So we’re well into the New Year – and after an up and down previous year, I’m still sticking to my New Year’s resolution to stay positive. I decided that would be easier to maintain than giving up chocolate and wine. Plus positive is the only way to go with two books in the pipeline.

I uber-excited that this Valentine’s Day, also the day before my birthday, sees Learning to Love go to print! Featuring a widowed father and his son, Learning to Love looks at the loss of a parent in childhood and how a child dealing with such a tragedy might be encouraged to grieve. Life events fuelled the emotion behind the writing. Research, talking to children who had suffered in such a way, provided the story I felt I needed to tell. What struck me above all was the coping mechanism devised by one lone parent. He called it The Memory Box: A simple shoebox, stuffed full of photographs of the child’s mother along with other personal trinkets that would remind him of her. Importantly, remind him of the good times, the positive things his mother brought to his life, the times they laughed together. It was easy to see how humour plays a great part in the healing process. I called my short The Memory Box, in honour of that father and his little boy.

Poignant, yet humorous – or as a reviewer put it, fiction that “deals with loss & betrayal in manner that lifts it far above average ‘chick lit’”, Learning to Love is truly written from the heart. I’m really pleased and grateful to Safkhet Publishing that this book is out there!

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A little news on the Loveahappyending Lifestyle front (to which I am a contributing editor), for those who don’t already know, Issue 3 of the LLm free downloadable emagazine is out now! Stuffed full of inspiring features, this issue also catches up with celebrity chef, Martin Blunos who talks about his link with Buckfast Tonic Wines and shares some mouth-watering recipes you simply won’t be able to resist. If it’s holidays you’re looking for, we visit Nice, Corfu, Hawaii and Vancouver Island … and closer to home, Shakespeare country. Click on the link below to grab some sunshine now!

http://issuu.com/llmlifestyle/docs/issue_3/1?e=8377918/6408538

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While I’m here, that next book in the pipeline is … a thriller! Published under the Safkhet Publishing Suspense line, The Edge of Sanity is coming soon. I’m thrilled and terrified all at once. Though the book still turns around family dynamics, the genre is a little bit different for me.

How far would YOU go to protect your family?

A decent, ordinary man, a man who has already suffered the loss of one child, Daniel Conner is forced by extraordinary circumstances into being a hero. Tortured, forcibly drugged—heroin still pulsating nauseatingly through his veins—his wife and daughter degraded, Daniel knows their kidnapper is beyond reasoning with.

But does being pushed one step beyond endurance justify doing the unthinkable?

High on drugs, indebted to his supplier, and desperate, Charlie Roberts takes Daniel’s wife and daughter hostage. Daniel does everything within his power to rescue the situation bloodlessly. Eventually though, Daniel realises that with or without violent mood swings induced by amphetamines and cocaine, Charlie Roberts is a psychopath. He wants more than Daniel’s money.

He wants him.

The Edge of Sanity: a harrowing story of hope amid loss and betrayal.

Coming to haunt your backyard 30 April 2014

I’m really hoping my readers will love it. Oooh, er.

Keep safe everyone!

Love,