Today Leaves is in Cape Coral... and I have been interviewed!

Today, I'm delighted to bring you another step in the World Tour for All in the Leaves.

This picture was taken by Robin, in Cape Coral, Florida!

Cape Coral is in South West Florida and is known as a 'Waterfront Wonderland' with over 400 miles of navigable waterways!
It has more miles of canals than ANY city in the world.
You can find out more about Cape Coral HERE

and you can find out more about Robin, through her blog HERE


PLUS
I have an added extra! I have been interviewed by the author Amanda Martin.
She has written wonderful novels, such as Baby Blues and Wedding Shoes and Dragon Wraiths

Amanda asked me some very astute questions... you can find the whole interview here.

All in the Leaves ..... The World Tour! Today, London and Texas.

All in the Leaves has been travelling the globe!

I had a few totes made up with the front cover, and here are some of the places All in the Leaves has travelled to.

First off, our intrepid cover travelled to Winter Wonderland, in Hyde Park

For images of Winter Wonderland, click HERE

and then All in the Leaves travelled to Corpus Christi, Texas!

Here we are on the beach at Corpus

and here we are outside the Art Museum of South Texas!

If you'd like to know more about the Art Museum, click HERE

If you, dear reader, would like to join in on All in the Leaves World Tour, please send a photograph of the cover of Leaves ( from your tablet or e-reader) up against a local landmark. I will put it on the blog, complete with a link to the website of the landmark, if they have one.

I hope you take part, let's make it a fun tour...


Bags printed courtesy of CleverPrintingUK HERE

Time for tea, time for leaves... and a roller or two!

I've been in my summerhouse quite a lot recently.

This is my view on the inside

and my view of the outside

Yes, the blinds are down - which means I'm busy, writing.
It only closes out the side which looks back to the house. The side which looks on to the farm is open.

The tea artwork is to inspire me to keep on with The Leaves Series.

Book two, which is 'Leaves For Chloe' now stands at 90,000 words.
The target is 100,000 - so you can see how close I am.
When the target is reached, it will go off to the editor.
Hopefully, those of you who enjoyed 'All in the Leaves' won't have to wait too long for the story of Chloe's life.
For anyone new to my books - All in the Leaves is on the side bar of this blog - and all three books in the series can be read independently! 

And for those of you who loved hubby's woodwork, he also made these for me.
Two foot rollers, to keep my own feet supple! The smaller of the two is bespoke to my size foot. Dainty, aren't I? :)

The Magic of Creativity.... and a wand that a wizard would be proud of!

Today I want to show you some of my husband's magical wood turning.

He takes pieces of wood like this:

and turns them - on his lathe - into something beautiful like this:

I loved Walt Disney's Fantasia - if I close my eyes, I can still see both the sorcerer's apprentice and the Conductor of the Orchestra waving their own wands to both create a form of magic.
After Fantasia, I can see in my mind, the world of that young wizard, Harry Potter.  So many wizards using wands.

The creativity involved in making these items - and any form of art - is, in a way, a type of magic too.  The world would be poorer without creativity and art.

For those who like to know these things - the wand stand is made of English Oak. The wand itself is made of walnut and oak.

A woman of letters...... and a Missy Christmas

Good morning friends!

Did you all have a wonderful Christmas?

I have to tell you, one of my presents confirmed that I'm a woman of letters now :)

This is it - a wonderful box frame, with scrabble letters, that spell out all my interests - plus the Series name of my novels - 'The Leaves Series'
All in the Leaves is the first and on sale, now. HERE

Missy had a lovely Christmas too. She had quite a few presents to open - but some of the photos ended up blurry - as you can imagine, when trying to photograph an eager jack russell!

So I'll simply post these few, to give you a flavour ...

Thanks to all who sent our darling girl presents and good wishes.
A happy New Year to you all .

When I met a policeman... purely for research!

It has been a fascinating week on the research front.
You all know that 'All in the Leaves' is part of a series, it being the first book.
The second is 'Leaves for Chloe', with the third and final being 'The House in the Leaves'.
They can all be read independently, so no waiting for the third to actually reach a conclusion!

So, the research.... I was planning an accident in one of the books - so I had a lunch date with a policeman and a coroner's officer to find out what would happen if there were such an accident.

I now know more about accidents and Inquests than I ever knew before. From road tyre marking measurements, to taking of statements, how and when you need to be interviewed in the Police Station; to the fact that Coroner's Inquests are always opened and immediately adjourned. That allows for the release of the body for burial. The Inquest hearing may be another further six months to a year down the line, especially if there is a fatality, which would need a jury trial!

There were so many interesting factors involved, I can see me writing more books, that include all I learned from this most fascinating pair. Only I'll have to change genres. Which I wouldn't mind doing. A meaty murder mystery, perhaps, or maybe even a horror!

This is an interesting road I'm travelling!

My birthday book launch party

We had a lovely time at my birthday book launch party.

We had afternoon tea - and cake. Lots of cake!
Thanks to Tracy for my book cover cake, and thanks to Debra for the Victoria Sponge (cookie shaped!) and the lemon drizzle cake. They were all delicious! 

Thanks also to Sparkling Jewellery, who gave us some gorgeous goody bags to celebrate the event. You're a star and I'm proud to call you friend.

We had about 50 people turn up, staggered through the hours of 12 until 4pm.
Many had already bought my novel 'All in the Leaves' and some downloaded it on the day. If you would like to buy it, the links are HERE

I was so busy socialising and making tea, that I totally forgot to take pictures during the party, and so did my second delegate. In one way, I'm pleased, because it means we were all enjoying ourselves. I'm sorry for the fact there are no pictorial memories of the people here, which I could have included in a scrapbook.

However, I have some fabulous presents to remind myself of the wonderful people who were here!

These lovely flowers - and vase - were sent  from Scotland, by my good friends the McLagans - who couldn't make it on the day, but sent their best wishes.

My darling Missy was present throughout the party - and she was fussed by many. For the love of Battersea Dogs Home, who kept her safe for two years, while she waited for us -- we had a little raffle/loose change donation .....

and that made enough to sponsor a kennel in Battersea for the whole year - and to buy three Christmas dinners too.

Thanks to everyone who came,  to everyone who made this party such a wonderful event. I love you all -and I hope you enjoy my book - All in the Leaves.