JANUARY

I begin the year with three main goals in mind:

1. Be a hermit.

2. To draft (and hand in) The Seventh Sister

3. To edit The Wellness Retreat (and The Seventh Sister)

I also have a quiet hope that I will repair my teetering burnout enough to develop a new book idea for one of my editors. A vague, but powerful idea has been niggling at me since 2019, but right now I only have shadows.

An unexpected guest arrives! An inexplicable fever, which creates a need for discovering new systems of work and rest. I am forced to learn and acknowledge that rest is not a reward, but a necessity. See how I am evolving?

I watch Nosferatu in the cinema and fall in love. And that idea niggling at me since 2019? It grows a little in tone and scope. There’s a person I am seeing in the swirling shadows, and I can sense her pain. Who is she? What’s her story? The answers elude me for the moment. I’m deliriously happy that Gothic horror and Gothic romance is having a moment again (despite what it infers about our collective psyche at the present time), since it’s a genre, tone, vibe and experience I am wholly and completely obsessed with. Pick up any of my novels and you’ll see it’s Gothic at its heart.

Other delights of the month include the big box of ARCs for The Thorns that hits my doorstep and a new habit of driving into the mountains to write from my car—a practice that will sustain me through the entire year. Much of The Seventh Sister is drafted here, on my phone and in my notebook, wrapped in blankets and sipping from a big thermos of hot tea while the sun sets into a complete and total abyss.

I am slightly derailed from my hermit plans by a fabulous author lunch with Georgia Bowers, Kat Ellis and Cynthia Murphy this month. I muchly enjoy it and then promptly scurry back to my hermit hole.

I receive news that my wellness suspense novel, The Wellness Retreat, is moving across to Hanover Square from Graydon due to the Harlequin Trade Publishing restructure (HTP consolidated its five imprints into three this month.) I’m delighted about this, since the disappearance of Graydon House by the end of 2025 will no longer gobble up my book. I no longer, however, have a definitive publication date, and have the unique situation where my current editor is editing me from her new position at MIRA while the marketing team at Graydon is absorbed into Hanover Square.

We live through a brief mass-exodus of our American pals over on Tiktok (wow, that seems like a long time ago), and Liechtenstein becomes the 37th country to legalise same-sex marriage (YAY YAY YAY!).

Towards the end of the month I begin to feel the faintest flicker of an urge for self-care, a sure sign that the burn-out danger zone is fading away. Hoorah, my hermitude is working!

• Favourite media of the month: Nosferatu and Agatha All Along

FEBRUARY

My friend, the intermittent fever, continues into February.

This month I read and blurb You Did Nothing Wrong by my friend, C.G Drews, and delight in every page. I decide to take a coaching class with Becca Syme, spurred on by my friend Susan Dennard who speaks to me very highly of her experience. I have become obsessed with success psychology, of finding ways to work with my brain instead of against it. I pull the trigger: the session is scheduled for March.

I receive a cover concept for The Wellness Retreat. I love it. I suggest one change—to the colour of the title. My legend of a mate Kat Ellis suggests one particular colour and it is perfection. I make the suggestion and my publisher loves it. We are a go!

Mr. B (Beloved Husband) puts up two floating shelves in my study. Now I have a more complete working space. I couldn’t be more delighted!

I continue to draft The Seventh Sister while simultaneously editing The Wellness Retreat. The overlapping deadlines along with the fever are a perfect excuse to make very heavy use of my planner. I take the Gallup Assessment, necessary for my call with Becca, and learn a lot about how I work. I talk to Sooz (Dennard) about it all and we discover we have very similar Gallup traits. So much about my brain is beginning to make sense to me. I lose myself in Becca’s free resources any chance I am not drafting, editing, or actively resting.

I watch the sunrise from the mountains for Valentines Day and am gifted a book by one of my favourite authors: Elena Ferrante. I have a mentoring call with an aspiring author, and she seems to leave the meeting feeling inspired and hopeful.

The Wellness Retreat is pushed from November 2025 to late 2026. With all the movement happening in HTP, this is for the best. I already received edit notes late, and with the overlapping deadlines, a 2026 release date will allow me (and the book) to breathe.

