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Why I wrote 'The Watcher's Prey'


I've been working on the Twisted series of books for close to two decades. Yes, that's a long time and no that's not 'The Watcher's Prey'. Don't worry, I haven't lost my mind and forgotten what I'm talking about, I'm giving you backstory. I promise to keep it short.


I thought I was writing six stand alone books only to realise one day, at two in the morning mind you, and after putting more than a decade into them, that they are all interconnected. What that meant was unpacking them all, going back to the start and plotting the through lines across all six and essentially starting again. Excel was my friend at this point.


This was around 2020. Then in late 2022 I was accepted into the 2023 Faber Writing a Novel Program. I used the Faber program to focus on the first book in the Twisted series, Twisted Connections. After the program I focused on entering competitions and pitching agents. I'm not great at selling myself and even less so when it comes to my writing.


Come January 2025 I needed a break so I used the Dice Method to come up with a couple of story ideas. It was supposed to be a little tongue in cheek fun, not anything serious, but I had six weeks off work ahead of me and I started writing. By the time I went back to work in February I had a shitty hand written first draft. For the record, all my first drafts of anything are hand written, and usually shitty. I find something kicks into gear in my brain when I pick up my pen to write.


By April I had a version good enough to go out to Beta Readers and by August I had incorporated their feedback and started polishing and editing. In October I decided to make it my debut novel and self publish. That makes it sound so blase but it really wasn't that simple or stress free, just ask my husband and my kids. I was like a human metronome bouncing from 'I can do it' to 'what are you thinking'.


I say that I self-published to stop my adult kids from saying 'you first' every time I encouraged them to follow their dreams. But that's not strictly true either. I wanted that thrill of holding my book in my hand, NGL.


Between October 2025 and March 2026 I built a website, started a blog, and focused on building my brand (urgh I hate that) and social media presence (followed closely by this). Refer to point above about not being able to 'sell myself'.


Then on 7 March 2026, my dream became a reality.


I've never had a story come to me so quickly or easily, it just flowed. I remember catching up with one of the Faberino's (that's what we Faber 2023 Brisbane Alum call ourselves), while I was still in the first draft hand writing stage. I was telling her how I'd never had a story come to me like this before, and I wasn't, and still am not, bragging. Yes, that first draft was bad, plot holes everywhere, character arcs that didn't work, a terrible ending that fizzled and limped to the last page and then I topped it off with an epilogue that was longer than any of the other chapters. But if I'm honest the final product is not that far from where I started in terms of the concept and themes.


I remember the day I got my first proof copy and I proudly took it into work to my amazingly supportive colleagues. One of them read the back blurb and asked, 'If I find a mistake do you want to know?' Good lord, she hadn't even opened the first page. But there is was, and I was mortified because I'd been over the back blurb SOOOO many times, especially since I did the cover myself.


Yes, the typo has been fixed, as have the others that were pointed out by my wonderful ARC readers. Anna also now has consistent footwear throughout, yes there were some continuity issues too. It's not perfect, but I'm proud of it. I love the characters I've created and I think the story is compelling, and fast paced.


Now I'm focusing back on the Twisted series again and I have another stand alone project called 'Three Little Lies' but I'm pretty sure the title's going to change.


If you'd like to stay up to date on how I'm progressing with these projects, please remember to subscribe and thank you as always for your support.


If you'd like to check out 'The Watcher's Prey' here's the links below:






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