many readers who have been kind enough to get in touch with feedback on my debut thriller I AM WATCHING YOU. It means so much to hear from you - and I really hope you will like the second book too. (THE FRIEND is out on March 22 but is going out to bloggers and reviewers right now - hence the excitement of early feedback!)  Meantime, I have bubbles on standby (for the end of dry January!) to toast so much great news in my writing life. Followers on social media may already know that sales of I AM WATCHING YOU have now passed 200,000 and my fabulous publisher Thomas & Mercer has now signed me for two more psychological thrillers. I could not be more excited about this and huge thanks go to my agent Madeleine Milburn and her team and to my editor Jack Butler and the whole fabulous gang at Thomas & Mercer. I feel one very lucky writer just now. So here's wishing you a wonderful weekend and all good things in your own writing and reading world. Turns out, dreams do come true...  TV and radio interviews, talks and literary festivals! It's a lot of fun suddenly having a bestseller - so here's a slideshow of recent highlights with thanks to my wonderful publisher Thomas & Mercer, my supersonic agent Madeleine Milburn and her team, my family and friends and all my fabulous readers. Feeling very blessed right now!  Wow, what a busy time! Just a quick note to share the cover of my second psychological suspense. Do hope you like the design as much as I do. Have been longing to show this one off as I love the colours. It's out in March 2018 but is available for pre-order now. We're sharing this week as lots of lovely readers who've enjoyed I Am Watching You have been in touch asking about the next book.
 OK; deep breath, Teresa. I write this blog while there is still adrenaline pumping through my system from the most incredible rollercoaster in my writing career. I want to tell you about it absolutely honestly while it is all fresh and crazy still...but hopefully without sounding like this is just self-promotion blah blah. Check out my previous blog and you will see that a blink ago, I was desperately nervous about how my debut psychological suspense would be received. (Genuine angst, I promise you; authors always worry how a new book will be received - especially in a new genre.) Now? I have seen that book hit number ONE on Kindle in the U.K., USA and Australia with fabulous reviews flooding in (thank you, readers)...and I still can't take it in. As I write, it's still number ONE, day six in the UK, with hundreds of 5-stars worldwide already. Quite simply surreal. As I say in the headline; all my dreams suddenly coming true. So for grounding and encouragement to others, I have deliberately posted my 'tall story' picture of where it all began for me -manuscripts which I wrote, revised and sent out over ten long years before I got my first deal! Yes; I really did start all this before agents were accepting email submissions!! It cost me a fiver every time I updated a script and sent it out again. I share this picture because my mantra through that very difficult decade was always to just 'keep going' and I really want to repeat that now to anyone who is struggling with rejection. I had a lot of near misses with my early attempts. I made it to several acquisition meetings...but time after time I fell at that final hurdle. I have always written in two genres - emotional women's fiction and psychological suspense - and at first this was a problem. Some editors said...go darker. Others said no...go warmer. (I even made the mistake at one point of writing one book which combined both genres; you should have seen the finger wagging!) In the end I separated my two voices and managed to get book deals for both genres. First my women's fiction sold in six languages. That went brilliantly and my second book made it to #111 in the Kindle chart. So then I set myself a new goal. To somehow make it onto the bestseller listings. And now in my new genre of psych suspense....well; as you see - it's going OK!!! So the lesson I want to share? Keep the faith. Believe in yourself but be prepared to work hard to get better and better. No writing is ever wasted. The 'Apprenticeship' pays off. Find your unique voice...make it strong and use it well. Learn how to pitch. Be open to editing. (All my books have been strengthened thanks to working with terrific editors.) Most important? Let yourself mourn each rejection but then pick yourself up and get back to that keyboard. I remember vividly sitting on the floor crying when an early book so nearly sold to a major publisher, then I got the dreaded call....to say 'not quite'. In short, just keep going, lovely people. Care. Dare. Do it for yourself, do it for the dream but, above all, do it for the love of the words on the page....   