TCO Business

Author Update

Hi All, I am so sorry it's been so long, but it's been a rough couple of years for me.

This story has been on hiatus since January 2014 – 3 whole years. Even I can't believe that it's been so long. Anyway, I feel that I owe you all an explanation.

In the beginning, I was finding it difficult to find time to write. Between work, my son's swimming and Air Cadets, life was pretty full. Then around September 2014, my father was diagnosed with bladder cancer. We, as a family remained optimistic. He was to have an exploratory operation following some radiotherapy early in 2015 followed by chemotherapy. His oncologist was very optimistic of a complete recovery. During this time, I lost my job and was diagnosed with stress and mild depression. I was in no hurry to find work. My time off meant that I could take dad to appointments etc, and help my mum in any way necessary.

In early July 2016 my family got the news that we were so desperately waiting for, my dad was cancer free.

Unfortunately the nurse who gave my father the news had no right to do so, she should have sent the results to the oncologist. We knew almost immediately that things didn't seem as they should. Dad was still in a lot of pain and three weeks later he was back in hospital. A couple of weeks later we were told that the cancer had spread to his lungs and was terminal. As you can imagine, we were completely devastated.

In October 2015 I had a fall down the stairs in my house, It was a proper Hollywood fall, head over tails. I damaged nerves in my back, thighs and legs. Unfortunately this damage is permanent and makes walking difficult. I am now registered disabled.

My father fought bravely but wasn't doing well in hospital. We didn't think he'd make it to Christmas. Luckily we managed to get him a place in our local hospice and when he went there, his spirits lifted. They treated him with respect and dignity. We managed to get him home for Christmas 2015 and made so many happy memories. He also had a home visit in early January 2016 but we knew his time was now very limited. He passed away very peacefully on 21st February.

So as you can probably (hopefully) understand, I haven't been in the right place to write.

Then the strangest thing happened. I started to get the odd review for both this story and TCO Baby, towards the end of 2016, I had a significant number of reviews from top story. I took this to be a sign that maybe my days as a writer weren't over. I promised that I would finish this story in 2017.

In order to do that, I knew I'd need to re-read the whole story again, to get it straight in my mind where I was going with it. I didn't realise that it would be so emotional. When Charlie got shot and Bella was willing him to live, it felt so similar to the thoughts I had at this time last year. I cried a lot. You see, my dad was a police officer too and I related their relationship to mine and my dad's.

Anyway, I'm now ready to start writing again. I won't be surprised if I have no readers left though. But fingers crossed that a few will stick with the story. My plan is to write the story until it's completely finished, then post updates twice a week. So bare with me and I'll get back to you in the next couple of weeks.

Thanks for reading.