Here is an excerpt from These Magic Moments on Amazon .  I am working on book two in the Bluebell series currently! She was relieved when her one o’clock lunch break came around, and she made her way up to the staff cafeteria where she made a cup of tea, took out her lunch, and picked up a copy of the Bartley’s staff newsletter. There were five Bartley’s stores in England but the one here in Knightsbridge was the original store that had grown to become one of the most esteemed in London. She turned the page and her gaze zeroed in on the photograph of Nicholas Bartley with his sister, Clarissa. They were both in their thirties, both insanely attractive, and both talked about by the staff with varying degrees of admiration, awe, and fear. Clarissa, it seemed, had a hands-on approach to the store, whereas Nicholas was corporate and rarely ever stepped foot in it. There was an editorial from Nicholas and she wondered if he’d written it himself. There was a lightness to the prose th...

 Last week my diet went out the window because I made pancakes. One of the kids had bought some cream that was due to expire and so he got it cheap and of course I had to make pancakes. Cream and jam. So good. Weekends are a hotch-potch for me. A time to visit family. A time to just recover from the days I work A time to see if there's anything good on the telly and pass a few hours or read a book. A time to get out the notebooks and the journals and plan the week ahead. Appointments. Visits to family in a rest home. The day job. Planning menus for the week ahead so I know what I'm cooking or what anyone else in the fam is cooking. I honestly like cooking which is why I go overboard at Christmas because I just want to make EVERYTHING. So much good food to make and recipes to drool over. However, this year I sadly had to draw the line at a gingerbread house even though I'd been planning it and had recipes and so on. I'd never made one but then I thought, no. Too much foo...

 I've been writing up a storm and making progress on the new book, the second in the Bluebell Road series. I have no idea where it will end but I am loving it although I am forcing myself to write at times. Sometimes I set a timer for 45 minutes and just go for it until the alarm goes. Then I get up, make a cuppa, go the loo, empty the dishwasher, stick a load of clothes in the washer, and fifteen minutes has gone and back I go the laptop. Sometimes I don't need to set a timer and the words just flow.  There is no consistency to the process however. Slog. Flow. Slog. Flow. Slog.   Then sometimes  I leave the laptop and come back to find a cat on it and think, well, that's that, then. Might as well call it a day. And sometimes I do. It's a good job writing is more a passion than a paid job for me at this rate! But obviously I like what I doing and I am proud of the stories I am creating and the ability, especially, to indie publish them myself. I never had any luck ge...

 Here's an excerpt from The Gabardi Wife. Holly's husband has come to her after she sent him papers for a divorce. Not expecting him to follow her home to New Zealand, she is stunned when he turns up. They arrange a meeting to discuss what Holly hopes is his agreeing to the divorce. Read on.. HOLLY STEPPED THROUGH the doors of the busy High Street bar and acknowledged that inside she was a mess. The kind of mess that no amount of positive thinking or mantra-repeating was going to put a dent in. She glanced around the interior, searching for Alexi, hoping he’d decided not to show, and was on his way back to London and away from her. Forever. But no. Her spirits slumped as she spotted him at a corner table, his face in profile as he scrolled through his phone. Of course, he wasn’t going to give up. Gabardis never gave up. And Alexi especially because she knew that he had a point to prove and apparently, she was part of that proving. What the point was, she couldn’t be s...

 Hard to believe we are one week already into January but believe it I do. Especially when my clothes are tight after the Christmas and New Year feasting. Add a few birthdays in around that time and its not looking good. On the plus side, I've been keeping up with exercise but honestly, it doesn't do much for keeping trim. Fit and healthy, yes, but it doesn't atone  for eating too much. However my late father used to say "Health is Wealth" and he wasn't all that healthy, so he knew what he was talking about and I take that on board. We take health for granted until we haven't got it. Even a run-of-the-mill, bog-standard headache is annoying but it could be so much worse, so thank goodness that right now, I am pretty healthy and grateful for that. So while I pound the footpaths, I might be wearing elasticated track pants for a while to come (probably FOREVER!) but it is doing my body good and that's the main thing. (No significance in the photo except ...

Here's a wee excerpt from early on in the first BlueBell Road book, now availalble on Amazon. The background is that Julia works at Bartley's Department store and has been seconded to Menswear for the day when the boss, Nick Bartley, makes an unexpected visit. Unexpected because Nick never shops at the store in person! He is buying some things on behalf of his sister, and our heroine Julia is the sales assistant who serves him! “Thank you for shopping at Bartley’s,” she said again, the gentleman moved away, and Nicholas set the garments down and consulted his watch. “I’ll take these. Thank you,” he said, and he drummed his fingers on the counter. Julia folded the jerseys, relieved he wasn’t watching her. In fact, he appeared distracted and kept checking his watch. She took the socks, tallied them up, and as he handed her his card, she had a thought. She said, “Do you get a staff discount?” Nick looked blankly at her. “Full price is fine.” “It is fifteen percent,” ...

 This is me. Well, at home to be honest, not at a cafe. But there is definitely coffee in the mix, although up until mid day its black cos I'm trying TRE (Time Restricted Eating.) .  But coffee, water, and tea, and writing, writing, writing! I am working on the story of Katie, who is Julia's flatemate at Bluebell Road. Katie was the girl who was jilted when her fiance left her for her (former) friend. I have no idea where the story will go. I do have a hero. His name is James Rutherford, and he is a lawyer handling her boss's divorce. I have no title or cover but I'll ponder that over the next week. I may take the title from a song. I'm listening to lots of Great American Songbook stuff, as a background when I'm writing and there are some lovely titles of songs from the likes of Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, and the Gershwins. I've never listened to this music before so its an education! But so far the new year is treating me well. We finished off the last of ...