MARCH

I hear part of the audiobook for The Thorns for the first time, voiced by the incredibly talented Imogen Church. The audio is beautiful, but also… Can you be triggered by your own book? I guess so. This is not one of my novels I will be reading back over any time soon. I am incredibly happy this novel exists, and so very proud of myself for writing into the dark places—even more so since receiving numerous messages from people who feel seen and heard—but I will need to do more shadow work before I can enter that story again. I remind readers on my socials that they need to check trigger warnings for this book and confess to a secret hope that no one will read it. Ah, the delights of authorhood. Bleed onto pages and hope people see. (I joke, I joke. Not every book is like this).

I receive interest from a foreign publisher on a backlist title and forward the interest to my agent. I wonder if anything will come from it. I continue to draft The Seventh Sister and my friendly intermittent fever persists.

I am stunned when The Thorns becomes a Number 1 bestseller on Amazon in the Psychological Suspense category. An orange banner! Hoorah! The novel isn’t even out yet, which means people are pre-ordering. I am delighted and terrified and mesmerised when the bestseller status persists. Time to face some shadows. My mother, who is the best human ever, sends me a tiny succulent in a pot to celebrate (over the next year the succulent will grow wildly and produce a flower!).

I’m given new overlapping deadlines on The Seventh Sister and The Wellness Retreat. The deadline periods for The Seventh Sister are intense. Three weeks for a developmental edit (lengthened to four at my request), a week’s break, then two weeks for a second edit, less than a week’s break, then four days for the final edit. Yikes! The edit schedule for The Thorns was much the same, but that book had already been written when it sold. I manage the pace well, however, because The Seventh Sister is a joy of a novel. She flows well, I understand her inherently at a cellular level—she is a “good” child. I continue to draft her in the mountains, watching the mist rolling in.

The fevers are back, but at this point I shrug it off. There are books to write and deadlines to meet. What else can I do?

At the end of the month, I have my coaching call with Becca and I learn something vital about myself as well as strategies to use it to my benefit. I continue to study success psychology in the quiet moments, of which there are few. I am learning my brain, my systems, and streamlining my creative process.

• Best Media of the Month: Heretic.

APRIL

The Thorns is published and is a number 1 bestseller in the Psychological Suspense Category again—and again, it persists! It remains there for a good little while. I am taken aback and delighted. I am taken to a fancy afternoon tea to celebrate the day.

The fever continues, but hey, that’s just life at this point. My doctors can’t find anything wrong outside of some deranged blood results, but they don’t seem concerned. (I should note for any transplant recipients reading: if you have a fever, it is a medical emergency for you. Please contact your transplant team and make sure you’re not in organ rejection).

I decide to try out the Visible Arm band after chatting to my pal Lucy Rose. She speaks highly of the system, and goodness knows I could use some help—or even just some understanding of my body. I pull the trigger and learn how to better pace myself. I have fewer spoons than I realised. Adjustments must be made.

During a writing session in the mountains, I find a tiny tick embedded in my stomach. Cue: horror. Could this explain the fevers? The idea that I’ve had a tick on my body since the fevers began in January is grotesque, and I quickly dismiss it. Not only would Mr. B have definitely noticed—as would I during my daily injections—but it is also minuscule and empty (have you seen a flat, hungry tick? It’s weird). This is a new passenger. It comes off fairly easily, but I am grossed out and that particular writing session isn’t the most focussed.

Work on The Seventh Sister continues, hindered a little by the fever, but I persist. I manage several 7K drafting sessions and I am so in love with this novel. I am intoxicated. In my imagination, this book smells like loam.

A blip hits in the middle of the month when one of my two cats, Fawny, needs vet care. We discover her liver is poorly. I take her in because I am concerned about recent weight loss and a change to the quality of her fur. It is only when the vet checks her eyes that we discover the neon yellow sclera. I am upset, but hide it for her sake, because that I know exactly how this feels. My poor baba! Fawny remains an in-patient on IV treatment for a week. I am stressed and crying—I don’t know what will happen. I balance my writing between vet visits and managing my own persistent fever.

