Just a short-ish post today because the first draft of the next Amy Hammond, provisionally titled ‘Death by Misadventure’ is getting to the exciting bit and I don't want to annoy my characters by leaving them stuck in case they decide not to talk to me! And yes, they do that... if I'm lucky, and then it comes quickly and easily. If they're sulking then the plot stalls and I get cross.
It’s looking at how, even when there's peace process going on, some people on both sides don’t want there to be peace and what can and should be overlooked to gain peace. I’m finding out a bit more about Peter’s past and why he became a spy, seeing two of my favourite characters, the young spooks Becky and Colin heading towards new roles and weddings, finding out a little more about whether Michael and Peter actually are retied and introducing a new character. Camilla really is getting her own back on Peter, because Luke Grant is as much of a maverick as he used to be so Peter's going to have to mentor someone who is as stubborn as he is about doing the right thing rather than the expedient one…
That’s been dominating life for the last few days, as I write fast, then go away and research. I’ve still had time for some walks through woods and along the harbour though because I do a lot of my best thinking there. Besides, Luke’s a proud Royal Marine Commando, and some of them are stationed just across the Bay. Sometimes we see them training, but that’s all I’m saying…
Today’s picture is of a crow running surveillance in a tree. I like crows and seagulls. I know they get a bad press but they’re so intelligent and really, they’re no worse than owls. Just not as cute! So let’s stand up for all of us who aren’t cute this week, shall we? And have a good week and stay safe in an uncertain and dangerous seeming world till we meet again.
Now on to the special offers and feel free to stop reading if you’d rather.
First, a new release.
NO ANGEL which I wrote as Eleanor Neville is another of the ones that I think of as accidental period pieces because I originally wrote them it was 20 years ago. The heroine, Kat Meredith, you’ve seen as a bit part player in Running Scared and Knights Move, but this is back when she was an impetuous young agent who’s desperate to live up to the family tradition, even if her big break means protecting what she calls the most annoying man in the universe. He calls her the killer bimbo from hell, so it’s safe to say they’re going to have a rough ride that leaves them both questioning everything they thought they believed in.
And on special offer at 99p or 99c
A Very Private War and A Very Personal Invasion - Both the current Esther and the Professor books (yes, there is another on the way.) It’s wartime and Poole is no4 on the list of likely places to be avoided, so you’d have thought the Government wouldn’t have put top secret research establishments out on the Sandbanks peninsula and evacuated children down there. Yet they genuinely did do both, and Esther Graham is determined to play her part. So too is the irascible, enigmatic Professor James Lomax and his cousin, maverick intelligence agent Kit Carmichael. Esther works by day, drives a WVS canteen van at night, and struggles with blackmail, a child that may be her husband’s and trying to work out how you can be in love with two very different men in two very different ways.
Away with the Faeries and No Place like Gnome - The last for now of the Christians Cross cosy paranormals, set in a little Dorset village that’s far more than it seems and narrated by mostly virtuous vampire Kit Conway. (It’s short for Keturah, but don’t use it if you know what’s good for you. And yes, it is a Dorset name. It was my husband’s grandmother’s name and it’s one of my daughter’s middle names to honour her because she was a formidable lady who made the best fruitcakes. All of which is by the by…) Christians Cross is on a crossing point between universes and Kit is one of the group of unlikely heroes who’ve been called to defend it. But what could go wrong with Faeries and Gnomes?
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