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Kate.

A Mechanical Man

*wink*

As a special treat, I've written a short piece of steampunk erotic romance entitled 'A Mechanical Man'. With cameos from Samuel Taylor Coleridge and George Gordon Byron, it's free to download from Smashwords now.

The Falcon's Chase, my steampunk romance novel, is due for release through Sirens Call Publications in the next few weeks. Keep an eye out on the website for more details.

Back to the basics

The above is a portrait of me drawn by my three year old daughter (for reference, that's two beautiful eyes, a squiggly nose and a big smiley mouth. Yes, I know there's a beard, and no, I don't really have one!). I pinned it on the wall in my writing corner and it struck me how much simpler life is when looked at through the eyes of a child.

So I sat down with her my daughter at lunchtime and asked her what she wanted. She looked at me thoughtfully as she splashed tomato soup all over the place, grinned and then shrugged her shoulders. "Don't you want anything?" I asked in surprise.

She smiled again and looked around the room. "How about Daddy coming home from work?"

And that's all she asked for. In a world obsessed with consumerism, all my little girl wanted to make her happy was for her daddy to come home and give her a kiss. How special is that - and can you imagine how proud I was of her in that moment?

Once she'd toddled off for her nap, I sat there in the silence and her words echoed inside my head. I can't help but think we over-complicate things these days. We're constantly thinking about what we want - a new car, that dress, those shoes that would be perfect for the holiday you absolutely need to have. Yet in spending so much time doing that, we lose sight of what we already have.


Sure, I might not have much in the material sense. The fridge is on its last legs, my husband still hasn't finished laying the floor after two years, there's no way I can justify buying that pair of Irregular Choice shoes this month and I'm praying that the third hand tumble dryer in the kitchen doesn't give up the ghost (thanks, British summer!). But what I do have is a beautiful, funny and loving daughter, a husband who works all the hours in the day to keep a roof over our heads and the luxury to be able to find a couple of hours each day to do what I love - writing. So long as I've got that, what more could I possibly need?

PS. But in case anyone fancies buying me those shoes, I'm a size 6... ;)