I can’t remember a wetter, windier winter and spring than this one has turned out to be and it’s been so grey which I hate. I’m pining for sunny days to go with the daffodils and forsythia that are brightening up the garden but expecting the storms we always get in the run-up to the solstice, which is due here next Wednesday. Then the days will be longer than the nights until midsummer and I’ll be into my favourite part of the year and surely the sun will come out, won’t it?
But it hasn’t been bad, even though I’ve been indoors more than I’d like to have been. I’ve cooked new recipes, cut fabric for quilts and pinned them so they’re all ready for me to sit and sew in the sunshine in the garden or down by the shore. I’ve also pieced the ones I want to embroider, which was sort of necessary, I’ve organised my sewing corners to make them beautiful as well as practical and I’ve tidied up and sorted out as I settle into this season of my life and sent loads of things I won’t use again or have never used to new homes where they will be used.
It’s hard to believe that it’s almost two years since I thought ‘right, if I want to be a writer I need to stop dreaming and get on and do it.’ I don’t regret it for a second, so thanks to all you lovely people who’ve read and enjoyed and taken the trouble to tell me what you like.
You’ve spoilt me rotten because you’ve kindly told me which characters you’d like to revisit in Christmas short stories so I’ll be starting those in a few weeks’ time. For now, though, I’m off to Windy Bay again for the first draft Spring in the Village. A grumpy locum doctor who’s always been happy to be a loner a doctor’s receptionist who’s as bright and bouncy as a TV children’s presenter and hates seeing anyone left out, so what could possibly go wrong?
I’m on a roll with Windy Bay so I’ve got 4 books before this one in draft stages and then there’ll be another one afterwards. I’ve also got 2 Lucy Williams ideas bubbling under, another 2 Amy’s in progress after the one that’s due out in May and ideas for 2 more and ideas for the next Esther and the Professor after the one that'll be out this summer, so on second thoughts it’s just as well that it’s cold and wet because this season of my life is ideal for writing.
There again, I’d enjoy it just as much sitting in the garden in the sunshine with a glass of cold elderflower cordial by my side, with ice cubes and home grown mint in it!
Speaking of enjoying, here are this week’s special offers, on at 99p in the UK and 99c in the US.
There are 3 Amy Hammond books:
A Handmade Crime
Aging Disgracefully
Two Graves
These are set in the period before Covid and before Amy and Peter marry, and they’re some of my favourites, especially A Handmade Crime, which includes Christmas in July. As I said, I’ll soon be playing Christmas songs while I write this year’s Christmas short stories, so if there’s any characters you’d like to see included then drop me a message and I’ll see what I can do.
Also, writing as Eleanor Neville, there’s 3 books featuring one of my favourite characters, Dr Simon Jones, who’s always driven himself and is determined to be the best. Only as he gets involved with socialite Mel who may or may not be up to no good, he struggles to work out what that is. He then becomes a minor character as the minor characters in this book step forward in the other two and he surprised me by popping up in the last Amy and Peter book, where I think we’ll see him again so if you noticed a tall dark handsome doctor and were curious about him then here’s your chance to find out more about him.
These 3 are;
To be the best
Professional hero
Enemy Within
And to finish, here’s a picture of my Easter quilt now it’s all finished and quilted with decorated Easter eggs. Let me know if you’d like to see more quilt pictures. I’m thinking of putting a gallery of them up on the blog because I tend to make the quilts I write about because it’s a good way of getting to know a character.
Have a great week till we meet again on Sunday, and please, feel free to get in touch!
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