Blog
April
Saturday 2nd April 2022
I’ve not written a blog for 2 months. To be honest, I haven’t written much in the past 3 months. Life, or to be more accurate our move, had caught up with me. I have moved a lot in my life—back and forth from one US coast to another 3 times, up and down the US east coast 1 time, across the Atlantic 4 times. In Portland Maine alone—5 moves. In Minneapolis—4. Sometimes the moves were because I was changing a…
January 2022
Monday 3rd January 2022
As I write this, snow is continuing to fall at quite a rate at my home on the Eastern Shore. Having spent most of my life living in states (5) bordering Canada, snow is nothing new to me. In fact, I really love it, especially when I don’t have to go anywhere in a hurry. I can write a lot about snow—how light it feels when it settles on your face, how hard it can feel when hit by a well-packed snowball, how quiet it is when…
November
Thursday 4th November 2021
It’s been a little over a week since our container was delivered to our door and our furniture and roughly 200 boxes were unloaded. We’re all unpacked now and gradually getting our house in order. Writing has temporarily taken a back seat but I will be back at it very soon. But this doesn’t mean the writing has stopped. I can unpack a box and…
October 2021
Sunday 3rd October 2021
We're waiting for our ship to come in…literally! We packed up our house and moved to the USA from the UK in late…
September 2021
Wednesday 1st September 2021
Ahh September. A month for beginnings. We’re beginning to settle into life in Maryland, still living with a couch, a TV, a bed, and an outdoor table and chairs on loan from a dear neighbor. The container with our goods has finally left our UK removal company’s warehouse and is sitting on a dock—in a UK bay—waiting to be loaded onto a container ship due into a nearby port in the USA at the end of September. I’m trying not to think about the fact this is hurricane season and as I sit here writing this on our porch I am noticing the wind picking up as we await the tail end of Ida before she…
August
Sunday 1st August 2021
Well, we made it. After all the pre-move pitfalls (read June’s BLOG if you’re interested in the details) we made the trip from the UK to the USA. Halfway through our BA flight, the air hostess handed us a slip of paper from the New York Center for Disease Control telling us regardless of having had to take a Zoom Covid test conducted with a doctor and having the signed paperwork to prove it and having proof of having been…
July - on the road again!
Friday 2nd July 2021
Note to self: don’t make an international move during a pandemic. Unfortunately I didn’t get the memo until after my husband and I had packed up and sold our UK house, bought a house in Maryland (over the internet) and just a week ago were halfway over the Atlantic with our dog. This was the first chance we’d had to take a breath and it almost came as a huge surprise, as if I was awakening from a dream. We had actually done…
June
Thursday 3rd June 2021
I missed April and May—wanted to finish Taking the Sun and then we got busy! As I write this I am sitting between two tables laden with stuff to be packed into boxes and eventually loaded into a container for yet another trip of our belongings across the Atlantic—4th time! After over a year of discussing the pros and cons of doing this, we are planning to move to the USA. We both have dual citizenship (UK and USA) and some would say we are fortunate to have the choice as to which country to live in. But sometimes having lots of choices…
March 2021
Monday 1st March 2021
It might have escaped your notice, but I didn’t do a February Blog. I was ‘on a roll’ finishing up my latest book,…
January 2021
Friday 1st January 2021
A new year. I’m hopeful we can keep all the good things about 2020 and never revisit the bad. My list of the good—clear, blue, pollution-free skies; hearing bird song and not traffic noise, helping to support folks in our village; learning to plan meals ahead and become a better cook; making time to sit outside and enjoy the sun, read, and listen to…
December
Wednesday 2nd December 2020
I flipped the calendar over to December and other than eating a chocolate from my Advent Calendar the day was lost on me. I was busy and forgot all the jobs I should have done on the first of a month--writing my blog, giving my dog her monthly flea and tick pill, weighing myself—the day came and went like any other. It wasn’t until the middle of last night I realized it was 24 days till Christmas! And then I began remembering Christmases past… First there were the childhood memories of growing up in Geneva, New York, where the best sledding hill around was our own back yard and there was always tons of snow.…
November
Sunday 1st November 2020
