Lucy Parker is an award-winning romance author who lives in New Zealand. A romance reader from a young age, she loves to write about people pursuing their dreams and falling hopelessly in love along the way—often with the last person they would expect. Her latest novel is MISDIRECTED.

Lucy's Tip

We’re all individuals with unique writing voices and ways of working, every book is a different experience, and we’re all always learning, in what can be a challenging industry—but I think that if you love to write, the most important thing is to never lose sight of that passion for what you’re doing. Most of us grew up writing stories, often just for ourselves, simply for the fun of it—and it’s still one of the key things for me while writing a first draft, to just focus on the words and not think about anyone else reading them yet. While you’re writing, it’s just you and your computer or pen, living in a different world for a while with your characters, and telling yourself a story (…that you ideally won’t mind re-reading approximately 350 times during edits).

If you are ever feeling stuck or overwhelmed or are having trouble getting started (and no matter how many books you’ve written, opening that first blank page can be daunting as well as exciting), I do think the “one day—or one scene or chapter—at a time” approach is helpful. At some point soon, the story in your mind will exist on the page; it will have taken twists and turns you didn’t anticipate, the characters you thought you knew inside and out will almost certainly have developed facets that surprised even you, and somebody might read your book and never forget it—but right now, in this moment, all you need to write is one scene. Or one chapter. Even just one paragraph. Set an achievable goal for each day and focus on that, and your story will start to take shape faster than you’d imagine. (Things like daily and weekly word-count stickers for your diary can also be helpful, as a visual record of your progress.) Suddenly, you’ll be completely swept up in it, piecing together dialogue in your head while you’re having dinner, and finding it harder to stop writing.

Enjoy every chapter. Have fun with your characters. Read the odd bit of dialogue aloud to make sure it does sound like something a human would say. Take a very deep breath (or pour a very large glass of wine) when you realize that a scene you worked on for days is slowing down the whole plot—and then cut it. And write first and foremost because it makes you happy. People know. It will thread through every word.

THE BONES BENEATH MY SKIN (Hardcover) by TJ Klune

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COLD AS HELL by Kelley Armstrong

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Haven’s Rock is a sanctuary town hidden deep in the Yukon for those who need to disappear from the regular world. Detective Casey Duncan and her husband, Sheriff Eric Dalton, are starting a family now that they’ve settled into their life here. As Casey nears the end of her pregnancy, she lets nothing, including her worried husband, stop her from investigating what happens in the forbidden forest outside the town of Haven’s Rock.

When one of the town's residents is drugged and wanders too close to the edge of town, she’s dragged into the woods kicking and screaming. She’s saved in the nick of time, but the women of the town are alarmed. Casey and Eric investigate the assault just as a snowstorm hits Haven’s Rock, covering the forest. It’s there they find a frozen body, naked in the snow. With mixed accounts of the woman's last movements, the two begin to question who they can trust—and who they can't—in their seemingly safe haven.

FUTURE’S EDGE by Gareth L. Powell

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When archaeologist Ursula Morrow accidentally infects herself with an alien parasite, she fears she may have jeopardized her career. However, her concerns become irrelevant when Earth is destroyed, billions die, and suddenly no one needs archaeologists anymore…

Two years later, she's plucked from a refugee camp on a backwater world and tasked with retrieving the artifact that infected her, as it just might hold the key to humanity's survival. With time running short, and the planet housing the weapon now situated in hostile territory, she realises she's going to have to commit an act of desperate piracy if she's going to achieve her objective before the enemy's final onslaught.

A thrilling, page-turning journey into deep space where the fights are brutal, the relationships are complicated and the world ended years ago.

MISDIRECTED by Lucy Parker

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