Back to work!
It’s been a strange month. I was working on too many different projects at once. I started on the edits for FALSE GOLD, only to remember that I had to deliver a short story to the Methodist Recorder NOW! And complete another about Max, the cat for the choir concert . . . and what about the new book that I’d just started? I’d got as far as chapter three, and the storyline was running through my head all the time . . . bit I had to attend to the copy-edits on FALSE GOLD first and . . . and . . .
You see the problem. I go from one to the other and then remember I have to do another newsletter and . . .! At which point I retire for a cuppa and some chocolate. And oh dear, the biscuit tin is empty! Tragedy!
So I took a morning off . . .
. . . to attend the Christmas show put on by the Nursery at our church. There are Christmassy songs, of course. but also a really rather wonderful version of the Christmas story, with lots of angels and sheep and a bossy Joseph and a beautiful Mary and a Wise Man who loved his costume but ran off when it was his turn to give his present to Mary and Joseph, and a donkey who was too shy to say ‘Eeeyaw!’, and kept her head down all the time. Well, she was only three years old.
The children sang songs to illustrate the action and we, the invited guests, clapped and cheered and I must confess it was so heartfelt that I had to wipe away a tear or two. This was a dress rehearsal, you see, for which the Nursery invite a few people from the church to accustom the children to being before an audience.
Before getting back to work . . .
Joffe brought out MURDER FOR GOOD, which is number 20 in the Ellie Quicke series. Picture attached. And what can I find for a short story for you to read? How about RACHEL HAD A GARDEN? My own garden is very much on my mind as I clear up all the fallen leaves and cut down the herbaceous plants. But Rachel would understand. Read it here.
Now I must get back to the computer to finish off the Christmas story for the Recorder and the Max one for the choir concert . . . and deal with the copy editor’s last queries . . . and then, finally, get on with the next Bea Abbot story, FALSE RELATION.
A blessing on all who are still able to send Christmas cards (in spite of the hike in the cost of postage). And a second blessing for those no longer able to do so.
Veronica Heley