I didn’t do a blog for October. I was feeling quite agitated by the end of September and couldn’t seem to focus my attention. September is usually a ‘traveling month’ and this year it was not going to happen. After much deliberation, my husband and I decided to…
September
Tuesday 1st September 2020
There was no August blog--I was deep in the process of editing Stealing Thunder, now available through Amazon. And now it's September. Ahh September. I’ve written about this before—how the first of September is my NEW YEAR. In the past, it might have…
July
Friday 3rd July 2020
Stealing Thunder, my latest book, is finally finished and I’m halfway through the editing process. One would think with all this social distancing I should have written…
June
Wednesday 3rd June 2020
May was not a month I necessarily want to remember. There was a couple of highlights—my husband and I celebrated 20 years of marriage and our dog Abbey turned 6. But by the end of the month we had been under 10 weeks of lockdown, my godson had coronavirus and was in a hospital in Portland, Maine, (and is doing very well) and George Floyd had been killed by the Minneapolis police, inciting peaceful protests but also igniting looting…
May
Friday 1st May 2020
I started a journal when ‘lockdown’ began. I hope when I re-read it (if I do!) in ten or fifteen years this whole period feels like a hazy story—with highs and lows. I hope I remember the good things about this ‘lockdown’ period and take to heart the things I’ve learned. I have had moments of real joy—where a simple thing like bird song…
April
Thursday 2nd April 2020
In the far reaches of my mind—the part that files everything away for my writing—are constantly emerging plots, characters, locations. But…
March 2020
Sunday 1st March 2020
I didn’t write a blog for February. After receiving a lot of advice about this, I spent time advertising my books on Facebook for December—stepping WAY out of my comfort zone. When the ‘campaign’ was over I really felt I needed to pull back a bit. Please don’t get me wrong—I do want my books to be read,…
January 2020
Friday 3rd January 2020
Today is the first day I have had since the first of September when I didn’t have much of the day planned—when there wasn’t a list of ‘jobs’ that needed to be done straight away. This is not a complaint—I like having some structure to my life even if it is dictated by jobs I don’t like (cleaning, for instance). And this doesn’t mean there aren’t jobs that need doing. ‘Christmas’ needs to be carefully packed away (including our tree!!) for another year; table cloths from our New Year’s All Day family brunch (there were 25 of us) need to be ironed, it’s time for our annual…
December 2019
Monday 2nd December 2019
As we near the winter solstice, the sun barely makes it over the top of our back hedge (okay, it’s a pretty tall hedge) before plunging out of site like a nightshade drawn down. And then it is pitch…
November
Saturday 2nd November 2019
I’m a day late, but I THINK I have a pretty good excuse. Yesterday, November 1, I finished the first edit of my new Breaking Camp Mystery, CAUTION TO THE WIND. I’m really, really happy with it and am especially fond of the ending. I wasn’t sure how it was going to end until it ended. And this brings me to this month’s blog. I have no idea how other writer’s work. Truth be told, I don’t want to know—I know what works for me and I’m a big believer in ‘if it isn’t broken, don’t fix it’. But this morning as I was doing a week’s worth of chores, I got to thinking about how I work. It…
October
Tuesday 1st October 2019
My husband and I have recently returned from a wonderful trip to the USA. We visited places I had been before—the Teton Mountains, Yellowstone National Park, Durango-Silverton Railway, Mesa Verde, Monument Valley, Flagstaff and finished in San Diego with a couple of days at Balboa Park and the Zoo. But these were all new sites to my British husband and it was a real pleasure showing him places I’ve visited and love. We did a lot of driving—endless miles through prairies with the promise of mountains in the distance, desert landscapes with cactus and rock,…
September
Sunday 1st September 2019
It’s the first of September and as usual I find myself ‘seasonally stimulated’. When I was young, September was all about the excitement of going to school, meeting new friends (especially the boys), learning new things, moving one step closer to being a grownup—and independence! I was preparing for an exciting year--for changes! I would have thought as I aged, that anticipation would die down. But it hasn’t. September is still a time of preparation and change for me. Maybe I was a squirrel in my former life and I’m channeling my…
August
Thursday 1st August 2019
