Thursday 31 May 2012

Thursday Tour - my personal link to Euxton

Euxton (pronounced ‘Exton’) is a small village in Central Lancashire. The main road in the village was the Roman road called Watling Street which ran from south to north through Lancashire and on to  Hadrian’s Wall, the border with Scotland. In the middle ages this road became the main north-south packhorse route, and there is still a packhorse bridge near to where the modern road crosses the River Yarrow.

Prior to World War II, a large Royal Ordnance Factory was built at Euxton. It became one of the largest munitions filling factory in the world, employing over 28,000 people at the height of the war. It’s said that the bouncing bombs used in the Dambusters Raid were made there. Safety precautions involved twenty feet high grass embankments to deflect any explosion skywards instead of across to any adjacent buildings. There were also extensive underground armament magazines.

Which brings me to my personal link with Euxton.  In 1942 my father, who was serving with the Royal Army Ordnance Corps during the war, was posted to Euxton for about a year. As my mother lived in their home town of Preston, only a few miles away, he was able to visit her when he was off-duty. That could explain why I was born the following year!

Tuesday 29 May 2012

'Official' Release Party

Please come and join me at my release party for 'Changing the Future' at
http://theromancewritersreads.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/changing-future-by-paula-martin-release.html

There's an excerpt (with a sizzling kiss!), and I answer Elise's questions about my writing and about me!  You can also enter the 'Rafflecopter' for a chance to win an e-copy of my book!

Free (virtual) cakes and drinks, and lots of party balloons! Let the fun begin (and it's going on from today, Tuesday, until Friday)

Sunday 27 May 2012

Six Sentence Sunday

Another six sentences from my new novel, 'Changing the Future' which was released earlier this month.
Blurb: Lisa Marshall is stunned when celebrated volcanologist Paul Hamilton comes back into her life at the college where she now teaches. Despite their acrimonious break-up several years earlier, they soon realise the magnetic attraction between them is stronger than ever. However, the past is still part of the present, not least when Paul discovers Lisa has a young son. They can’t change that past, but will it take a volcanic eruption to help them change the future?

This six comes straight after Lisa has caught sight of Paul for the first time on the college campus and made an excuse to avoid meeting him.

Maybe she’d imagined it, maybe it hadn’t been him at all, but simply someone who looked like him - walked like him, tilted his head in the same way, pushed back the hair from his forehead with the same mannerism. 

Her shoulders sagged. No, of course it was Paul.

Bringing hands up to her cheeks, she shook her head as she tried to think. Why on earth was he here in the Lake District? It was light years away from their apartment in North London, her job with the BBC and Paul’s high-profile research at London University; light years, too, from the life of love and laughter they’d once shared, until it had all gone wrong.

'Changing the Future' is available at $3.99 on Amazon

Many thanks to everyone who visits my page each Sunday :-)



Thursday 24 May 2012

Thursday Tour - the lovely village of Downham


Downham is a small village at the foot of Pendle Hill (more of that in a later post when I look at the story of the 'Pendle Witches'). It’s claimed to be one of the loveliest villages in Lancashire, with a real ‘village green’ complete with a small stream, and stone cottages. When I was a child, my cousin and I loved to splash about in the stream near the old stone bridge.

Downham Hall has been owned by the Assheton family since the 13th century. A large stone by the entrance to the Hall is said to mark the grave of two Roman legionaries who died on the Roman road during trouble with the local Celtic tribe of Brigantes. The Asshetons were also responsible for building new homes in the village in the 19th century, restoring the church and providing a school for the children.

The present owner of the hall, Lord Clitheroe of Downham, does not allow any overhead electricity lines, aerials or satellite dishes in the village. This makes it a popular place for filming period dramas. The original “Whistle Down the Wind” was filmed here in the early 60’s with the child-star Hayley Mills. Children from local schools played other parts in the film and endeared themselves to the cinema audiences everywhere with their broad Lancashire accents!

Sunday 20 May 2012

Six Sentence Sunday

Another six from my new novel, 'Changing the Future' which was released last week!

Blurb: Lisa Marshall is stunned when celebrated volcanologist Paul Hamilton comes back into her life at the college where she now teaches. Despite their acrimonious break-up several years earlier, they soon realise the magnetic attraction between them is stronger than ever. However, the past is still part of the present, not least when Paul discovers Lisa has a young son. They can’t change that past, but will it take a volcanic eruption to help them change the future?

