With the release of Utopia taking up most of my social media time (only 2 weeks till release!), I’m sure it’s hard to imagine I’m working on many other things as May 6^th approaches. With both of my kids now at school, and deciding to write full time this year, I have so many new idea’s to pursue, all of which revolve around the wonderful world of books.

As the release date for Utopia fast approaches, I’ve been spending much of my spare time writing book two of the Secrets of Aurora series. With around 15,000 more words to write, I hope the time between releases is much shorter than in the past. Although I haven’t decided on a date at this stage, I’d love to release book two in mid-to-late 2017. And of course, once book two is finished I’ll be straight into writing book three.

While I continue writing the Secrets of Aurora series, I’ve also started research for my next contemporary, young adult novel. I don’t want to give too much away, but the story is inspired by one of the short stories in my collection of short stories, In Their Shoes. It’s a delicate subject and I want to ensure I’m telling the story in a way that both brings attention to the issues it highlights, but also gives hope to those who go through it. Okay, so I’m being very vague, but I will do my best to bring a rawness and truthfulness to the story, and will take the time it needs to achieve this.

Also, on my to-do-list for the coming month, is writing some free content for those of you who are signed up to my newsletter. Along with this content I hope to offer more giveaways and discounts. If you have any suggestions or ideas on what you’d like to see in my newsletters in the future, I’d love to hear them. You can email me at ljhiggins01@hotmail.com.

For those of you who are in the Brisbane area, I will be attending Riveting Reads Australia, in October, and encourage you to come along and check it out. It will be an amazing event, for both authors and readers, and I’ve been preparing swag and other items for the day. I will only be attending on the Saturday, but it runs over the entire weekend.

As well as writing and getting organised for Riveting Reads, I’ve been working on something that I’ve kept pretty quiet about until now. For the past few months I’ve been pulling together my experiences with self-publishing, researching and asking author friends to give me their feedback and idea’s. I’ve put all of the information together in an easy to understand workshop, and will be holding a Self-Publishing Workshop in my local area of Gladstone, Queensland on July 1^st. It’s a project I’m both excited and nervous about, but hope that by imparting my knowledge and experiences I can help others have a smoother transition into the world of self-publishing. If you are interested in discovering more about the workshop you can head to www.ljhiggins.com/workshops.

Well, there you have it. I’m keeping myself busy and enjoying every moment and can’t wait to bring all of these projects to you. If you have any questions please comment below!