BLACK Country author Miranda Dickinson’s latest offering hits the shelves this week.

The mum-of-one, who has already penned eight Sunday Times bestsellers, admitted she was nervous ahead of the release of Somewhere Beyond the Sea - despite her previous novels selling one million copies worldwide.

“It doesn’t get any easier,” she said. “It never stops being scary.”

The book, which she described as being like the Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan film, You Got Mail “but set by the sea”, is Miranda’s most personal to date.

She continued: “The story is about grief - both main characters are battling grief in completely different ways - and while I was writing it, I lost my dad.

“It feels like more of a risk as I’ve put a lot of myself on the page, so I’m slightly nervous but I’m excited too.”

The audiobook to is narrated by Clare Corbett - who read Paula Hawkins’ The Girl on the Train - and Broadchurch star Jonathan Bailey, who have done “a fantastic job”, according to Miranda, who said it feels like “one step away from a film”.

“That’s the dream and any author who says otherwise is lying,” she added.

Fans will already be familiar with some of the characters as Miranda, who grew up in Kingswinford but now lives in Sedgley, released the prequel - Christmas in St Ives - as an ebook late last year.

“People don’t have to have read the prequel,” she said. “It’s a stand-alone story but I’m hoping when they have read it they will want to see what people were doing the Christmas before this started and will go back and read it.”

Miranda is already hard at work on her next project, which has taken the chick-lit author in a new direction.

“It’s a thriller,” she said. “Something totally different. I’m writing it at the moment and there’s about 20,000 words to go, then it’ll go out to prospective publishers.

“I’ve also started working on my tenth novel but that is in the really early planning stages.

“I’m very excited about the future, I have lots more stories in me yet.”

Somewhere Beyond the Sea will be available in paperback, ebook and audiobook from tomorrow (Thursday).