This six comes straight after Lisa has caught sight of Paul for the first time on the college campus.

Dimly she heard Millie call out something about coffees in the cafeteria. The world had receded and she was aware only of the painful pounding in her chest. Shock mixed with incredulity, and her mind simply refused to believe what her eyes had seen.

When she reached the Old House, she went straight to the ladies’ room. To her relief, no one else was there. She didn’t dare think, didn’t dare allow herself to feel anything, not until she’d managed to control the trembling which was shaking her whole body.

'Changing the Future' is available at $3.99 on Amazon

Many thanks to everyone who visits my page each Sunday :-)


Friday 18 May 2012

Answering your Questions

Last week, I asked you for questions, either about my latest release, 'Changing the Future' or about writing in general. I was delighted to receive so many interesting questions, in fact too many to answer in just one blog-post. So I've divided the questions into two sections.
Today, at Heroines with Hearts, I'm answering those specifically linked to 'Changing the Future', and tomorrow I'll be answering the more general questions about writing and getting published.
Hope you'll drop by to see my answers - http://heroineswithhearts.blogspot.com

Just as a teaser, here are some of the questions about my novel:

The volcano itself is a powerful image. Can you give us a few hints of how you used the symbol throughout your new book ‘Changing the Future’?

What attracted you to the idea of making your hero a volcanologist?

How did you research what volcanologists do? And do such experts share certain characteristics which you could show in your novel?

What was the hardest part of writing ‘Changing the Future’, and what was the easiest?

Tomorrow's blog will contain my answers to these questions (and more):

Your writing career has spanned decades. Aside from the obvious (electronic publishing, small presses, etc.) what do you feel has changed most about the romance genre in that time?

When you're working on a new book, do you outline ahead of time, or write as you go along?

Why do you write contemporary romance versus other types of romance, and would you consider expanding into other areas?



Thursday 17 May 2012

Thursday Tour - Clitheroe (and an astronaut)

Clitheroe is a small market town in the Ribble Valley and is a base for tourists visiting the nearby Forest of Bowland, designated as ‘an area of outstanding natural beauty.’.

One of Clitheroe’s ‘claims to fame’ is that its castle is reputedly the smallest Norman keep in England. The land between the rivers Mersey and Ribble was granted by William I to one of his supporters, Roger of Poitou, who may have built the keep around 1086. It seems more likely, however, that it was built by Robert de Lacy about a hundred years later, as the centre of estates in the area. On one side is a large hole which according to legend was the result of a giant hurling a huge boulder from Pendle Hill. A more prosaic explanation is that the during the English Civil War, the Royalists deliberately damaged the castle, so that it would be of no use to the Parliamentary forces.

Another link to past royalty was the ill-fated Lancastrian King Henry VI. On the run after being defeated by the Yorkists at the battle of Hexham in 1464, he was recaptured near to Brungerley Bridge which spans the River Ribble on the outskirts of Clitheroe.

My personal link with Clitheroe is because of the Girl Guide Training Centre, called Waddow Hall, which stands on the opposite bank of the river to the town. I’ve lost count of how many training weekends I attended there.

Probably my most abiding memory, however, is of a Commonwealth event ten years ago. We had several hundred girls from all over the world camping there – and it rained! Not just a few showers but almost non-stop rain for over a week! The campsite became a sea of mud and the girls had to be evacuated to the house, where their sleeping bags and rucksacks covered every inch of spare floor.

During that event, too, we had a guest speaker who just happened to be Canada's first woman astronaut. One afternoon I took her into Clitheroe as she wanted to do some shopping. Believe me, nothing seems more surreal than driving down Clitheroe’s main street with an astronaut in your car!

Tuesday 15 May 2012

Release Day for 'Changing the Future'

My new contemporary romance, 'Changing the Future' is released today!

Lisa Marshall is stunned when celebrated volcanologist Paul Hamilton comes back into her life at the college where she now teaches. Despite their acrimonious break-up several years earlier, they soon realise the magnetic attraction between them is stronger than ever. However, the past is still part of the present, not least when Paul discovers Lisa has a young son. They can’t change that past, but will it take a volcanic eruption to help them change the future?

You can find it at Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk where you can have a sneak peek at the first chapter. It's also available in various formats at Smashwords, Monkeybars, and Lulu.

