Today I am sharing a guest post as a part of the blog tour for The Way We Are Now by Julie Houston.  She shares about writing and her ‘writing mates’, a group of women who support each other in their writings. They even go on trips together!  It’s not just for fun, they work too!  The Way We Are Now was just released on September 11th.

Book Description:

BRAND NEW from bestselling author Julie Houston comes a powerful story of first love, long-hidden secrets and second chances. Perfect for fans of Jojo Moyes, Marian Keyes, David Nichols and Ruth Jones.

First love, long-hidden secrets and second chances.

Anna Piasecki thought she had left her university heartbreak behind. After spending decades building a successful life, she arrives at sixty with everything as she wants it – a glittering career, a devoted partner and brightest star of all, her brilliant son Noah, the apple of her eye.

Theo Mandeville is trapped. Bound by aristocratic duty to his sprawling Yorkshire estate, he has spent decades living the life that was expected of him while regretting the star-crossed romance he walked away from.

When their children meet at college, Anna and Theo suddenly find their carefully constructed lives colliding. With a devastating forty-year-old secret hanging over them, can their families survive the truth and do they dare to trust that fate has other plans for them?

Spanning decades, The Way We Are Now is a sweeping, heartwarming and life-affirming tale of first love, friendship and second chances perfect for fans of Jojo Moyes, Marian Keyes, David Nichols and Ruth Jones.

Buy Your Copy Here.

Ask any writer and they will more than likely tell you writing can be a lonely business. No stopping to chat at a colleague’s desk or at the water cooler, no sharing gossip and your packet of crisps at lunchtime. You’re on your own, tied to a lap-top or desk top for – if you’re on a deadline – anything up to twelve hours a day, sobbing and on the point of  breakdown if things are not progressing, desperate to preen, show off and share if it’s been a good one .

So, that’s where writing mates come in. I am incredibly lucky to be part of a group of six wonderful and supportive women writers. Two of us first met at a Romantic Novelist Association conference sixteen years ago. Oh, how time flies! We were conference virgins, unagented, unpublished  but with stories we desperately wanted to tell. A year later we were joined by another. For a while we were just a threesome, meeting up for walks and writerly rants, sympathising when times were bad, but rejoicing in each other’s successes.

To misquote The Spice Girls, three became six. We mooted the idea of a writing weekend away and, over the years, this has morphed into a Wordy Away Week now twice a year. One of us is wonderfully organised – one of us has to be – and plans each retreat in different parts of the UK with the acumen of a seasoned travel agent.

We’re not just on holiday! We’re there to work. Once we’ve allocated rooms, (previous best room recipient is now down at the bottom of the list) unloaded the supermarket delivery ( there does often appear to be a surfeit of wine and cake) we’re immediately in our rooms and back into our WIP. There’s something very comforting about knowing five other writers are beavering away (or not!) just a few metres away.

Six pm is usually writing cut-off time: words are saved and laptops closed, with the unwritten rule that work is over for the day. There’s a welcome drink – or two – and nibbles to accompany the catch up of what’s been going on in our lives since last meeting. We all have grown up families (a couple of us lucky enough to even have grandchildren now) and we celebrate, as well as sometimes commiserate, our writing and personal journeys since our last meeting. Books have been published, awards have been won, foreign rites sold and – for one of us – queues have gone round the block in various European countries for  books to be signed.

Sixteen years on and we all have agents and have published thousands of books. We have had our successes: Comedy Women in Print Runner up, Winner of The  Popular Romantic Fiction Award,  Winner of The Festive Holiday Romantic Novel Award, A Christmas novel turned into a film, and it’s been a joy as well as encouraging to share these successes with each other.

Earlier this year, five of us met up to speak as a group at a literary festival, four of us speaking, one of us as master of ceremonies holding the whole thing together: “Four bestselling women writers talk all things novel writing. From mid-life wives to midwives, Christmas crackers to beach reads, a Yorkshire village to Berlin zoo – they cover it all!”

We talked about the publishing industry and how it’s changed over the sixteen years we’ve been together as novelists, and as members of this great support group. We now have the challenge of AI as well as a seemingly saturated market. At times, much as we are committed to this often-bizarre career of novelist, and feel utterly privileged to do something we love so much for an actual living, it’s wonderful to know there’s support  at the end of a phone and through our WhatsApp group.

About the Author:

Julie Houston is the author of 17 best-selling Women’s contemporary/Romantic Comedy novels. Represented by Anne Williams at KHLA Literary Agency, she was previously published by Aria/Head of Zeus but now writes for Boldwood. She has had UK top 100 selling books and Looking for Lucy hit the number 1 spot in Australia. Sing me a Secret was shortlisted for, and won, the Popular Romantic Fiction Award in 2021.

Julie is Yorkshire born and bred and lives in Huddersfield where her novels are set. After University, where she studied Education and English Literature, she taught for many years as a junior schoolteacher. After teaching for a few years, she decided to go to New Zealand to work and taught in Auckland for a year before coming back to this country. She now teaches when the phone rings to cover absent colleagues and still loves the buzz of teaching junior-aged children.

Julie is married with a son and daughter, both in their twenties and now living in London. She has been a magistrate on the West Yorkshire bench for the last twenty-four years.

Contact Julie:
Instagram  @juliehoustonauthor
X @juliehouston2

See the entire blog tour here: