I'm a lead feature in The Daily Mail soon!

Here's my behind-the-scenes...

How to Build a Life is a newsletter for people bang in the thick of life’s mess and mayhem, who are still trying to find the magic. It’s written by me, Laura Jane Williams, author of 12 (!) books. I’m almost 40, a solo parent by choice, decorate my house like a tart’s boudoir, and lift very heavy weights. Those four things are my entire personality.

My latest rom-com is Enemies to Lovers, and I am the author of teen series Taylor Blake is a Legend too.

The week I launched How to Build a Life, The Daily Mail emailed. They’d read my launch piece about having been ashamed of myself because my adoption almost got ruined by a vicious gossip forum.

They’d been aware of the forum - Tattle Life - for a while.

Tattle Life is, as I’ve said before, a sort of Reddit-style website where thousands of women with online profiles - influencers, authors, journos, podcasters, minor celebrities off reality TV shows - have threads where people can contribute their “thoughts”.

Often it’s a simple airing of the soul kid of a vibe, jealous or jealous-adjacent folks without a profile of their own whinging about those who have.

Occasionally it gets nasty, with half-truths, lies and accusations actually beginning to have very real world consequences for the people whose lives are picked apart for sport.

One of those people was me. Hi.

The editor of Femail, the Mail’s women’s section on a Thursday, said they’ve been wanting a story about Tattle Life for a while now. My story was one of the most horrifying they’d heard. Would I take my piece and develop it for their readership?

Sure, I said.

I’m in my light-shining era now, after all. Done hiding. I’m here to be me loudly! And aside from highlighting my experience to a much wider audience, I stand in solidarity with anybody else who has felt destroyed by that website.

So I wrote my piece, got some edits, went over my word count, and then forgot about it.

Then they asked for photos.