Here's a small teaser for you:

Without a word, he took the book from her hands and put it on the bookcase, his eyes never leaving her face. For a long moment, he gazed at her, and then leant forward, cupped her face in his hands and kissed her.

Her instinctive reaction was to push him away, and she brought her hands up to his shoulders, but her mind suddenly stopped working.

His mouth was soft, his tongue tenderly explored her lower lip and she couldn’t think. She was aware only of the surge of need, quivering down her spine, igniting every nerve ending, and flooding her with warmth.

Helplessly, she parted her lips and his tongue slid inside, still infinitely tender, probing, seeking, and finding hers. Her head swam, her knees started to give way and a small gasp escaped from her throat. His arms tightened around her, pulling her firmly against him. Their tongues met in a sensual entwining which melted every bone in her body. She let her head fall back when his mouth moved across her cheek to her earlobe, alternately nibbling and kissing. His tongue trailed a line down her neck and she writhed at the delicious sensations which heated her skin.

She gripped his shoulders and made no resistance when he moved one hand to stroke her shoulder and then her upper arm. As his hand folded around her breast and his thumb and finger caressed the hard nub of her nipple through her thin blouse, a hot flame shot through her. Her body arched against his and she felt the warm dampness between her legs.

Desire ran riot through her. She yearned for him, longed to see the look in his eyes as he made love to her, to hear his breathless gasp of her name when he reached the edge, and then to lose herself completely with him in the ecstasy of completion.

"I want you,” he whispered, his mouth still nuzzling her neck.

Reality returned like a pistol shot. Panic-stricken,she pushed him away. “What the hell are we doing?”

On Thursday, I will be at KMN Books, telling you how this developed from a story written over 30 years ago to today's published book. Believe me, it's gone through a lot of changes from that first story!

And on Friday I shall be at our group blog, Heroines with Hearts, answering the questions which were posted here last weekend when I asked for some questions! Wow, I got some amazing questions, particularly about my volcanologist hero, and also about Lisa's son.

Hope you'll join me at those two events - and maybe ask some of your own questions!

Monday 14 May 2012

First Loves Blogfest


This blogfest is the idea of Alex J Cavanaugh, one of the hosts of the A-Z Challenge. There are 144 bloggers taking part so please visit some of them at http://alexjcavanaugh.blogspot.co.uk

The Blogfest challenge is to write about our first loves – first movie, first song/band, first book and first person, so here goes:

First Movie
The first movie I ever saw at the cinema was Cinderella, and that was when it was first released (yes, I’m old enough to remember that!). I was six at the time, and my aunt was going to meet me after school and take me to the cinema. I was so excited and when it got to afternoon playtime, I went to collect my coat and was standing waiting for my aunt at the school gate. I didn’t understand why everyone else was still in the playground and not leaving for home, until I eventually realised it wasn’t yet hometime! I had to curb my excitement and impatience and go back into school for the last lesson of the day. Anyway, hometime finally came, my aunt was there waiting for me, and off we went into town. The movie completely lived up to all my expectations, and I loved it. In fact I think I was singing Bibbity-bobbity-boo for weeks afterwards.

First Song
Again we go way back into the past. Although I grew up in the 50’s and ‘saw’ the birth of rock and roll including Bill Haley’s Rock Around the Clock, and of course Elvis with Heartbreak Hotel, it was actually a ballad in 1958 which became my real first love – A Certain Smile by Johnny Mathis. I won’t tell you whose ‘certain smile' it always reminded me of, since that is buried in the past too, but I only had to hear those first soaring sounds of the intro, and my heart would do a double-flip!


First Book
I was a voracious reader from a very young age. We couldn’t afford books then (they were all hardbacks when I was a child), so my Mum took me to the library each week, where I could choose two books. I loved school stories especially those by Enid Blyton, and also Ruby Ferguson’s pony books.
The one book I loved most though was called ‘The Swish of the Curtain’ by a 14-year-old writer, Pamela Brown. It was about seven young people who formed an amateur theatrical group and put on their own shows. I think I was already stage-struck when I read it, and it cemented my on-going love of the theatre. It’s recently been re-released in paperback (and slightly updated, so I understand) but I still have my original copy which I could never bear to throw away!

