The latest series of Digging for Britain was as fascinating and informative as usual, but I think the one item uncovered that generated the most interest for a lot of viewers, including myself, was the dodecahedron. 33 of these objects have been discovered in Britain with a number of others throughout Europe. But no one knows what they were used for. Theories abound with no idea why they were created. Perhaps it was an early version of a Rubik’s cube. Vindolanda…site of ongoing excavations near Hadrian’s Wall I’ve always been interested in British Roman history. So, it was a natural choice to ..read more

As if the date on the calendar isn’t enough notice of the upcoming festive season, there’s a covering of thick frost everywhere…with maybe some snow on the way. Time to think about suitable winter reading. Jae has compiled an extensive list of holiday romances to choose from…370 books so far. Christmas at Winterbourne is there, along with contributions from other Affinity Rainbow Publications authors, including a wonderful anthology…Christmas Medley. The follow-up short story to Christmas at Winterbourne…Winterbourne Revisited…didn’t make it onto the list, but is definitely worth a mention De ..read more

Some words about my two October releases…my first published novel and my twelfth (I don’t want to say ‘my last’ as I hope I still have another book or two inside me). This is my muse, Colin the Chameleon. He sits on top of a cabinet looking down at my computer screen. I think he’s hibernating at the moment as not many words are reaching the blank page. But I’m thankful for the ones that have emerged to produce books 1 through 12. Starting Over will always have a special place in my heart. I started writing it during the summer of 2013. Newly retired, with more time on my hands, it was the ide ..read more

I have quite a collection of books from the eighties and nineties. A few are piled up in this photo. I think Dykeversions may be one of the first I purchased from an Athena shop in London. Athena sold mostly wall art print and posters and I don’t think they exist anymore. Anyway, they had a rack of books and I picked this up, excited to see that it was published by a Canadian company…The Women’s Press. I had just recently returned to England after ten years in Canada. Anyway, I was reading one of the short stories in Dykeversions on the bus and was so engrossed, I missed my stop. This book se ..read more

I’ve been hit this week with a bittersweet nostalgia…seeing all the photos posted on social media of this year’s Golden Crown Literary Society’s conference in Denver. (The city locations for each yearly conference may change, but the hotel carpets have the same eye-wateringly exuberant patterns!) I attended three conferences in past years and had amazing experiences in each one. The first was at New Orleans in 2015. A lot of firsts at that event…meeting the Affinity team, other authors and readers, participating on panels, and doing a reading in front of an audience, signing books. It was all ..read more

Country Living has been out on audio for a few weeks now. But it still feels new. Hearing the characters come to life is always a delight. Nicola Victoria Vincent has a great repertoire of different voices and accents and her narration always delivers another dimension to the story. Because my books feature mainly older women, we had fun finding examples of actors or newsreaders whose voices might fit particular characters. For a professional woman based in London, I thought of Emily Maitlis. Then for another character with a less serious background, maybe Jennifer Saunders. Some of the sugges ..read more

Our two day break last week was a mix of sunshine and showers weather-wise. We saw a lot of the countryside and included a visit to the Boars Head pub (no apostrophe), Beeston Castle, the Cavern bookshop (indeed cavernous with tons of books), and the market town of Nantwich. The hotel gardens had some interesting features. Still early spring, so only a few trees starting to blossom. Overall a good trip and invigorating to see new places. Think we ordered too much food.Entering the Victorian built gateway to Beeston CastleLooks to be having second thoughts about swimming.Maybe she’s thinking sh ..read more

New year and many new books to read. Thanks to TB Markinson and Miranda MacLeod for pulling together a fantastic range of books and authors in this year’s I Heart SapphFIC Reading Challenge. Lots of prizes to be had with authors giving away ebooks, audio, and print copies. One of my books is featured in one of this week’s (16 January 2023) categories: Reporter/Journalist. Although Carved in Stone is the third book in the Starling Hill Trilogy, I feel it can stand alone. There’s an Author’s Note and a Prologue to start things off so readers are able to jump right into the story. Coming up on t ..read more

Cold weather in December is to be expected, but this past week has seen exceptionally icy temperatures. It’s the first time in about thirty years that we’ve resorted to putting a hot water bottle in the bed a few hours before retiring for the night. These photos depict some of the evidence of our cold snap in this part of Yorkshire. (The first one was taken on the shore of Walney Island in Cumbria in November – the strong winds made it bitterly cold.) With all this cold weather, and soon to be warmer, wet weather, I should be sitting in front of my computer, well wrapped up, writing my next n ..read more

The leaves are mostly all gone from the deciduous trees and plants, heralding the start of winter. We don’t often get snow in England, but when we do everything comes to a standstill even it’s just a light covering. Mostly, it rains. This year we do need lots of rain. Even though I live in what’s often called Wet Yorkshire, it’s predicted that we’ll still have a hosepipe ban through next summer. It rained heavily one morning when we were staying in Borrowdale in Cumbria last month. By lunchtime, the water levels had risen to swamp the low-lying pathways by the river’s edge, driving walkers ont ..read more