This is a terrible shock. She didn't say a thing. But then she always was very private about her health. I shall miss Jo at our Exeter RNA lunch meetings. It took me a long while to get to know her, as she was a bit of a mystery to me at first, and I'm rather loud at gatherings, and I've missed so many meetings recently, and now she's gone. Awful, awful news. Thinking of you, Jo.

This is my story too, except it happened with THREE publishers at the exact same time. I came to the end of three 3-book contracts in the same year, and got kicked to the kerb because of low sales by all of them. Then one took pity and asked me to write a book for them, no guarantees. And when I did, they rejected it, and then another dozen or so publishers rejected it, and there I was, sitting on the kerb with my much-rejected ms clutched to my chest, and a big Loser sign above my head. So I thought **** it, and self-published it last month. It's now in the Top 300 books on Amazon Kindle UK. It's called Girl Number One. So if you don't get another contract, do what I did while you wait for another offer to come along. Don't take a kicking. Kick BACK! Jane Holland x