Dear Reader,

Writers have to do a lot of work when it comes to their books that have absolutely nothing to do with the writing process itself. Before I sold Midnight In Your Arms back in June, I had heard from a lot of other writers that they spend more time NOT writing than they do actually writing. I didn’t want to believe them, but now I know it’s true! The modern novelist as so much more on her plate than the paltry writing of novels. She must keep up with social media, including tweeting interesting tidbits to whichever of her followers might actually be viewing the twitter feed at the exact right moment to see it before it is swept away on the tide of tweet, never to be seen again. She must make sure to keep track of what’s happening on Facebook, including finding new and interesting things to post for her fans and friends. She must also pin all of the things she finds inspiring on Pinterest, and if she has a Tumblr account as well as a regular blog on her official site, she must decide what to post where, and when! Not to mention the very important task of supporting other readers and writers through Goodreads, writing reviews and rating books she has read, when she finds time to actually read a book after all of the social responsibilities and the writing and editing of her own books is finished. There is a lot of work to be done that has nothing, and yet everything, to do with her novel.

Personally, I am just learning to do all of this. It takes time to find a rhythm, a groove in which the individual writer is comfortable. At the moment, I’m trying EVERYTHING out, to see what I like best, and what works for me and my readers. At this point, of course, as I am a debut writer, I don’t really have very many fans, so I can experiment with various outlets without feeling any pressure to perform perfectly right off the bat. And all of the people I have met so far, and who have been so gracious as to support an unknown writer in the earliest stage of her career, remind me that no one is pointing a finger, or rolling their eyes, or judging me for failing to do all the things I need to do perfectly, on schedule, and without a single hiccup. I’m doing all of this for my future readers, of which I hope there will be many, and with whom I can feel like I am truly friends. I want us all to be comfortable together. I want to be reachable, accessible, approachable. I want you all to feel like we’re having a cosy cup of tea and a chat every time you click on a link that leads you to one of my homes on the Internet. That’s the wonderful thing about all of this terrifying technology. What it really does is bring people together, one click at a time. It tears down all the old, insurmountable walls and fills in the treacherous moats that used to separate a writer and a reader—and builds a bridge instead.

Thank you for being here with me, Dear Reader—whether there are only two of you, or there are several thousand. Each one of you is precious to me, not a commodity, not a number or a stat. I truly appreciate and honour the wonder that is you, that is the two of us here, together, communicating across who knows what distance. We live in a wonderful age. Let’s make of it all we can, together.

Love, Morgan.