At least they are for me, because the next Amy Hammond book is out tomorrow. It’s called ‘A Nasty Case of Death’ and it’s set around Christmas time and features a part of Amy’s life that shaped her world. It also, I hope, pays tribute to the millions and millions of unpaid carers who have to fight their way through the system on top of caring for those they love.
Having been in that position myself, one of my biggest bugbears is being reduced to the status of ‘carer’. I don’t think it’s healthy for me, or for the people I love and want to look after and there is no way in, if you’ll excuse me, hell that I want to be recommended to do activities that are suited for carers as if I stopped being me because a person needs more looking after than they used to. And, for the record, I do not want to join a choir or have a foot massage.
Instead, I find things that I enjoy doing and which can be done around the people that I love and support as much as I can because they can be done in small snippets. Photography, gardening, sewing, cooking, reading… oh, so definitely reading because escaping into a good book is the best thing ever and I am proud that so many people like to escape into my stories. As the days draw in my world starts to focus to the home where, little by little, Christmas is sneaking in. Today I changed the cushion covers for the patchwork one I made three years ago. On Thursday the big advent calendar that’s shaped like a Christmas tree goes up. (And it is big. It hangs in front of the door curtain on the inside of the front door and I put treats in it each day for the children. Only they’re not children any more. They’re young adults now, but you’d have thought I was the reincarnation of King Herod when I asked whether they still wanted me to do it a few years back. The answer, in case you hadn’t worked it out, was yes definitely, and I enjoy doing it, so it’s all good.)
Also all good are the special offers this week at 99p in the UK and 99c in the US
In the Amy Hammond series there are
A Prayer for Peace
To have and to hold
Let the Dead
These take us through the period where Amy and Peter are growing closer together and Amy is finding out why she seems to keep finding trouble. Meet the boy who might well be Peter’s son. Enjoy a family wedding with Amy (at least more than she will) and meet Peter’s family and see where he came from. Obviously, nothing untoward could happen, could it?
In the Lucy Williams series there are
Childs Play
Fete Worse than Death
These are stories of a widowed former spy who’s living under a new identity and deep cover having been ordered to stay out of trouble. She works from home for her old Department (which may very well be the same one Peter used to work for) and has a bright but terminally tactless five year old daughter. And as she gets drawn into the school community by her best friend she finds more than she was bargaining for…
And finally, for something a little different. These are 3 Shadows stories which I write as Eleanor Neville. They’re more violent and sexier but, I hope, have the same sense of underlying humanity.
Knights Move
Knight to Pawn
Pawn to Queen
These 3 follow Andrew Stannard, Shadow protection agent and avid reconstructor as he is embedded at a tournament after an assassination attempt on a Government minister that used a crossbow. He finds himself caught up in a web of bondage, domination and blackmail, and the story plays out with different characters taking the lead in the second and third books. The underlying theme is that true heroes don’t think they are heroes.
Have a great week and spoil yourself as much as you can and we’ll catch up on Sunday. Till then, here’s a picture of Poole Quay, with the Maritime Christmas lights trail.
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