First Person
Leaving out the obvious first people you love i.e. your parents, I’ll go for my first ‘young love’. We were both 9 and he was called Edward. He lived in the big house just inside the gates to the park near where I lived. His dad was the park keeper or ‘parky’, as we called them then, whose job was to patrol and supervise the park. If you behaved yourself, you had nothing to fear from the parky but his appearance anywhere near the children’s playground made everyone nervous in case he caught us doing something we shouldn’t.
Edward hated being the parky’s son. He and I often walked to school together, and he said he could never play on the swings or slide because the other kids thought he would go running off to tell his dad if anyone did anything they shouldn’t. He was very shy and that was made worse by the taunts of other kids at times. I was teased, too, about Edward being my ‘boyfriend’.
Our school had a Rose Queen Festival every June, and our class of 9 and 10 year olds did the maypole dancing at the Festival. Edward and I were chosen as the lead partners, so we go to know each other really well during all the rehearsals. On the big day we were both very nervous, but we managed to do all our dances correctly and didn’t get the ribbons tangled!

We were friends for over a year, until at 11, we went off to different High Schools and lost contact when his father got a different job and they moved away from the park. I sometimes wonder what happened to him!


Sunday 13 May 2012

Six Sentence Sunday

Another six from my new novel, 'Changing the Future' which will be released in three days' time (May 15th - woohoo!) by Rebecca J. Vickery Publishing.  Thank you all so much for your fantastic reponses to my first excerpt last Sunday.

Last week, Lisa was incredulous when she realised the man walking across the college campus was Paul.

For an insane moment, she wanted to run towards him, be scooped up in his arms again, see the laughter in his blue eyes, feel his soft and sensual mouth against hers.

Stunned by her reaction, by feelings she thought she’d totally suppressed, she stopped abruptly. Another thirty seconds and they’d come face-to-face. Total panic made her heart thump against her ribs.

“I-I’ve just remembered—er, I need some—some class lists.” Without waiting for Millie to reply, she turned and half-ran back towards the Old House.

Here's the blurb for 'Changing the Future':
Lisa Marshall is stunned when celebrated volcanologist Paul Hamilton comes back into her life at the college where she now teaches. Despite their acrimonious break-up several years earlier, they soon realise the magnetic attraction between them is stronger than ever. However, the past is still part of the present, not least when Paul discovers Lisa has a young son. They can’t change that past, but will it take a volcanic eruption to help them change the future?

Please visit other Six Sentence authors here:


Saturday 12 May 2012

I need some questions!

Next Friday, on our Heroines with Hearts blog, we are doing something a little bit different. We usually have a Friday Friend i.e. a guest blogger (and if you would like a guest spot at some time, please let me know!)

Next week, however, I am going to be the 'Friday Friend' so I need some questions to answer! If you would like to ask me something (just one question is all I need!), please send it to me as a comment here.

It can be about any aspect of my writing/books. Maybe this blurb from 'Changing the Future' (which will be released next week) will give you a idea for a question!

Lisa Marshall is stunned when celebrated volcanologist Paul Hamilton comes back into her life at the college where she now teaches. Despite their acrimonious break-up several years earlier, they soon realise the magnetic attraction between them is stronger than ever. However, the past is still part of the present, not least when Paul discovers Lisa has a young son. They can’t change that past, but will it take a volcanic eruption to help them change the future?

Or, if you would like to know more about me, pop into my website at http://paulamartinromances.webs.com/aboutme.htm

Look forward to receiving a question from you!

Many thanks! 

Thursday 10 May 2012

Thursday Tour - today it's Blackpool

If you asked anyone in North West England (and probably other places too) to name a Lancashire town starting with ‘B’, the chances are that most of them would say Blackpool. There are quite a lot of Lancashire towns starting with 'B' but Blackpool is the most famous.


It's the main seaside resort in North West England and has been a ‘seaside playground’ ever since the railway came to the small town in the 1840’s. This provided a cheap and easy way for the workers of Lancashire and Yorkshire to take a break from their long hours in the cotton mills, especially when the mills closed down for a week each summer. By the 1880’s, Blackpool was a booming resort with a promenade, piers, pubs, fish and chip shops, and donkey rides on the beach.

The Tower was built in 1894. Nearly 500 ft high, it was inspired by the Eiffel Tower in Paris, and resembles the upper part of that tower. Beneath the tower, there is a leisure complex, with restaurant and entertainment venues, including the famous Tower Ballroom with its huge Wurlitzer Organ.

