landscape view of greece during day time
Blog, books

My new look blog

What do you think of my new look blog? It’s a summery theme to celebrate my latest Work in Progress. I’m going into the self-publishing business!

photo of santorini greece
Photo by jimmy teoh on Pexels.com

I love being outdoors as much as I love writing. This means that whenever the weather is good and I’m working on a writing project, I’m always desperate to get out in the garden.

For the last few months, I haven’t had that problem. The weather has been so foul—cold, wet, and cloudy—that I’ve been happy to stay snug and warm indoors.

It’s exactly the kind of weather that led to me releasing my short romantic story My Dream Guy. That was an early experiment in finding a new channel for my work. Then I was commissioned to write Struggle and Suffrage in Bristol. The research I did for that non-fiction book led me into a whole new career as a mature student.

Clutching my newly minted MA (with distinction!), I emerged ready to plunge back into writing romance. Then I regained the rights to some of my backlist. Self-publishing my work seemed to be the obvious next step—although it’s an enormous one for me.

I’m always saying that technology is not my friend. It’s true. I only use my desktop computer as a glorified typewriter. That means I’ve got a very steep learning curve to climb if I want to self-publish. For example, it took me ages yesterday to set up a newsletter, which I’ll use to give subscribers inside information on my journey to self-publication. Creating the sign up form was another puzzle.

warm coffee drink
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If you sign up to my new newsletter, you’ll get monthly updates on how my attempt to publish my own work is going, along with cover reveals, giveaways, etc. You and I will than also have the satisfaction of knowing that my hours of bafflement over templates and form creators haven’t been in vain.

You can sign up using the form on the right—go on, put a smile on my face!

Blog, books

My Dream Guy—Free!

What has happened to spring? We’ve got the flowers, but there’s no sunshine and too much rain. As it’s so wet and miserable this weekend, why not curl up with a quick romantic read? My short romantic story My Dream Guy is now available as a free read on Kindle Unlimited, or for £1.99 from Amazon.

I wrote this story when the rain was lashing down outside, and it was freezing inside. That’s the British summer for you! I’ve only been camping twice. Both times it was in a two-man tent with OH, when we were first married. Wales was freezing and wet, while Oxford was freezing and dry. At least we had our love to keep us warm! North Wales had lots of lovely little shops and the Centre for Alternative Technology at Machynlleth, while Oxford had nightingales and..well, Oxford.

As our finances and our family grew, we ditched the tent and started holidaying in chalets. I was so glad to leave the sleeping bags at home and relax in a proper bed.

My-Dream-Guy-Free! Holiday Chalet black trees
Photo by TomTookIt on Pexels.com

Memories of crouching over a tiny gas burner in a howling gale inspired me to write My Dream Guy. It’s about the contrast between what we expect from holidays and the sometimes comical reality.

Here’s a taste of it…

The romance has gone out of Emily’s relationship with Jack. When he books a holiday at a campsite in Wales during the wettest summer on record, it’s nearly the last straw.
Emily thinks the bronzed farmer who was her teenage crush will be the best thing about this dreaded holiday. But time has moved on. She’s in for an almighty shock – and then her boyfriend Jack springs some even bigger surprises.


Can Emily’s holiday from hell ever have a happy ending? Find out in My Dream Guy—Free with Kindle Unlimited.

You can find out more about me here, and see some of my books here.

white ceramic teacup with saucer near two books above gray floral textile
Book Review

Review: Hidden in the Mists

I had planned to review Hidden in the Mists by Christina Courtenay later this month. However, as it is shortlisted for the Romantic Novelists’ Association‘s Fantasy Romantic Novel Award 2023, I’ve brought the review forward.

Like Joanna Maitland’s To A Blissful Christmas Reunion (which I review here), this book is a great example of the use of a thinning veil between past and present.

Review: Hidden in the Mists

Review: Hidden in the Mists. Sea shore on Islay, Scotland. Scene of Viking raids. Good landing place for Asta's boat. Pic by Fixers Andy via Pixabay

Set on the west coast of Scotland, Hidden in the Mists weaves together two narrative threads. It does this seamlessly, moving between 2022 and AD890.

Stressed and isolated, Skye Logan is looking out over the shore close to her home. She sees a hazy female figure in strange clothing jump out of a boat. The woman carries a sack into nearby woodland.

Bleak Present and Dark Ages

Skye puts the vision down to stress and lack of sleep. Her soon-to-be ex-husband Craig has abandoned her, after alienating half the locals.

The woman Skye saw, Ásta ThorfinnsdÓttir, was off to bury the wealth of her father, Thorfinn. He has died, leaving Ásta alone, and in danger from her horrible cousin Ketill. The hoard should have guaranteed Ásta the loyalty of the men who had supported her father. Ketill has other ideas. Knowing that Thorfinn’s men killed innocent people to amass his treasure, Ásta cannot bring herself to profit by it. She even casts away a gold arm ring given to her by her father.

Skye employs drifter Rafe to help her on the smallholding for a few weeks during the summer of 2022. He is a useful jack-of-all-trades. Skye and Rafe are drawn to each other, despite each of them having guilty secrets. Skye doesn’t want to admit to anyone that her marriage has broken down. Rafe is escaping from a past which eventually catches up with him.

Viking Ketill wants Ásta to run his household, when she should be leading the settlement. Óttarr, kidnapped as a teenager by Ásta’s father, burns with the need to take revenge on his kidnappers. Two exciting climaxes, one in Skye’s world and one in Ásta’s, bring Hidden in the Mists to a satisfying conclusion.

A Great Read

I thoroughly recommend this book. Hidden in the Mists combines the dual timelines perfectly, and the heroines and their heroes are believable and likeable. Their intertwined stories are rich with detail. Christina Courtenay describes smallholding and foraging well, and I couldn’t resist Skye’s dogs, Pepsi and Cola.

