Home Thoughts Weekly

There’s nothing like a new baby to make everyone smile and this year we’re very lucky to have not one but two new babies in our blended family; Rose and Si’s new daughter and, in a few weeks time, my stepson, Tom, and his lovely fiancee, Amey, expect their first baby. When Tom and Amey decide to get in a few early cuddles with the newest arrival, the rest of us quickly get in on the act too. It’s very special to see Ma with her great-granddaughters but naturally, because we want to take photographs, Baby Joy decides she’d like a really long sleep and Bee wears herself out chasing Grandad round the garden! We get there in the end with some lovely memories captured in pictures. The next day we're in Worthing visiting Father-in-law who’s tripped up on the device he’s designed to hold a mat in place to stop himself tripping up… He thinks his foot, which has borne the brunt of the fall, is probably ok. Tom and I inspect the damage and decide it’s not at all ok. After...

'Fish Shack' by Lane Mathias Sometimes a story comes along that demands to be written; the opening scenes of my first novel, Turning the Tide , came to me when we were pottering around in Veryan , our vintage wooden boat. Little Spitmarsh, the struggling seaside town where the novel is set, was inspired by some of the sleepy places we visited during our first Epic Voyage. I also loved writing  Follow A Star which drew me back to Little Spitmarsh. However, I also know how it feels to wrestle with a story; there were many times I felt like giving up with my second novel, Move Over Darling , so it was all the more satisfying when I finally typed ‘The End'. I’ve been ticking over with the novel that’s been taking me in a slightly different direction but progress has been slow. Even so, I’ve been happy to do the heavy lifting to get this novel going and then - contrary to all the advice to ‘finish the damn story’ - I was struck by an idea for a new Little Spitmarsh ...

I’m chatting today to Morton S. Gray , whose debut romantic suspense novel, "The Girl on the Beach" was e-published by Choc Lit in January 2017. I asked her a few questions about romance. Why did you choose to write romantic suspense novels? I think the romantic suspense genre chose me! When I decided to explore creative writing, I studied for a Certificate of Higher Education in Creative Writing with The Open College of the Arts and the courses explored poetry, short stories, flash fiction, plays and memoir writing. During the same period, I went to a weekly creative writing class with Sue Johnson in Pershore, Worcestershire. Sue encourages you to explore too. After this time of exploration, I concluded that I wanted to write longer fiction with a strong romantic element. I began to read a lot of books published by Choc Lit and couldn’t believe I was lucky enough to get a publishing contract with that publisher for my debut when I won their Search for a Star c...

The last week of March passes with us fitting in a few urgent jobs ‘before the baby arrives’. Blue Nun is launched, I dash off to fit in a quick hair cut, I tidy every drawer and cupboard in the house because I’m fit for nothing else and I try not to ring Rose every five minutes to see if ‘anything’s’ happening. Nothing happens.   After two weeks Rose is admitted to hospital and the waiting begins all over again. Two days and many more grey hairs later, the phone rings and I hear my son-in-law’s voice. ‘You have a new granddaughter,’ he tells me before we all start crying with happiness and relief. Poor Rose has had a rough time of it, so I pop down to help out for a few days when Si has to go back to work. The first night I’m there I take the first night shift and sit up with this brand new person marvelling at her in all her tiny perfection. After all the speculation - boy or girl, names, hair and eye colour, personality - she’s here, a placid little soul (apart f...

March begins with our wedding anniversary - St David’s Day - we take ourselves off for an overnight stay in a very comfortable hotel at Deganwy. Our room has magnificent views across the estuary to snow-capped mountains beyond, the sun shines, the food is glorious and the spa and swimming pool’s free to guests so we make the most of every second of our visit. After starting the year with so much illness, it’s wonderful to feel well at last! Coming home , I find the latest (April) edition of The English Home waiting for me, with my words to Nick Carter’s gorgeous photographs of a sweet, nostalgic seaside cottage. Each commission presents a different challenge, but it’s always very satisfying to see the finished article in print. I’m currently working on two commissions for the magazine which are due to appear later in the year. Fiction-wise, of the novella I submitted in January, there’s no word. Perhaps with the current appetite for ‘grip-lit’, stories about two people overcomin...

Kirsty Ferry Today, I'm delighted to welcome fellow Choc Lit author, Kirsty Ferry to my blog to talk about her latest book, The Girl in the Photograph, the third in her Rossetti Mysteries series.  Here's Kirsty... First of all, let me thank Chris for letting me invade her blog today. I know that Chris loves to write about beautiful homes and Interior Design, so in order to (hopefully) make this a bit more interesting than just the random ramblings of me as an author, I thought I’d talk about locations and, more specifically, the houses where two of my characters live. I love doing research , and to me one of the most important things as I start a novel is to get an idea of the ‘personal space’ of a character. If I can’t imagine them in their house, then I might as well give up. After all, they’ve got to have a base, and as I have quite a cinematic mind, I like to imagine my people walking around, going to bed, making a cuppa, opening a bottle of wine… in short, doing a...

On the train to Cardiff again! February 1st sees me in Cardiff again where Lily and Bee have been struck down with a sickness bug. By Friday everyone’s on the mend so I come home, but on Monday Lily is so ill we’re all fearful of meningitis. To everyone’s relief, it’s ‘only’ a severe, acute sinus infection, but since Lily can’t even stand without feeling sick and dizzy, I dash down to help with the mini-hurricane that is twenty-month-old Bee. Poor Bee has had a rotten winter with a series of horrible colds and a perforated eardrum which has temporarily affected her hearing, but not her ability to make herself understood. Just after 6 am Bee bursts in, thrilled to bits to find me on the futon in the guest room. What to do first? Empty Nana’s handbag, exclaiming with delight over every item or take Nana’s running shoes for a spin? Bee’s not the type of child to sit passively in front of the TV, although she is partial to a bit of Teletubbies and Twirlywoos, so most ...