My daughter, who is awesome, gave me this painting she’d done a little while ago. You can see what it says, right?

‘Mummy’s book published, and this will really happen!’

So that’s me on the stage with my books, bunches of roses and apparently a whole lot of cash from all the people buying my book, some of whom are sitting in the front row (she couldn’t fit them all in, she told me). How cool is that? I hugged her and kissed her and told her how amazing she was, and that I was going to put it above my desk to remind me of what was going to happen.

Now I’m all for the power of the mind, and the fact that belief can manifest in reality. But there are limits of course. No matter how much I meditate on it, I’m not going to be shorter or taller or look like Eva Green or whoever. You know what I mean. But I think if you hold onto an idea and you focus on it and it’s the right thing for you, that opportunities will present themselves. You just have to be looking for them. We all have a path to travel to where we’re going and it’s best to keep our eyes open, or else we might miss something. Don’t let the days amble past until they’re all gone.

Writing is a solitary game, as I’ve said before, and there’s a lot of hoping and waiting on other people to make decisions, and you get a lot of rejection so you really do need to believe in yourself to keep going. At least that’s what I’ve found. You also need to believe in the story you’re telling, because if you don’t, who else will? And if you self publish, like I’m about to, you have to believe in what you’re selling and get out there and push it like crazy.

So I’m going to put my daughter’s picture on the wall above my desk, just like I told her, to remind me. To believe. And then maybe, wonderful things will happen. Or maybe they’ve happened already.