Another Mother's Life (51 page)

A central theme in both books is making sure that life doesn’t pass you by when you aren’t looking. It’s easy to slip into a routine both personally and professionally and before you know it years and years have passed by and you’ve wasted the precious minutes of your life. I suppose I hope that, in some small way, I might encourage readers to reach out and grab life, to make things happen
that will bring them the joy they deserve instead of waiting for life to happen to them.

I am writing it at this very moment! It’s fantastic fun to be back with Sophie, Louis and the girls again, although they have one or two problems to face along the way. Sophie has to decide if she is really able to commit to Louis, particularly as she finds out more about his past.
The Accidental Family
should be finished in late 2008 and I expect it will be published next year.

My advice is to believe that you are just as clever and as capable as the next student and to treat dyslexia as a gift. Once you have overcome the technical problems associated with dyslexia then you come to realize that you are actually exceptionally lucky to be able to see the world in such a unique way. Dyslexic people tend to be exceptionally creative, imaginative, and adventurous and have a knack for solving problems and seeing around barriers. If you persist in learning to manage the condition and don’t give up, then the whole world is your oyster.

I am very strict about my schedule because of my daughter. It’s very important to me that I use the time she is at school effectively so that we can spend as much time together as possible when she
is at home. I am very lucky to have a job that fits around her hours so well—many mothers don’t have that option. As far as my creativity is concerned, my daughter inspires me probably more than anyone else I know. I write mainly for her, even though she is a good few years off of being able to read any of my books!

The next book coming out in the United States in spring 2009 is
Mommy By Mistake
, the story of Natalie Curzon, a busy and often capricious career woman who finds herself pregnant after a whirlwind affair in Venice. On leave from her glamorous job, Natalie has to forge a completely new life for herself—and her baby. Right now, I’m working on the next Sophie Mills novel, and also the sixth teen book featuring child star Ruby Parker. Also later in 2008 I will begin to write a series of supernatural thrillers that I’ve had planned for a long time for girls and boys, the first of which will be called
Welcome to Weirdsville
, which will be published in 2009.