Did you ever study the fire triangle in school? You know, it's just a triangle with three sides – oxygen, heat and fuel – and if you take away any one of them, you no longer have a fire.

I got quite excited earlier this week. I was browsing Amazon, and decided to search for my book title (which, let's be honest, I've done sporadically ever since it was first picked up by Voyager) ... and lo and behold, there it was! No cover art as yet, but all the same: my book is now a real book. You can preorder it on Amazon.* I'm not just dreaming this whole thing.

The lovely Kate Jack has nominated me for a Very Inspiring Blogger award. You can read her original post here. I was first tagged in this award a couple of years ago, and I think it's kind of nice that it's come back around. I'd love to know how many bloggers it's been through between then and now!

You've got to love the start of a new year. What other time has the potential to make you feel simultaneously so optimistic and so crap about yourself?

Usually, when another 1 January rolls around, I start beating myself up over the fact that I appear to have achieved precisely zero since the last one. But today, I find myself in the unique position of being unable to do that. Because actually, 2014 was pretty damn good. 2014 was the year in which I fulfilled an ambition I've had my whole life, and sold a book to a major fantasy publisher.

As the year approaches its end, I tend to suffer from an increasing sense of melancholy. And as a result – though it may seem counterintuitive – I always become more productive.

Perhaps the short days remind me that time is passing and so I need to make the most of it (I don't know about you, but somehow I feel more mortal on a winter's evening than on a long and lazy summer's day). Perhaps it's the sinking feeling that another new year is coming, and then another birthday, and this time I'd better have something to show for the milestone. Or perhaps it's a throwback to the days when I used to distract myself from school by writing fantasy (is there anything bleaker than the month of November when you're a socially awkward teenager?)

Back in October!

Yep, you read that right: this week it's my turn to recommend some books for the summer. There's not much point me introducing myself on my own blog, but I'll give it a try anyway. Er ... here's me. Take it away, me.

A couple of weeks ago, I was tagged by fellow fantasy author Kate Jack to take part in the WIP Blog Hop. So after thoroughly gorging myself on last week’s Chocolate Bar Challenge, I’ve taken up this new opportunity with alacrity! No chocolate in this one, I’m afraid, but you will get to find out a little bit more about my writing … oh, OK, and I’ll open a box of truffles at the end.

First, a word about Kate: she is a wonderful writer of young adult fantasy, a never-failing supporter of other authors and one of the founding members of the Alliance of Worldbuilders. You can find out much more about her and her excellent books at kateannejack.wordpress.com. Please do pay her a visit!

So, now to the challenge. The idea is to answer seven questions about my current work in progress, but I’m going to cheat a little bit. My actual current WIP is the first sequel to Darkhaven, but talking about it would reveal a fair bit about Darkhaven itself – which I really don’t want to do, seeing as it hasn’t even been released yet! So instead, I’m going to talk about Darkhaven. I think we can count it as a WIP right up to its publication date, right? ;-)

The Chocolate Bar Challenge is a blog tour in which participants choose up to eight of their favourite books and then pick the perfect chocolate to go with each of them. And if there's one thing I like more than reading, or eating chocolate, it's eating chocolate whilst reading. There's nothing better than settling down for an evening with a good book and a box of Maltesers.

I was tagged to join the tour by the lovely Megan Denby, author of the historical romance thriller A Thistle in the Mist. Megan is a Canadian author with Scottish roots who enjoys dragonboating, watching hockey and spending time with her wife and six children. You can find out more about her on her website and read about her own fabulous book/chocolate combos in her original blog post.

And now, before I tag a couple more authors to join in the fun, here are my own choices. It was really hard to pick my favourite books, but I decided to restrict myself to fantasy fiction and that made it a little bit easier ... just a bit ...

Here's a confession for you: I'm terrified of the internet.

That may seem a strange thing to say, since the only reason you're able to read this is the internet, but hear me out.