Personal Writing Hopes, Dreams and Plans for 2023

Looking Back before Moving Forward

Go Wide! ~ Looking at the goals I set out at this time last year and reflecting on what I have achieved.

~ I have gone wide with Murder Now and Then and it is now available on Kobo, Google and Apple ~ in fact so many more sites. Click on the link for options. It’s soooo clever!

Supporting Other Authors

This year has been my main focus for this year as Eventispress has become an Independent Publisher and three new authors have come into the fold. It is a hands on approach to publishing a book. I love being involved in the enthusiasm of other authors, focusing on their projects rather than my own. As one Christmas card said,

“Thank you for everything!

Your have changed my life!

I will always be grateful for that.

Very, very special lady!”

I was so touched by this message. It made my day; in fact it made my year.

Updating The Healing Paths of Fife

This was completed before Christmas with a new cover. I have received the proof copy so

watch this space!

So far £733 has been raised for local charities for the sale of The Healing Paths of Fife of which £367 has been given to Kirkcaldy Foodbank. I would like to thank readers so much for their generosity!

Prequel to Riduna

My parents wrote a prequel to Riduna; a novella. They struggled with conversation and when Mum and Dad had dementia I tried to stimulate them by working on the little book with them. In the end, the pandemic put a halt to this, but I would like to publish this little book in memory of them. I have been working on it, with a gentle touch, and hope for this to be published in 2023.

Watch this space too!

Other projects

For the third and final book in my Riduna series, I have revisited the lovely island of Alderney, reconnected my links with The Alderney Museum, for which I am truly grateful, and will begin the serious work on research in 2023.

As far as the third in my Mystery Inspired by History series, I have got no further than uploading the half written manuscript on my Kindle to refresh my memory, before putting a serious effort into completing it, beginning next Tuesday. I’m so looking forward to creatively writing again. It’s exciting!

Click on the book covers for a link for an e book or for Waterstones click here.

Yet again I have so much to be thankful for. It has been such a positive year.

Islands of Inspiration (4) The Isle of May in the Firth of Forth, Fife

I confess that this was my first and only visit to the Isle of May, taking the ferry from Anstruther with friends, including author Hamish Brown. We did not realise how fortunate we were, because the following day was the last day trip to the island in 2022. The warden David Steel @Steelybird, who I follow on Twitter for his amazing photos, needed to shut the whole island down due to bird flu. Tragically, this has decimated the population of sea birds up and down the east coast of the British Isles, especially on nearby Bass Rock, famous for its gannet population.

I say that this is a confession. When walking the coastal path and writing The Healing Paths of Fife we walked most of the way between the Forth Rail Bridge and St Andrews, but there were a few wee sections which were purely in my imagination, alongside some timely research, and one of these was a trip to the Isle of May.

How the island helped me in Mind, Body and Spirit

The boat trip over was a matter of mind over body as the boat rolled in the stormy waters. Hamish, however, was bobbing up and down, eating his sandwiches and pointing out various sightings of puffins, other sea birds and even seals. I was sooo relieved to be on terra firma and so was my husband!

We had brought a stick with us because we had to walk through a colony of nesting terns. The stick was not to thrash about, as it was explained to us; the birds go for the highest point and so an umbrella would do just as well. I was mighty glad not to have my head dive bombed, I can tell you.

Once we had safely navigated both of those assaults to our bodies, we set off at a pace following Hamish to a favourite spot he knew where the puffins hung out, called Bishop Cove. It was magical. They are such heart warming creatures. We sat among them watching them waddle to their burrows, peer out to sea or dive down to the water, skimming the surface in search of a place to fish. It was as if a calm had descended. We sat on the rocky ground eating out picnic, absorbing their world all around us, almost at eye level with them. They made us smile. They made us laugh. We hardly spoke as a silence crept over us. We certainly lived in the moment.

How I was inspired by the island

The Isle of May as a place of pilgrimage has always inspired me; its location at the mouth of the Firth of Forth en-route between Lindisfarne and St Andrews. One day, I believe, my writing will take on the direction of a pilgrimage in days gone by, just as it did in The Healing Paths of Fife; a personal fantasy memoir and pilgrimage describing when we first relocated from Bedfordshire to Fife including ‘meeting and talking with famous folks along the way. The lives of saints, whose unusual names have also intrigued me since moving to Scotland; St Mungo for example sounds like a perfect subject for fact/fiction. His name crops up in so many places we have visited and his birth is a legend in these parts.

Meanwhile, I am still searching for the direction my writing journey should take in the here and now; but I do believe I’m edging closer to feeling at peace in knowing the way I should take next.

On our journey home it was as still as a pond and I fell fast asleep. Unusual for me.

Volunteer Recognition Day ~ 20th April 2021

One Step Back into the World Again

On Sunday I joined my first session of socially distancing Kinghorn in Bloom; a volunteer group who work to enhance the beauty of our lovely coastal town in Fife, Scotland. It felt as if I was being liberated:

Tulips on the Kinghorn Loch Road

liberated…

from lock down, …

from loss,

from grief,

from guilt,

from a burden too heavy to carry.

Set free …

to be me again,

to serve,

to smile,

to contribute,

to enjoy the simple pleasures of flowers and plants.

Having returned from Bedford and my Mum’s cremation service I had a week of relative isolation before rejoining the world. This coincided with changes in regulations.

It’s going to take a while, but The Healing Paths of Fife are working their magic once more. Life moves on and I’m left with precious memories.