A Spot of Sunshine

Lovely Juliet Greenwood whose novel Eden’s Garden, published by Honno, is officially launched tomorrow, has kindly nominated this blog for a Sunshine Award. Thank you, Juliet and congratulations - the postman should be delivering my copy of Eden’s Garden very soon, I hope! Juliet has asked me to post some random facts about myself, but I’ve also seen bloggers posting about things that make them happy in response to this award so, as it’s been one of those days, I’m writing about random things that have made me happy today.

At this very moment, as I type this, Turning the Tide is #1 in Kindle Store Books Contemporary Romantic Fiction which, I can tell you, has made me pretty jolly happy.

…especially after a rather bruising online incident at the weekend when my fellow Choc Lit authors rallied round me, picked me up and dusted me off again. I haven’t met all of the Choc Lit team and I’ve hardly met any of the friends I’ve made through social media, but the kindness and support of people I only know through the internet, astounds me and cheers me up every time. Thanks to all of you. On that subject Novel Racer friend Liane Spicer, our own Wordtryst, has invited me to be a guest at Novel Spaces ‘a universe for writers and readers’ and I’m honoured to be appearing there tomorrow.

You'll notice from the ad on the Amazon screenshot, that I've been searching for something to wear for my daughter's wedding. I am what Susannah and Trinny would have called a cornet shape ie I have wide shoulders and slim hips. In practice this means that any dress that clears my rib cage flaps like a sail round my hips. It also means that I’m beginning to panic about whether the shops make Mother of the Bride dresses for freaks of nature. Finding the right outfit so I can stop worrying about it would make me very happy indeed!

I was putting a card together for Ma’s birthday last week when I came across the above photo. It’s probably the earliest picture of me on a boat (and no, it wasn’t when dinosaurs roamed the earth, although you could be forgiven for thinking so from the photo!). That’s me on Ma’s lap, with my uncle on the right and two of my cousins!

After three days of being blanketed in fog, the sun’s just come out! Hurray!

AND FINALLY… This morning, I saw the cover for Move Over Darling and it’s bee-yoo-ti-ful! It’s Wednesday Hottie time on the Choc Lit blog today, so the big reveal will have to wait until tomorrow. Do come and have a look if you’ve got time.

My First Book Signing!

It’s a fine, dry day and there’s an Italian market in the square outside Waterstone’s. Good for a book signing? ‘Bad,’ says Tim. The stalls are blocking the view of the shop and the fine weather’s keeping everyone outdoors. Hmm, that must be why they’ve only put one small poster up for my event, I mean why waste the Blu Tack? Tim demonstrates handing off the marauding hordes After much refolding of a black tablecloth and a rummage around for some books, I’m invited to take up my position at the author table somewhere between ‘fantasy and horror’, children’s books and a poster of the next author, Bobby ‘Iron Duke’ Windsor who’s signing on Monday. Once Tom, Lily, my lovely daughter, and her partner, Russ, are all sure I’m not going to run away, they leave me to it, taking it in turns to make sure I’m all right and bring me tea. Very soon, I notice a small boy watching me. When he returns with his family I learn that he would like to be a writer. His method, he tells me, is to rewr...

A Winter's Tale

Thursday 2 December Feeling confined in her snow-muffled flat, Ma takes a walk up her front path to take the morning air. As she returns a cat jumps over the wall and startles her. She slips on the icy path and lands heavily on her shoulder. When her injury doesn’t spontaneously heal, she eventually gives in and calls her local GP surgery. In the evening a GP visits and summons an ambulance ‘sooner rather than later’. Around 10.30 pm Ma is admitted to her local hospital. X-rays suggest she has a fractured scapula which will require emergency surgery. She is put on a nil by mouth regime that night and transferred to a larger hospital for an emergency operation. However, she’s picked a busy period for her accident so the operation doesn’t take place. Saturday 4 December The operation is rescheduled for this morning, so Ma’s had a second night of nil by mouth. A CT scan shows that Ma’s humerus is broken in four places. Despite her obviously smashed-up arm, which is in a sling and...

Forever Young

Looking at the blurb for my new Lacura WrinkleStop from Aldi, I see that its active ingredient has been ‘proven to help • Reduce forehead wrinkles by 52% • Reduce crow’s feet by 24% • Restrict 82% of wrinkle muscle activity’ That’s quite a claim, isn’t it? Frankly, after years when my face looked like a lunar landscape thanks to the joys of acne, these days I’m just grateful to see a fairly blemish-free skin. Part of me wants to believe that the wonder cream’s making everything looking a bit smoother and tidier, but, hey, there’s also a lot of ‘aqua’ and ‘glycerin’ in the stuff, too. Besides, I could tamper with my skin as much as I like (and I don’t), but I’ve only got to stand next to my beautiful daughters to see the difference. Ma has wonderful skin, so the chances are there are some helpful genes in the mix, but my dad died far too young of cancer, so it’s not all good news. My dad was a carpenter. ‘You can’t get age from a tin, Miss Chris,’ he’d say when rubbing his hands o...

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