Blackpool has three piers, each with shops and amusement arcades, and the area between the north and south piers is known as the ‘Golden Mile’, In the 19th century, small-time fairground operators, fortune-tellers, and café-owners set up their businesses along the seafront, and today the area still contains a plethora of amusement arcades, bingo stalls, souvenir shops and the inevitable fish and chip cafes, not forgetting the fortune-tellers either.

At the southern end of the promenade is the Pleasure Beach, a large amusement park dominated by Britain’s largest roller-coaster, known simply as the ‘Big One’.

With the advent of cheap air travel in the 1960’s, Blackpool’s tourism figures declined, but it still remains Britain’s favourite seaside resort. The extra attraction of ‘Blackpool Illuminations’ brings in thousands of visitors at a time when most seaside resorts’ tourist seasons are coming to an end. The Illuminations (or ‘Lights’ as they are often called) consist of a series of lighted displays and tableau, stretching along the entire sea front (about 7 miles), from dusk until midnight, usually from the end of August to the beginning of November. This often results in spectacular traffic snarl-ups on the promenade and on all the roads leading to it too. I’ve been stuck in those snarl-ups several times!


Tuesday 8 May 2012

Dear Jane - A Rejection Letter

This week's topic at Facebook Group GB2: Blog On is 'Parody'.  Well, I'm not sure whether this is fits the topic- but it's a kind of parody of a rejection letter to an author, using (and adapting) some of the phrases I once got in a rejection letter and adding other comments that an editor might give.

I wrote a shortened version of this for GB2 about a year ago, so some members of the group may remember it, but I'll offer the newly rewritten version and hope you enjoy it.

Dear Jane

Thank you for submitting your novel.  I enjoyed your depiction of manners, morality and marriage among the landed gentry.  Your writing is assured and capable, and your character development is strong.  However the romance between the hero and heroine was very slow to develop.  I would venture to say, too, that your hero is somewhat unlikeable, being a proud and disdainful character for much of the novel. His first proposal to the heroine is so laden with insults as to her lowly status, compared with his, that our readers will not find him an attractive hero at all.
Another problem is that other issues, subplots and secondary characters received more attention than the romance, and this is not what we are looking for right now. You devote far more time to the heroine's sisters (and, indeed, her friends, cousins and other relatives) than is appropriate in a romance novel.
I would also like to make the point that your first sentence 'It is a truth universally acknowledged' etc etc is not a very memorable opening for a novel. This is you, the author, making a vague statement, whereas your opening paragraph should take us straight to the thoughts or actions of one of the main protagonists.
One final point: if you wish to submit this story elsewhere, may I suggest that ‘First Impressions’ is not the best title, and that you might consider the hero’s pride and the heroine’s prejudice instead?
I wish you every success with your work. Unfortunately, it does not meet our current requirements.  
Yours faithfully (etc, etc)

Sunday 6 May 2012

Six Sentence Sunday

This month, I'm giving you some sixes from my new novel, 'Changing the Future', due for release on May 15th by Rebecca J Vickery Publishing. Here are six from page 2.

As Lisa’s gaze moved to the man walking across the lawn with Fiona, she frowned. There was something familiar about the tall, slim figure—the way he walked, and the way he tilted his head as he listened to Fiona.

Don’t be stupid, she told herself, but still couldn’t take her eyes off him. As the gap between them lessened, her blood started to run cold. It wasn’t—it couldn’t possibly be…

The man lifted his hand to flick back a stray strand of light brown hair from his forehead and she knew it was Paul.

Here is the 'blurb' for Changing the Future:
Lisa Marshall is stunned when celebrated volcanologist Paul Hamilton comes back into her life at the college where she now teaches. Despite their acrimonious break-up several years earlier, they soon realise the magnetic attraction between them is stronger than ever. However, the past is still part of the present, not least when Paul discovers Lisa has a young son. They can’t change that past, but will it take a volcanic eruption to help them change the future?


Thank you for all your comments on my previous excerpts.  Hope you'll enjoy these new ones!


Friday 4 May 2012

Alpha versus Beta

Today I'm talking about Alpha and Beta heroes at
http://booktrailershowcase.com/2012/05/04/alpha-minus-beta-plus-heroes/
Hope you'll pop in and tell me which you prefer!
You need to be registered/logged in with Wordpress to leave a comment - or you can leave a comment here.