Who is this person? This is a question I kept asking myself as I worked my way through the thousand photos—printed and slides—that I was determined to digitize. Once I was finished with this project, there’d be no more lugging around the cumbersome weight of forty-plus photograph albums or boxes of slides (not to mention the gear to view the slides). This past weekend was spent scanning in the last few albums—photos of myself and my siblings through high school. It became an eerie, disconcerting experience. The images of myself, my three brothers, and sister were hauntingly…
July 2019
Sunday 7th July 2019
I am super late with my July Blog because my husband Roy, our border terrier Abbey, and I have been to Wales for the past week. This was a completely spontaneous event in direct response to my husband lamenting that we had not made any holiday plans for this summer. My idea of ‘going away for a holiday’ is to anyplace outside the British Isles.…
June 2019
Monday 3rd June 2019
My decision a couple of years ago to start a monthly blog attached to my website was for two reasons—to try and nurture/retain an interest in my books from new and existing readers, especially in the time between book releases, and as a way of instilling some discipline into my life. I need deadlines and I do try to…
May 2019
Thursday 2nd May 2019
Last month I wrote about the satisfaction I got from typing the words THE END as I finished my latest book, Those Who Wait. After the past three intensive weeks spent editing- and re-editing, (no mean feat during ‘birthday month’ when our family celebrates 7 immediate family birthdays!) I feel my book is now DONE. Those Who Wait is out today, 2nd May 2019, on Amazon! I’m excited to release this book partly because I think it is a good, entertaining read, and partly because it means I can start another book! Book 4 in my Breaking Camp Mystery Series will be called Caution to the Wind.…
April 2019
Monday 1st April 2019
One of the greatest satisfactions in my writing life is when I type the words THE END. I did this two days ago when I finished the novel I began writing last May. I am hoping THOSE WHO WAIT will be available on Amazon by this May. I had been using a working title up until the day I finished my novel, and then not only the title, but the cover design for my book came…
March 2019
Saturday 2nd March 2019
It was one of those March days when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold: when it is summer in the light, and winter in the shade.—Charles Dickens. Growing up in and living in a number of states bordering Canada,…
February 2019
Sunday 3rd February 2019
My husband and I recently attended a showing of The Wife at our village movie night. If you aren’t familiar with it, it’s the story of an American who has just won the Pulitzer Prize in Literature. As he travels to Stockholm with his wife and son to accept his award, his relationship with his wife and her relationship…
January 2019
Saturday 5th January 2019
The tree is down. Ornaments and decorations are all gently packed away for next Christmas. Our house looks refreshingly stark, like it’s just been decorated by someone from Scandinavia. Outside, the trees are bare, the bones of their branches fully exposed; limp plants straggle across our lifeless garden. Even the fleeting sun, which barely breaches the top of our hedge, brings little warmth. It is winter. Throughout the entire busy holiday season I’ve been fighting bronchitis, exacerbated by chronic asthma. The bronchial coughing brought on back problems. Now coughing really hurts. Forcing myself to…
December 2018
Monday 3rd December 2018
Every year at this time I write a reasonably short letter to go with our Christmas cards. With family on both sides of the Atlantic this has always felt like a good way to keep in touch and I enjoy receiving and reading letters…
November 2018
Tuesday 6th November 2018
When I first started to do BLOGS for my website, I set myself the goal of trying to always turn out a new one the first of every month. Plans this month have gone haywire. I started November’s BLOG on October 31st and I’m still struggling.…
October Blog
Monday 1st October 2018
My husband and I did a fair amount of traveling in September. The travel proved to be very nostalgic for me, returning first to Seattle (last time was in 1995!) and then…
September Blog
Saturday 1st September 2018
It’s here again! September! It’s always been a month of changes for me, with many new beginnings in my history. I’ve always been very peripatetic, finding it difficult to settle in a home or even in a state. And lately, as my husband and I evaluate what we’d like our retirement life to be like, we’re also considering which country to live in- IF we do move, it will be my 4th across the Atlantic. We have now officially been fully settled in our…
August 2018
Wednesday 1st August 2018
ON THE MOVE My novels always involve some form of movement. My “Breaking Camp Mystery Series” takes a retired couple travelling all across America. My novels As Clear as Glass and Running from the Moon move readers through centuries. For a Rainy Day moves across countries and Winter Pursuit takes readers across decades and continents. The journey is what shapes my characters, changing…