I have just had a very funny car ride conversation with the husband which any other author will definitely understand. He’s lovely, my husband, very proud of me and super excited about my first psych thriller I AM WATCHING YOU which is released very soon. Me? I’m ridiculously nervous to the point of embarrassment… Don’t get me wrong. I’m also excited and very proud of this book, too. My publisher, agent, editors and early readers have all loved it, but there is something weird in the psyche of the writer just before a new book is launched which turns us into mad people who suddenly panic at the thought of so many people reading our work… ‘But that’s why you write,’ my husband protests in the car – his expression all bafflement. ‘So that people will read your books.’ I know, I know. And I realise I sound insane; it’s a privilege and a joy to be an author. I worked for years and years to get here and I love it more than I can possibly say. So why the bonkers self-doubt and the (maybe just a little bit irritating?) attack of eleventh-hour nerves? I don’t know! I can only liken it to stage fright. The actor or actress loves what they do; they want to walk on stage and wow the world. They want to get better and better at their craft so that they win the next role…and the one after that, too. But they also get this uncontrollable surge of adrenalin and giant butterflies deep in their stomach just before they step out on stage. That’s where I’m at, lovely people…in the land of the giant butterflies! So if you happen to read and enjoy my new book, I will seriously love you forever if you will be kind enough to leave a review to steady my nerves. And if you are a new writer, wondering if it is normal to worry if your work will hit the spot? Please know that – yes; last-minute nerves and bonkers behaviour is entirely normal. It doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong with the book or with you, apparently. It’s just something that happens. Every… single… time, alas. Wish me luck!   Verdict on the Harrogate crime festival? Guilty…(of rather too much fun!) OK, I admit it, m’lord. I ate carbs. I drank fizz and wine and Pimms. I shamelessly fangirled authors I really admire – Ian Rankin and Rowan Coleman, I’m talking about you – and I had, in short… the time of my life. I seriously can’t believe I was so nervous about attending my first Harrogate Crime Festival (see earlier blog for typical author paranoia). Everyone had told me that I would love it but this is a new genre for me, so I was genuinely nervous. But the wobbles? Well, they didn’t last long, folks. For, isn’t fate a funny ol' thing… I arrived, just a little over-awed, drinking coffee on my tod in one of the tents when I struck up a lovely conversation with another Harrogate newbie. We had such a warm and wonderful chat that all my nerves disappeared. Poof. Gone. And how about this for serendipity?! I confessed that getting a picture with the lovely Ian Rankin was on my wishlist. I had booked to attend his talk and Q&A session but confided I would probably be way too shy to approach him when she smiled and said she happened to know he wouldn't mind at all... Fast forward and once the lovely Ian had finished his talk and dealt with his LONG book-signing queue, I managed to get this super picture. Just goes to show that you really never know how things will turn out… I also had gorgeous fellow authors and Harrogate regulars Caroline Mitchell and Mel Sherratt to show me around. Thanks so much, lovely ladies! There was Pimms with my agent, dinner with my new publisher Thomas and Mercer. Lots of writer chat with all manner of authors - oh and lots of sunshine, too, despite the iffy forecast. Along the way I also remembered to mention my new book I Am Watching You to a few people. And, of course, I went to Betty’s famous tea rooms. Er, twice. Agency drinks with the fab Madeleine Milburn team... Hello Rowan Coleman!  I am staring at a pile of clothes alongside a suitcase, worrying that I am a fraud.