Also, if you visit our Heroines with Hearts blogspot today, you can read Rosemary Gemmell's guest post about Writing for the Tween Market http://heroineswithhearts.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/friday-friend-rosemary-gemmell-and.html and find out more about her latest release 'Summer of the Eagles'.

Thursday 3 May 2012

Thursday Tour - today is A for Arnside.

As promised, following my ‘tour’ of the Lake District during the April A-Z blogging challenge, I’m extending the tour to cover other interesting places in North West England. It’ll be another A-Z tour, but with a new one each week, rather than each day! So hope you’ll join me on my ‘Thursday Tour’ of this part of England.

We start today at Arnside, a small seaside village in South Cumbria, where the wide estuary of the River Kent enters Morecambe Bay. From the promenade, with its small shops, you can look across the bay to the Lakeland hills.

When I was a child, we had several holidays at a guest house at Arnside. It operated on a ‘house-party’ basis, with a ‘host’ who arranged social activities during the day and informal entertainment in the evening. Often the same people came each year, and so we renewed friendships each summer. One summer, my parents acted as hosts for the week, and I felt very important when they let me give out quiz sheets, or when I was given a part to play in an evening concert.

I used to love playing on the beach and paddling, buying ice-cream at one of the small shops on the seafront, and watching the fishermen on the small stone pier.
It was exciting, too, to watch the steam trains (this was in the 1950’s) going along the stone viaduct across the Kent estuary. The viaduct, built in 1857, is over 500 yards long and has 51 arches. The trains always travelled slowly as there used to be a 30 mile per hour speed limit on the viaduct because of the danger of wind tunnels into the river valley.   

We used to go for guided walks during the day, often in the woods on Arnside Knott, a 520ft flat-topped wooded hill which overlooked the village. If the weather was clear, the view was fantastic.


One walk also took us to the ‘Fairy Steps’ where legend says that if you can get up or down the steps without touching the sides, the fairies will grant your wish. As the steps are so narrow at the top, I doubt the fairies have to grant very many wishes!



The tide comes in very fast from the bay into the river, and sirens go off before high tide each day. Sometimes, if there was a very high tide, especially in spring, we saw a spectacular tidal bore coming up the river.

Wednesday 2 May 2012

'Changing the Future'

I was going to have a day off from blogging today - but how can I when this morning I received the final version of the cover of my new novel, 'Changing the Future', due for release on May 15th by Rebecca Vickery Publishing. Cover design by Miss Mae.

Here it is:


And here's the 'blurb':
Lisa Marshall is stunned when celebrated volcanologist Paul Hamilton comes back into her life at the college where she now teaches. Despite their acrimonious break-up several years earlier, they soon realise the magnetic attraction between them is stronger than ever. However, the past is still part of the present, not least when Paul discovers Lisa has a young son. They can’t change that past, but will it take a volcanic eruption to help them change the future?

Tuesday 1 May 2012

Rest - what rest?

'Rest' is this week's topic for the Facebook Group 'The Writers' Post'.

Rest = Refreshing ease or inactivity after exertion or labour

After a month of daily blogging for the A-Z April Blogging Challenge, I need a rest! It’s not just the blogging, since I researched and wrote about half of the blogs before April began. I’ve spent far more time in April visiting other blogs, probably about 20-30 each day and leaving comments on most of them, as well as replying to comments on my own blog.

Don’t get me wrong – I really enjoy visiting blogs, and have made a lot of new friends during April as a result. However, it’s very time-consuming. Also, I like to do my main ‘networking’ in the mornings but, as many bloggers are American, their blogs don’t go live until the middle of my day or even later. With a daily blogging schedule, I have to catch up with the blogs in the evening – which is usually my main writing time (i.e. working on my novels) so my ‘normal’ schedule has been disrupted. I did intend to have Sunday as my ‘rest’ day but then found I couldn’t resist taking part in the Six Sentence Sunday blog hop! So no rest there either.

Rest = period or interval of inactivity, repose, solitude or tranquillity

Yes, that sounds very good – but at the moment it seems like a complete pipe-dream. For one thing, I now need to keep up with my new blogging friends. For another, my current novel has not been receiving my full attention during April and I must give it some much-needed care and thought. And thirdly, my new novel ‘Changing the Future’ will be released mid-May, so I have to start on the promotion trail again. Not much chance, then, of any 'period of inactivity'.

So no rest for me, it seems. But I’m not complaining. Too much inactivity and I get bored anyway!