Hi Lovelies, If you are new to my blog - Hi! I'm Vik and I'm an indie author of cozy (ish) mysteries (and also non-fiction essays based on my experience of living with chronic illness). I'm currently on the path to publishing my first cozy mystery ...

Happy November! I'm delighted to report that my writing has been ticking along - in bursts and lulls as life and illness necessitate - but I am hopeful I will be able to have a proof copy of my book in my hands this year. I also know that in or...

Happy October! Here we are - the final quarter of 2025 - the time to refocus efforts on making our annual goals happen. I'm doubling down in what I called my 'Momento Mori Mood' back in my mid-year review, which you can click to read...

In my last post, I wrote about the ways I was attempting to channel that 'back to school' good September energy; I wanted to be creating more, and consuming less. I've made good progress - I have so far stuck to my no buy and I am fe...

Like many of us bookish/academic types - I love September for the 'back to school/new academic year vibes'. I saw someone online liken September to 'our new year' and as a better time to reset and reconnect with our goal than in...

I turned 46 this month and as I posted in my last blog, I had intended to be celebrating it with my first cozy mystery in hand - out there published and being read. Instead, I've been forced to look at why that didn't happen. Why I missed ...

If you subscribe to my author newsletter ( and if you don't - you can here - it's free), you will know this already.... Spoiler alert: she is not going to meet her own deadline I am writing this after I have given myself some time to go th...

When I was a full time academic, I frequently made use of the opportunities to attend writing retreats - be that a day in my city, or a full weekend somewhere further afield. A writing retreat was utterly transformative for me as writing in the eve...

The second quarter of the year is always my trickiest energy wise - it features long school holidays at either side and a birthday party to organise plus all of the school activities and ceremonies and mum running in between. It is fair to say, but ...

Happy June Lovelies! I'm writing this blog post - off the cuff - after a long journalling session. I always try to take stock of where I'm spending my energy and time at the mid-point of the year; reflecting on whether I'm actually ...

If you had told be at the beginning of April that I would be lip-syncing on TikTok, I'd have given you one of my life-long, raised eyebrow, sceptical stares and laughed at the idea - maybe even cringed at the thought; and yet, here I am. I...

It is currently school easter holidays with us and I'm writing this on a rare afternoon off 'mum duty'. I've enjoyed a few hours of solo time that also allowed me to get out for a slow jog. On that jog, I was thinking through som...

Over the month of March, I decided to take what I called a 'therapeutic writing break'; I was feeling burn out setting in again (from the usual mix of chronic illness; mum life; the long winter months; overwhelm with being an indie author)...

If you are anything like me, one of your goals might be to develop and cultivate a practice of 'writing first'. We know that our writing is our priority - not only important in and of itself - but also important when we are writing to pub...

Over the weekend I put down my first 'did not finish' read of the year; it might even have been my first 'did not finish' in a few years. I'd found the book in a charity shop and took a chance on it because the blurb descri...