I wonder if this ever stops as a writer; this feeling that you are going to be found out. That the book deals and the foreign rights and all the lovely things readers say about your writing are suddenly going to disappear and you will wake up to find Bobby Ewing in the shower… Repeat after me, Teresa. You are a writer of psychological suspense. A fab two-book deal with Thomas and Mercer says that you are. A lovely Greek publisher has just bought the first foreign rights (before the debut’s even out!) so they clearly think you are, too. So – why the wobble? Part of the issue here is I write in two genres. I’ve already published two literary women’s books – sold in six languages – but my debut psychological suspense I AM WATCHING YOU is out on Oct 1. I am packing to attend the Harrogate Crime Festival for the first time, so I am suddenly suffering newbie paranoia - panicking that I won't fit in; that I don't know many people and (don't laugh) that I don’t read enough crime… But hang on. A quick check on my kindle and my bookshelves. OK, I do read a lot of psychological crime, actually. Stacks, come to think of it. ( Gawd….you don’t want to know how much I spend on books!!) But the point is I don’t read crime exclusively which I hope won't make me a Harrogate lightweight. And I love all sorts of crime and thrillers, commercial and literary – from the popular big names to the edgy. On my shelves The Girl on the Train, The Widow, Appletree Yard and I let you Go sit very happily alongside The Dinner (Herman Koch…do read it) and Engleby (favourite book) and This is How and His Bloody Project (wonderful!) etc etc… I gave a talk recently about my new book at a literary event – explaining that I have found it entirely natural and not at all odd to write in two genres as an author, just as I did as a TV news presenter and journalist for decades. Bad things happening to good people….sometimes natural disaster. Sometimes crime. Across both genres - both as a writer and a reader - I am always mostly interested in the people. The ripples. The impact. Never knowing quite how people will react; who will be strong and courageous and who will surprise you. So deep breath, Teresa, and back to the packing. It may rain which is now worrying me. I was banking on pretty T shirts. Now? Not so sure… The truth is I am as nervous as I am super excited – so if you are a Harrogate Crime Festival regular and you spy me wandering about, spotting celebrities and wondering if I dare ask for a selfie, please say hello. (Val McDermid, Clare Mackintosh and Ian Rankin, be warned...I may stalk.) I’m new. I’m buzzing and in awe and feeling very, very lucky to be here… Bobby Ewing, be damned. Turns out I am a crime writer. A bit nervous, sure, but loud and proud and absolutely loving it so far!  I have been so thrilled with the reaction to the cover of my new psychological suspense so I thought I'd jot a few notes on how we got here. Title and design-wise, I mean. When I wrote the first draft of this novel, it had a different working title. It wasn't quite right and I knew that from the off. I was thrilled when my literary agent's first reaction to the book was 'Wow!' but not at all surprised that she added....'but it will need a new title, Teresa'! No pressure then... Titles and covers are so very important to the success of a book so while I did some revisions ahead of submission, I played with various title options and it was at the eleventh hour that I suddenly came up with this one. It fits the book perfectly so I was delighted when not only my agency loved it but my new publisher (Thomas and Mercer) did too. Next big hurdle....the cover. It is always an exciting but also tense moment when you are sent the cover of your book for feedback. You want to love it but there is this little frisson of fear too. What if you don't?! So I cannot begin to tell you how relieved and delighted I was to click on the file and see THIS absolute beauty. It not only reflects the story so well but uses the title very cleverly indeed. The designer played for a while with the hues and shadows until everyone felt it was absolutely spot on. I couldn't be more thrilled with it and am very grateful to all the bloggers, readers and friends for all the lovely comments and shares this week. I've now finished the editing process on this manuscript so cannot wait for it to go out into the world. It's published on October 1 but is available to pre-order now in e-book, paperback and audio versions. Just click on the image to find out more about the story..   I am embarrassed to see how long it has been since my last blog but I hope you will forgive me as I explain how crazy busy my writing life has been of late.
Turns out the life of an author under contract is a hectic one…and I’m making no complaint about that. I'm loving it! That said, it has been pretty full on keeping on top of all my deadlines so here’s a quick recap of all I’ve been up to. The main challenge in recent months has been editing my debut psychological suspense I Am Watching You while also working on the first draft of my second psych suspense as I needed to get the latter in by the end of May. Juggling work on two books at the same time is probably the biggest shock to a new author under contract but I’m getting the hang of it finally. The good news is the proof read of I am Watching You is pretty much done and dusted. I’m SO proud of this new book and I should be able to share the cover very soon. Exciting! I have also now had terrific feedback on the second book in the deal (phew…always scary to hand in a new book) and have this weekend started editing that second psych suspense…so here we go again, folks! Meantime I have just accepted an invitation to give a talk and Q&A session at Plymouth Central Library to launch I am Watching You. The book is out on October 1 (ebook, paperback and audio) but we have decided to stage the event on Wednesday October 11th at 7pm to tie in with Libraries Week. Regular blog readers will know I am a big supporter of our wonderful local libraries. I have had so much fun staging writer workshops at libraries around Devon but this is my first event in conjunction with Plymouth Libraries so I am really looking forward to it. Do pop the date in your diary. I understand the event will be free so I’ll post a link on how to reserve tickets as soon as that’s available Meantime enjoy your own writing and watch this space. Cover reveal for my new book coming very soon!!!
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AuthorTeresa Driscoll - journalist, author, mother of two and lover of great coffee. 
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September 2019
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