1. You will give talks. In front of people. And after the first sixteen, you'll stop shaking.
2. You'll sit down so long at your desk and so often that your backside will spread. A bike comes in useful for cycling, at least twice a week. See also regular walks.
3. You will feel tired all the time. Gloriously, wonderfully happy, but tired.
4. You will wake in the night with pains in your wrists and fingers numb with pins and needles. Your doctor will tell you it's RSI and you'll have to wear those really groovy beige NHS hand things.
5. You will never get over the thrill of seeing your book on a shelf in a proper bookshop. Never.
6. You will want to do a happy dance in the bookshop (see No. 5 above), point at your book, tell everyone in the shop about it and wonder why no-one is buying it, or cares who you are.
7. You will attend book signings in bookshops where you'll chat happily about your book for twenty minutes with someone who only wants to know where the bookshop cafe is.
8. You will brace yourself when a threatening-looking man walks towards you in a bookshop and then sigh with relief when he buys three books; one for his wife, his mam and his grandma. He'll ask you to sign them then shake your hand and you promise never to judge people ever again.
9. You will brace yourself when a threatening-looking man walks towards you in a bookshop.
10. You can't do it alone. You need people you can trust - all the way from your agent and editor, your publisher, your publicist.
11. You will need love and support. Barry... I couldn't have done it without you.
12. Yes, I know this is number 12 and I only said I was going to tell you 10 things, but I'm better at words than numbers.
Debut novel - out now
"Gripping family saga set in 1919, written with humour and warmth"
