Here I lay me down...

How often in your life do you get trends? You know the sort of thing... you haven't been invited to a wedding in years then suddenly three invitations come at once? Or every tombola at the school fayre ends in a number other than five or zero normally but one time, just once, you go and virtually clear every prize from the table?

Well this is what's happening to me right now. Not the prize thing, but a series of random yet interlinked events. One of these things is the sheer volume of friend requests and messages I have had on Facebook from people who were, quite probably, instrumental in shaping me into the person I have become today. These are people whom in some cases I haven't seen or heard from in over thirty years [dear God that makes me sound ancient] and some were in my life when I was a mere five years old and not since.

It's a strange scenario indeed. These are the people who played a massive role in my life back then and yet have been out of it for far longer than they were in it. I could paraphrase Shakespeare here but I'm not going to. This isn't just about mortality, theirs or mine, but about grounding. About not forgetting where your roots lie and why.

Am I the same girl that I was back then? Undoubtedly life has changed me physically. But spiritually? Emotionally? Morally? I am older but am I wiser?

Ask any of my current friends and they will tell you I am as foolish and as controlled by my heart as I ever was. And yet, there must have been changes too. Perhaps I am more cynical, less trusting than before.

This year I will turn 50. In an era that seeks to celebrate this milestone, I feel more inclined to take the stance of an indigenous American Indian. There is a feeling in my soul that my time is over, that I should perhaps take myself off to the hills, there to lie down in a thicket and await death, for I am clearly too old to be of use to anyone.

I accept that this is an extreme feeling and that perhaps many of you will not be able to identify with it. And in all honestly neither could I until now. But the more 50 looms, the more I fret. That said, I'm sure that once I reach that age, I'll get over this fugue, this feeling that I'm on the downward slope...

But do me a favour? If you have a friend who is coming up to their 50th, please, please, please don't keep telling them how many years you have until you get to that decrepit age. It really doesn't help. :)

Happy Reading. x



     

Thanks y'all!

Thanks to my publisher P'kaboo and my agent Paul Thompson; to all my friends and lovely book buyers. Split Decision is now out as an ebook. The paperback is coming soon. I'll keep you posted.


Sorry if I have driven you half mad with my fretting and constant talking about my engrossing characters but now you have the chance to see what all the fuss was about.

I would like to say that the time has come to relax but you know me, there's another book in the offing now, so if I were you, I'd reinsert those earplugs fast!

Happy Reading.

Come and get it...

How would you like to attend the online ebook launch of my latest release, Split Decision? I hope you are leaping up and down in excitement [if you're not, why not?] and drooling at the idea of finally getting your hands on this fast-paced story...


All you have to do is click on the invite on my Facebook page and you will be all set. I look forward to hearing from you.


Happy Reading! x

Oh I have a secret...or maybe even two...and I can't tell...and it's killing me!

Now those of you who know me personally will know how bursting with news I can get and this is such a biggie for me! But at the moment I am sworn to secrecy, so you will just have to wait.

What I can tell you about is the four whole days of decorating I have just done - six hours a day for four days on one staircase. Yes you read that right - ONE staircase! That said, it is an incredibly long staircase with fiddly spindles all the way along and it didn't help that on the very first day I stuck my paintbrush into my giant coffee mug instead of the paint pot!

Still it could have been worse, I could have lifted the paint to my lips and poured it all down myself - I guess if I had done that I wouldn't be needing the Halloween makeup :)

Thanks also to everyone who sent me birthday wishes via Facebook. They were much appreciated.

Happy Halloween Reading x

OOPS!

I forgot to mention that The Owners Volume IV :A New Epoch will be free to download over the next few days. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity so don't miss out!

Happy Reading!

They shoot horses, don't they?

It is a strange world indeed. A world full of contrasts and complexities so deep, that sometimes I have to just stop and wonder at it all.

As you already know, the human condition perplexes me greatly and although I know I will never get to the bottom of its deep well of understanding, I do like to drink deeply of it every now and again.

I have recently joined a new Facebook group. Not having even previously known of their existence, I came across this group of random individuals, who dedicate much of their spare time to the
collection and care of injured birds, mostly pigeons.

And what a revelation! Big hairy, bearded men, the sort I would possibly have crossed the street to avoid, are pictured lovingly regarding a healed or healing bird, which sits perched on their shoulder. Heavily tattooed young women with neon hair, hold the injured birds up to the camera, to show their injuries and ask for or give advice on specific wound treatments.

And I realised something about myself in the process. Having come from Glasgow [albeit a long time ago when I was eighteen], I thought that I judged people by their actions, rather than their image. But I was wrong. I am just as judgemental as is the next person.

Now don't get me wrong. These lovely people are nutty as fruit cakes but in a lovely way. And I'm sure now that if they read this blog they will agree. Let me explain.

It's not what they do, the rescuing and caring for birds, which is the nutty part. No, that is the most commendable part of their characters. The care, the diligence and the concern they show for each and every one of their charges, is heart-renderingly wonderful.

The nutty part, is the bit that comes after, where they proceed to let the birds fly around their houses or nest up in the curtains! But it is a nuttiness born of consideration and love, a real ability to actually do what most of us can only say - to live and let live.

And of course, I am as nutty as the rest of them. I, after all, have an injured wood pigeon in my kitchen which flaps around the kitchen and the back garden. That's why the conversation I have just had with one of my children hit me so hard.

I was asked by my daughter why she had [in a film] seen a horse being shot after it had a broken leg. I had to explain that although the injuries would heal, that most people found the process too expensive. And that, added to the fact that the horse would never be able to be ridden as well afterwards, caused it to be condemned to a death sentence.

My eldest was mortified. Why were there no laws to stop this? Why were there no charities that would take in the horses? I explained there were charities but that they were most probably swamped with requests.

But awful as that situation is,  I was not disheartened by it as I once  would have been. Through this group I can see that there are kind and humane people in all walks of life. And that just because you can't instantly spot them, doesn't mean they don't exist. Because I know that somewhere, someone will be working with these horses just as my group is with birds.

You see what I am trying to say, is that these people have restored my faith  in human nature. They have given me back what was lost through countless news programmes or newspaper articles which report on only the horrors of the world.

There are good people out there...and not just a few. So stand up you strangely bearded men and neon barneted women, with your piercings and your tattoos, arise you quiet damsels or shy withdrawn young men and come forward all you others who look just like you and I.

Come forward all of you, for you are my heroes.