I can’t believe it . . . still no sign of the copy editing!

which means that I have been able to get on with the next Ellie Quicke book. Well, interrupted by some attempts at gardening, phoning friends, actually meeting some in the café at the top of the road, and so on. I’m quite pleased with what I’ve written of the next story so far, as everything has got nicely tangled up till Ellie doesn’t know whether she’s on her head or her heels and even the charity for which she works so hard, is threatened! And no, I hadn’t seen that development coming and yet it’s quite obvious, looking back, that this was ging to happen one day.

That’s the odd thing about writing stories. You look at what you’ve done one day and see that you’d actually been leading up to that particular plot point it for some time . . . and yet you hadn’t seen it coming. Sometimes you find you’ve written yourself into a cul-de-sac and there is no way out of it. And then, with some distress, you have to delete a couple of pages and go back to the original ‘stem’ of the story-line . . . and go on from there.

How does my garden grow?

A couple of my friends have been asking about my garden. Well, an artist friend of mine took a photo of part of my back garden, which you can see here, if you so wish. If you look carefully, you’ll spot the spout of a watering can, the bird bath which only a minute before had been vacated by some sparrows, and the tips of the tomato plants in the greenhouse. Of course, it’s not always as tidy as this! If you like the idea, maybe I’ll include another photo in the future.

The short story which comes with this . . .

. . . is called ‘Re-Cycling.’ And yes, I know it’s the wrong time of the year to talk about Palm crosses, but I was reminded only the other day that I had kept two, because I couldn’t bear to get rid of them. Well, our friend Leo had been popping them into the pencil jar that sits on his desk and now he’s been given an ultimatum to get rid of them. But . . . how? He shares his problem with Bruce and the crosses end up in all sorts of places. What do you do with yours? You can access the story here.

A blessing on all who find the courage to speak about God when an opening occurs in everyday life.

PS. I’ve just had an email saying the copy editing is on its way to me next week! So I’ve Been Warned!