Blog
Finding baking memories
As summer’s warmth becomes a distant memory, I’m doing more baking, a favourite pastime but one I haven’t had much time for in the last few years. To bake, though, I needed to sort through my overflowing kitchen cupboards and the boxes stacked at the foot of the...
Celebrating book release week…A Wish in Irish Falls is out now!
My latest book, the Kindle edition of A Wish in Irish Falls, came out on September 16th so it’s been a time of celebration. It's my fifth published book…how did that happen?! Given world events, it’s not the best time to be promoting a book but I hope that if you...
A medical emergency, a birthday, back to school & preparing for a book launch
“May you live in interesting times” says that old adage (curse?) and while 2020 has certainly been an “interesting” (insert other words of your choice!) year, in my family the past few weeks have been even more “interesting” than usual. A medical emergency If you...
Why writing is like kayaking
As many of you know, I was on holiday last week. For me, a highlight of that time at a lakeside cottage was kayaking, previously new-to-me but something I enjoyed and want to do more often. And as I paddled on a tranquil lake near Canada’s famed Algonquin Park, a...
Cover reveal for ‘A Wish in Irish Falls’ & chatting with ‘A Little Book Problem’
My next book, A Wish in Irish Falls, will be out on September 16 and this week I’m sharing the gorgeous wintry cover. Early readers have called the story warm, sweet and romantic and the cover captures the story’s magical feel perfectly. Although a romance novel, A...
From encyclopedias to Google: Looking things up in life and writing
Amongst the many bookshelves in my childhood home, one of them (although not pictured here) held an encyclopedia set. In that pre-Internet world, those twenty-five volumes (hardcover and bound in cream with touches of red, black and gold) were my window on the wider...
Wishing on a wishing tree
“There’s a wishing tree in Irish Falls. The bits of paper tied to its gnarled branches hold the hopes and dreams of everyone in town…” That’s from the blurb for my most recent book, The Wishing Tree in Irish Falls, a story about wishes come true, even for those who...
When tragedy strikes close to home
I've now lived in Canada for almost five years and although England will always be one of my ‘homes,’ my English and Canadian lives rarely intersect. Last weekend was different, though, and I was reminded that despite being geographically distant, my English ‘home’...
Voices in my head
In a Twitter exchange earlier this week, my author friend Jane Cable commented on the importance of writer friends, saying: “They don’t think you’re odd to have voices in your head.” Although Jane and I were chatting about finding writing inspiration (which usually...
Photo by Robin Spencer, Spencer Studio