A second chronic illness flares later in the month and I’m in a lot of pain—but I need to meet this deadline, so I write through it.

Fawny comes home, and all is well!

MAY

When the contents of a haunted estate I am obsessed with go up for sale, I impulsively place a bid on a few items. I win a lot at auction! The lot includes a small writing desk, a woven wicker basket, a gothic Gustav Becker wall clock, a dome swing topped table-top mirror, and a treen tray. I am delighted to have a part of this historic home. The 2019 idea feels a whole lot closer.

I’m asked to read and blurb Hollow by Celina Myers. It makes me nostalgic for the Vampire Diaries and that 2008-2009 Supernatural Romance feeling that was in the air.

The fever persists.

• Best Media of the month: The Last Voyage of the Demeter

JUNE

In June I receive Portuguese copies of The Madness. I make very few notes in my diary, so the month partly feels like an abyss… I know, however, that the only times I forgo diarising is when I am very busy or too sick. Folk horror is having a moment, and I quietly rejoice. It’s a genre, along with my beloved Gothic, that I very much adore. Folk Horror Summer begins trending in the bookish community. I quietly hope that The Seventh Sister is received warmly when the time comes.

I finish the next draft of The Wellness Retreat and hand it in.

JULY

I dye my hair a different colour for the first time in 13 years. It’s strange seeing myself closer to my natural colour than I have in more than a decade, but I’m glad to be rid of the copper—at least for a little while.

I attend a spa day with my good friend Kat Ellis. We have much to celebrate: The newest completion of The Wellness Retreat and some secret news Kat recently received. It is a glorious day of pampering, rest, and a delicious lunch.

… and I promptly get an infection.

A bad one. I am sent to A&E and admitted. I am contacted by the Environmental Health Department to go over everything I have touched, eaten and been in contact with. The most likely culprit is the spa, since I have not done anything else or been anywhere else apart from an axe-throwing and archery experience I gifted Mr. B for his birthday, where I mostly sat on my walker the whole time and didn’t eat anything. I am sent a letter titled “we received notice you were poisoned. This is what you need to do”. Since I’ve already done it all over the phone, I file the letter away.

I’m on a tight deadline with edits for The Wellness Retreat while in hospital getting IV treatment. At least my fevers will be looked at now, I guess? In the moment, it isn’t lost on me how entirely hilarious it is to be editing a novel about a wellness spa while in hospital because of an infection I got at a wellness spa.

AUGUST

I grow my first strawberries from seed, and I am ridiculously proud.

Italian editions of The Madness arrive at my house. Casa Editrice Nord have done a spectacular job. I begin getting lovely messages from numerous Italian readers. In a funny bout of serendipity, Mr. B decided to learn Italian in 2023 (he is one of those people who is good at everything and was conversing with locals within months of beginning to learn the language). He helps translate the messages for me. Maybe I ought to learn Italian..?

I draw a map of Beltane Island for the interior of The Seventh Sister. A map I drew is going to be published..??

SEPTEMBER

September is a month punctuated by a series of absolutely stunning sunsets and various rainbows. I find a new mountain to drive up and spend a great deal of time seeking peace, trying to regulate my nervous system after the chaos of the year thus far.

I commission two very talented artists to create artwork for The Seventh Sister. Two of three pieces have been delivered by December, and I am deliriously happy. I, like everyone else, become mildly obsessed with the turtle rabbit dance and find myself humming the melody at all hours. I do not attempt to do it, but delight in those who do.

I receive my dream writing chair! I can now write for hours without pain and without exhaustion. She is so beautiful, too—a lovely forest green that doesn’t quite translate on camera.

The Madness is published in Italian, and I send my agent a pitch for the project I began dreaming up in 2019. It is fully fleshed out now and feels real. My agent loves the pitch and wants to chat. We have a deadline.

I survive the planner season rush and acquire my 2026 Hobonichi cousin. I even get myself a limited edition Tomie pencil board, though the Tomie cover is sold out within seconds and I miss it. I am queuing to pay for 12 full minutes. If you’re a planner person, you know.

