I sent this to my newsletter subscribers yesterday and, while I promise them ‘exclusive’ news, this is something I need to share with all my readers because I know there will be a lot of you wondering:

Why aren’t you bringing out a new book in 2023? 

The fact is there will be a book out in 2023 – the paperback of The Guilty Couple, but there won’t be a new hardback/ebook/audiobook next year.

Basically it’s because I was feeling burnt out at the start of this year. Over the last ten years I’ve written a book a year, sometimes two if you count the young adult books and 2020 basically finished me off.

I wrote Her Last Holiday, edited The Island and did most of my own promo when my publicist was furloughed. By the time 2021 ticked around I was creatively empty.

I spent 2.5 months on a book idea that wasn’t working, took a couple of weeks off and then plotted and wrote The Guilty Couple.

When that was all done and dusted, edits complete etc I realised in January that I only had a month or so to come up with an idea for Book 10 before I had to start writing again.

I was so nervous that I’d repeat what had happened at the start of 2021 (wasting time on an idea that wasn’t fully formed) that I asked my editor if I could have more time to write Book 10.

My request coincided with the news that my editor would be taking time off for maternity leave and it seemed serendipitous. I’d get longer to work on my book and my editor would edit it when she returned.

So here we are. That’s Book 10 all plotted out and I’m 31,000 words into the first draft with a deadline of mid February (and a publication date of March 2024).

I know from messages I’ve received on Facebook that lots of you are gutted that there won’t be a new CL Taylor book in 2023 but this way hopefully I’ll have recharged my batteries enough for a book a year for however long my publisher publishes them and you read them! I certainly hope so anyway.

And if you think this blog post is all a bit serious please note that the photo of me at the top was taken after I’d drunk a bottle of wine at a gloriously rowdy karaoke night on Tuesday! I think I’d just screamed the lyrics to ‘The Best of You’ by the Foo Fighters until I was completely out of breath. 😆

P.S. if you haven’t read The Guilty Couple yet the hardback is just £5.62 until midnight tonight (as part of Amazon’s Black Friday deal). It would make a lovely Christmas present.

Or grab the ebook of my multi-award winning young adult thriller The Island for just 99p (goes back up to £3.99 at the end of the month).

And if you want to get access to all the news and publishing insights I don’t post on this blog do sign up for my newsletter. You’ll get a free ebook just for signing up. I run regular giveaways too.