I loved the Viking-period detail. Things like Ásta’s bitter curse The trolls take Ketill, and bathing wounds in sea-water really stuck in my mind.

There was only one thing about Hidden in the Mists I didn’t care for. That was Rafe’s man-bun. I like contemporary heroes to have short hair!

You can find out more about me here, and see some of my own books here.

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Blog, Writing

Become A Better Writer By…


Becoming a better writer starts with confidence. The first step in reaching any goal is telling yourself you can do it. It doesn’t matter if your goal is writing a novel, creating a collection of poems, or keeping a journal.

…Believing In Yourself

Becoming a Better Writer: get a business card. Photo by Hans via Pixabay

If you want to be a writer, give yourself that job title from Day One. Then work at it with all your might. Whether or not you are published, as soon as you put words down on the page, you become an author. Celebrate that fact! Create your own business card and keep it in your phone case. Seeing it every time you use your phone will remind you of your ultimate goal. Your first business card can be as simple as a hand-written, cut-down postcard. Include your writing name, email address, and that vital word ‘author’. As soon as you can afford it, order a small supply of business cards from somewhere like Vistaprint or Canva. Then when the time comes you’ll have something to hand out to your readers, and book stores.


Writers are supposed to avoid using clichés, but practice really does make perfect. Here comes another favourite saying—I wish I had a pound for every time someone has said to me; ‘I’d love to be a writer, but I don’t have the time,’ or, ‘I’d love to be a writer, but I don’t have the inspiration.’ If you care about your ideas and you are willing to work at them, the words will come. The more time you invest in writing, the better you will become.

Become A Better Writer By—Writing!

Entering competitions teaches you to write to a deadline. Some offer a paid-for critique service, which is helpful. Attending conferences and workshops will give you ideas and advice, but in the end how much your writing improves is up to you. If you wait until you are in the mood to write, you might as well give up now. You have to put in the work, whether or not you, or the words are in the mood to play along. As long ago as 1911, Mary Heaton Vorse came out with the perfect advice to writers everywhere; ‘The art of writing is the art of applying the seat of the pants to the seat of the chair.’

yellow black pencil sharpened above the white paper in macro photography Becoming a better writer by writing
Photo by Lisa Fotios on Pexels.com


Writing goals keep you on track and give you something to aim for. The SMART system is really useful for writers. The individual letters of the word stand for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Time sensitive. Saying; ‘I want to write a book’ is woolly. There’s neither detail nor urgency about it.

I will have written a book at least 70,000 words long by 31st December this year is specific. It’s measurable, because at the end of the year you will either have reached your goal, or you won’t.

Writing a book of that length in a year is both achievable, and realistic. All you have to do is write 109 words every day for 365 days. Want an idea of what that daily total looks like? There are more words than that in the first nine sentences of this blog.

Set a Goal

Becoming a better writer takes self-belief, practice, and a definite goal. If you sit down, concentrate, and write a few lines every day, it will soon become a habit—like cleaning your teeth or brushing your hair.

Why don’t you share your writing goals for 2023?

You can find out more about me here, and see some of my books here.

Blog, gardening

Looking Down and Looking Up

Last time, I wrote about facing up and facing down. This week I’ve put a twist on that idea. I’m looking up and looking down.

brown and black hen with peep of chick outdoor looking down at food and looking up to mum
Photo by Quang Nguyen Vinh on Pexels.com

Poultry in the United Kingdom has been in lockdown for months, because of Avian Flu. Our little flock can’t run about the garden any more. They are in an enclosure, well away from wild birds.  I go out each evening to shut the hen coop door. They’re completely safe from foxes within their run, but it keeps the birds warmer. I collect the feeder and empty the drinkers, so the contents won’t freeze overnight.

Down On The Ground

As the torch beam swept across the garden one evening this week, I spotted something.  There, against the dark earth was one small shoot of garlic. I could hardly believe it. At a local food festival last October I’d bought a head of garlic for planting. The cloves had shot up so fast, I ordered another three heads direct from the suppliers.  These arrived in early November. The weather was still very mild, so I expected them to grow as fast as the original cloves.

Then the autumn rains started. Weeks went by without a single dry day. Christmas came and went, and there was still no sign of my second planting of garlic cloves. I thought they must have rotted off in the wet ground.

Now here was one brave survivor after more than two months hidden away in the sodden soil.  It was too cold to hang about that night, but I told myself that if one clove had managed to survive, there should be others.

Looking Up

Next morning I went out at 7am to open the hen coop. There had been a dusting of snow, but the sky had cleared. Looking up, I saw the full moon glowing gold. It was low over the Sitka plantation, but high in the sky a flock of redwings called as they flew over to the orchards of Herefordshire.

The moonlight was so bright it was almost light enough to see what I was doing without the torch. A covering of snow on the frozen, sloping path made the going tricky. I had to watch my step. As I filled the drinkers and put out the poultry feeder, I could hear a hen purring in her sleep. Then a fox barked from the other side of the hazel thicket, and she went quiet.

Looking down at garlic cloves beside spices and leaves
Photo by Karolina Grabowska on Pexels.com

After I had finished with the hens, I went to check on the garlic. The one shoot I had seen the night before was no fluke. Just enough snow had fallen overnight to throw more shoots into relief against the soil surface. While my fingers and toes turned into icicles I counted twenty four little nibs.  Together with the dozen plants which had shot up back in the autumn, it’s tempting to think there will be plenty of fat garlic cloves for the kitchen this year.  I’m already planning to get more varieties from The Garlic Farm for planting in autumn this year.

Are you planning to do any gardening this year?

You can find out more about me here, and see some of my books here.