I see cover concepts for The Seventh Sister. My agent and I don’t love them. None of them feel like the book. New cover concepts will be drawn up for us soon. I should note here that I was asked for cover image inspiration, Pinterest inspiration boards, comp titles, etc. Authors aren’t always given much input, if any, into their covers. I have been very lucky in the past with the level of consultation I have been afforded. I’m excited to see what new directions my publisher comes up with.

The map I drew for The Seventh Sister is sent back to me with minor changes. We discuss them and my editor agrees that they take away the child-like organic feel of my version and don’t make significant enhancements. We revert to my original version. A map I drew really is going to be published in my book???

OCTOBER

I receive my dream mask to promote The Seventh Sister. This one is making my twelve-year old self scream-sob with unadulterated joy. She can’t believe that this is her life! I should note that I use the word “obsessed” a lot, and that’s because I am a highly excitable, intense person with many weird hyper focusses and interests.

We receive the final cover for The Seventh Sister. This one fits the novel much better! I reveal it online and my heart is warmed by the response. Blurbs from authors I admire and respect start rolling in. This is feeling very real now.

Finished copies of the Italian edition of The Madness arrive at my house and I have a little photoshoot. I realise that my fever friend has not been back since I left hospital and rejoice.

NOVEMBER

I get a year older, and develop my second pitch for 2025. This one is a bonkers concept and one I know I would do well. My agent loves it too—hoorah! I’ll now be drafting two books next year, possibly at the same time, hahahaha..?

I am also distracted by an older project that has been tugging at my grey matter again. Why am I like this? I make notes and put it aside. Just for now. Just for now…

I draw a rough sketch of the island setting for The Wellness Retreat and hand it into my editor so the art department can turn it into a real map that will live inside the book. I am SO excited to see it. Despite having drawn a map for The Seventh Sister, there isn’t enough time for me to do so here—also, I very much lack the skill level needed for this particular one. I truly do draw like a thirteen-year-old child.

I have very minor surgery on my leg and get tired of the sight of my own blood. However, watching part of you be cut off your body is quite a sight. A trainee doctor in the room during the surgery comments that I am brave for watching (I secretly think this is a euphemism for morbid). The nurse brushes her off with an “Oh, she’s a horror author”, much to my amusement and secret delight. I am now the owner of a new scar.

DECEMBER

I begin drafting the 2019 idea, very much inspired by the presence of the (probably haunted) writing desk in my home. Can it be that I didn’t know what this novel would be in January, and now here I am writing it?? I set up my new Hobonichi planner and complete copyedits for The Wellness Retreat, as well as my author’s note and acknowledgments. We are getting closer now!

I inch out of hermit mode to attend a wonderful author Christmas lunch with Holly Race, Kate Corr, Natasha Bowen, Ava Eldred, Julia Tuffs, Tina Orr Munro, Anna Bell, Clare Harlow, Kat Ellis, and Gill Perdue. It is a stonkingly good time.

I end the year feeling grateful for every experience in 2025, even the challenging ones. I acknowledge the complex feelings I have in general about the year but also realise that this was a year of necessary healing and growth. A year of shadow-work, formation of new and efficient systems, and a year of learning about me. One absolute win has been learning about my way of thinking in particular, and I highly recommend studying the way you think about thinking, creating your art, and life in general. Meta-cognition can lead to the streamlining and reduction of pain points in real time.

Looking Ahead: 2026

2026 brings with it two, possibly three, exciting new projects, two book releases—The Seventh Sister in April, and The Wellness Retreat in September—and many more adventures ahead.

Here’s where I tell you that if you like feral folk horrors about girls creating gods from the soil, you can pre-order your copy of The Seventh Sister already. And if you love Scottish island wellness gothic suspense novels with brooding Scottish men and chronic illness rep, you can pre-order The Wellness Retreat too.

I hope that your 2025 was magical, but that 2026 is even brighter. Bring on the year of the Horse!

____

Hi, I’m Dawn. I’m a full-time author of gothic, psychological, and suspense novels, published internationally and across multiple imprints. I write about work, creativity, illness, Horror, and the weird and wonderful world of and making art.