Same Time Next Week​ (2025)

This story was borne out of a few things that were circulating in my brain at the time.

Firstly: watching a sprightly celeb on the TV (not Davina) telling us how we should be feeling through the menopause and how the products she endorses really helped her (no shit Sherlock) and so they’d help all ordinary women, and I thought ‘She couldn’t spot an ordinary woman if one slapped her in the face’ and I would have been close to that if I’d been within breathing space.

I always knew the menopause would be a hot topic. I started writing about it years ago even though I was told it ‘wasn’t sexy’, but I really didn’t want to hide it away like a dirty secret and I knew it would explode – and I was right. It is still shrouded in mystery though, it can be frightening because we are never sure if what we are experiencing is ‘just natural’ or the start of something more serious and it can give us a LOT of symptoms. God knows what it must have been like for women in the past who had to just shut up and put up. But it irks me that somehow it has become a superpower – which is counterproductive to the cause. When you are sweating like a fountain, tired through insomnia, itching, angry for no reason, tearful for no reason… nothing feels LESS like a superpower.

So seeing someone on the telly who had just come from her pilates session with her personal trainer while her nannies take care of the kids and she can afford a cupboard full of supplements and forty-five ingredients for a quinoa-based smoothie, to turn up on TV for five minutes and earn her brass with a face full of Botox (“me, no? I’ve had no work done!”) and tell the women who exist all around me how easy and manageable life is… I needed to put a message out there that just because you see that in the media and think you are doing it all wrong, no you aren’t. And you are not alone. And pals are your lifejackets through this time in your life. Change is inevitable, but it’s a change not an end. Acclimatise to it, enjoy each new stage – and put some time into yourselves, because I bet you haven’t for years.

I remember when I was looking after mum and dad and having to shelve my writing time to go up to the hospital or doctors and wondering how the hell I would get on if I’d still been a woman with a nine-five ‘proper’ job that took me an hour to commute to. Certainly the bosses I had would have rolled their eyes at me begging for time off yet again to fulfil my familial duties, which wouldn’t have been a great aid to my own stress as a consciousness worker – but something has to give. The workplace needs to recognise that women (especially) have a lot going on in their out of work lives and we are master jugglers but not miracle workers. Don’t lump us all with those who want to play the system. Sometimes a bit of give means a company gets max out of its female employees, the pay off is worth it for a bit of respect – loyalty should work both ways. It’s not rocket science.

Also I thought that no one seems to have written much about the greed around wills and how families will carve each other up in order to get something they don’t even really want. When I was talking about this last year, a lady told me that, even though they’re fine now, she and her sister fell out for decades over an inherited tablecloth! I’ve seen it first hand and it’s brutal and it has astounded me how grasping people can be. Cheating their own flesh and blood… something I couldn’t do. Of course there are people like my dad, who would rather give it all away than fall out, but there are also the vampires just perched waiting to feast on the spoils. I’m sure there will be plenty of nodding heads at that storyline, sadly. Cheating your family is the lowest of the low acts in my book (excuse the pun).

And there is much damage done by opening up past doors in history. Ask anyone who has reconnected with an old flame on Facebook ‘just to say hello’ and suddenly that door is wide open and all sorts of horrors fly in. I am always fascinated by stories of solid couples who trust each other implicitly suddenly waking up besides someone they no longer recognise. I’ve always thought, also, that relationships built on lies and deceit and hurt… well, it happens because life is messy – but… I’d rather not. But it’s great to write about.

The weird thing about Mel’s storyline was that I never planned for Liam Gallagher to make an appearance. I have no idea where he came from. Pat was meant to be a gentle Irish man, but as I was writing his first scene, in my head (I see it like a film) he began to swagger up her path (not a euphemism) and turned into a Liam more Liam than Liam was. I don’t even fancy Liam Gallagher. At least I didn’t. Now – I’m mad fer him. And I wanted to show that people over fifty aren’t dead below the waist (trust me when I was fourteen, the idea of anyone over twenty-five having sex would have made me throw up my space dust). Fifty year olds don’t feel as if they’re that age (neither do sixty year olds!). Our spirits do not age in line with the rest of us (if you’re lucky. Don’t let the old man in… best advice Clint Eastwood ever gave me). And it is never too late to live out your dreams. Mel’s storyline became my favourite. Also, thank you Carole Matthews and Cathy Bramley for making me realise that HRT really would give me my life back. And the doctors at the Newson clinic for helping me.

Change is scary. Even though some of my ladies are going through the menopause – even when the transition through that stage is smooth, it all happens at the age when we can feel the wind of change. People leave us, we may feel that this is the last chance to make big changes in career, relationships… hence Astrid’s storyline. But Astrid is such a favourite among my readers and bringing her back (and the cracker factory) is always a joy. I’m delighted that she has so many fans in the trans community because I’ve painted her with humour but never NEVER poked fun at her – there’s a difference. She’s a gorgeous character and I don’t think I’m done with her yet.

As for young Sky. I could see my editors groan before I even told them there was a serial killer thread – but they trusted me. I’ve always been interested in criminology and psychology and I could imagine the hell of someone you love being accused of a huge crime that drags the whole family down with it. Mud sticks. So that gave me something to play with. And the Pennine Prowler is based on a horribly fascinating real life case… see here for more details if you dare to read on.

The Repair Shop is there to show us that sometimes things that have been broken and mended well can be better and more valuable than the originals. Go look up Kintsugi (an element of The Perfectly Imperfect Woman). All my main characters in this one have been smashed – but never beyond repair. Hope is a powerful magic.