Although I wasn’t lucky enough to win my category at the Romantic Novelists’ Association Awards Ceremony I was proud to be nominated. And, in true Lizzie fashion, I made quite an event of it: travelling first class from Leicester to St Pancras with husband Dave, lunch in the Betjeman Arms, overnight stay at the Leonardo Hotel in view of the Tower of London. There was even time for a bit of a shopping expedition on the way home.

Looking back over the event I’ve come to see it as a marker of how far I’ve come over the last nine years. I am very proud of what I’ve achieved:

• six published novels on Amazon with number seven under way
• the establishment of the Leicester Chapter of the RNA (over 60 members)
• the network of friends, readers and other author made via social media
• the help and…