July 2018
Sunday 1st July 2018
Time is Passing. Are You? These words were printed above a doorway at Glenwood High School, in Canton, Ohio. I passed under those words every day during…
June 2018
Monday 4th June 2018
I’m late again, but this time I have an excuse I’d just as soon not have. A little over two weeks ago I woke up to the news that my brother Dave, two years younger than me and my nearest sibling, had died suddenly in his home. It was a chronic heart condition that took him, despite his belief—and recent assurances to his family—that all was reasonably…
May 2018
Tuesday 1st May 2018
When I first left home, September 1971, at the age of 19, I could fit all my possessions into my VW Bug. All my clothes, my records, record player—everything! After a year at Bowling Green State University, I needed to try my wings, and leaving the nest for the first time meant moving from Ohio to Florida. This was the beginning of A LOT of moves- back and forth across America, and more recently, three times across the Atlantic. (The photo is of my black VW bug somewhere in the middle of South Dakota with my brother Darrell, who traveled with me when I moved from Portland,…
April 2018
Sunday 1st April 2018
I have just finished Between a Rock, my latest book in my BREAKING CAMP MYSTERY SERIES. I had hoped to have it through its final edit and on sale by spring, but spring is late coming to England this year, and I’m afraid I’m a bit late as well! One of the more onerous tasks of self-publishing is self-editing. I have always hated going back over anything I’ve done before—but I…
March 2018
Thursday 1st March 2018
As I write this on the last day of February (yes, I’ll be on time with my BLOG this month!) it is snowing- the British have named these past 3 days of cold temperatures and snowfalls the ‘Beast from the East’ and where I live we’ve had an accumulation of about 5”. I grew up in snow—in the aptly named town of Geneva, in New York State, where snowfalls were often marked in feet. And for most of my life I’ve…
February 2018
Monday 5th February 2018
On February 1st, I was sitting alone in our family room, looking up through the skylights at the brilliant blue sky (unusual for England, especially in winter) and said aloud, “Dad, if…
January 2018
Thursday 4th January 2018
FOLLOWING THE YELLOW BRICK ROAD I wish you all a happy and healthy New Year! “The old year now hath passed away”…words from an old Lutheran hymn and so appropriate for a NEW YEAR. I didn’t get that quite right one time- I was working for a church and in typing up the Sunday morning ‘bulletin’ or program, I mistakenly listed the hymn title as “The old year now hath pissed away” and didn’t catch…
December
Monday 4th December 2017
My father always said I was “a day late and a dollar short”, and so, keeping in character, I am ‘late’ with my blog! I love the sense of peace I feel during Advent when the days are short and the sun teases as it barely clears the treetops. I love Christmas!- the music, the Christmas plays, shows, movies, the hand-crafted decorations, and the hand-made food. I love the story of the birth of Jesus, and the sheer incredibleness of God appearing to man in the form…
November
Wednesday 1st November 2017
I’ve been reading Lucy Worsley’s biography about Jane Austen (Lucy is a UK historian & TV presenter). At the same time I’m reading Northanger Abbey and I’m watching Sense and Sensibility. I’ve never read Jane Austen before and I must admit there are sentences I’m re-reading several times in order to ‘get it’. But I’m going to persevere because I want to get to know this author; my curiosity about her has been aroused thanks to Lucy’s book. One thing that intrigues me is that Jane appears to me to be very much influenced in her…
October
Sunday 8th October 2017
TRAVELLING HOME I’m late with my October blog because my husband and I have just returned from a two week trip to America- it had been 18 months since I…
SEPTEMBER
Sunday 3rd September 2017
September—the month of autumn and all my favorite colors—is frequently the time when I check my compass bearing and make sure I’m headed in a direction I want to go. Often correcting my course means making a move—which I’ve done several times from coast to coast and in between! Which brings me to Mary Tyler Moore. (For readers not familiar with Mary Tyler…
AUGUST
Tuesday 1st August 2017
It’s the middle of summer and I’m working on another book in my Breaking Camp Series. This time the Trasks are visiting the Black Hills of South Dakota. I’ve been through this area three times. The first time was when my family visited on a camping trip- we set up our Coleman Apache pop-up camper right on the shores of stunning Sylvan Lake. This was an exciting trip—we’d only been in the campground for maybe half an hour when my sister, standing too close to a fisherman,…