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January/February 2008
A happy new year to you all, if it’s not too late.  I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas.  We enjoyed our time in the Lakes with our daughter even if the temperature was minus 2.  It warmed up by Boxing Day when it started to rain, and did so for the rest of the week.  Why was I not surprised?  Never mind we had some good quality family time, which is what Christmas is all about, isn’t it?

Thank you to all those who took part in the readers’ survey.  The results have now been posted up on my website.

It’s been a quiet month with not much happening, apart from working quite hard.  People who are not writers often ask where I get my ideas from.  The easy answer, if rather flippant, is I get them from life, and from people.  We all have a story to tell and from these you can make endless permutations.  In reality, I pick up ideas from any number of sources: newspapers, TV, friends’ gossip around the dinner table. (Oh, yes, that’s a good one.)  Watching people in restaurants or at the airport.  There are times I’m quite reluctant to get on the plane as I earwig in on some fascinating snippets of conversation.  The secret is to be observant and alert to ideas when they present themselves.  But the best ideas come, of course, while I’m actually writing.  That’s when we all want the muse to strike.  And if it doesn’t, then I keep on writing until it does.

We’ve had some storms and some very welcome rain in the last week or two, but temperatures are now back in the early 60s, or around 12 - 14 degrees if you prefer centigrade.  I think I did have cause to put on a jacket last week because of fierce winds but today I’m wearing my sun glasses, tee-shirt and jeans.  Spring can be a beautiful time to visit Spain because of the almond blossom that is out everywhere.  It really can be breathtaking, endless groves of almond trees stretching out over the campo (countryside).  The lavender is in bloom too, as is sage and broom and rosemary.  The scents are wonderful as you brush past.

Life in Spain
Last Saturday a group of us did a 10 kilometre walk across country to the next village for lunch.  A wonderful way to work up an appetite.  The Andalusian tortoise, an endangered species, has come out of hibernation and is going walk about.  We know this because my brother-in-law’s dog has brought home five in the last week.  Fortunately unharmed, and he was able to return them to the wild, though quite what the poor tortoises’ wives will say when said creatures finally find their way back home is another matter.

Shrove Tuesday
On Tuesday we enjoyed our pancakes, being old fashioned Brits at heart.  The Spanish don’t have pancake day but on Ash Wednesday they have a fiesta of the funeral of the sardine.  This takes place in Cuevas del Almanzora.  Why a sardine?  I ask.  And why does it die?  Apparently it’s symbolic, meaning the end of rich food with the coming of Lent.  It is described as a moving and at times comical, Dante-esque festival in which everyone dresses up and pretends to mourn and sob into their handkerchiefs, yet can dance with the spectators to help cheer themselves up.  Four grieving widowers carry the sardine on their shoulders.  Reminds me of the giant pasty we used to have in Fowey, Cornwall, which was brought over by ferry from Polruan, paraded down Fore Street to the tune, or rather tuneless sound of our local band, and then divided up among the children.  Long live crazy customs.

March
First of all a big thank you to all those who have emailed me this month saying how much you are enjoying the new series.  It’s always good to get feedback, and also to hear your own stories which you share with me. It’s been a quiet month with not much happening, apart from working quite hard.  People who are not writers often ask where I get my ideas from.  The easy answer, if rather flippant, is I get them from life, and from people.  We all have a story to tell and from these you can make endless permutations.  In reality, I pick up ideas from any number of sources: newspapers, TV, friends’ gossip around the dinner table.  (Oh, yes, that’s a good one.)  Watching people in restaurants or at the airport.  There are times I’m quite reluctant to get on the plane as I earwig in on some fascinating snippets of conversation.  The secret is to be observant and alert to ideas when they present themselves.  But the best ideas come, of course, while I’m actually writing.  That’s when we all want the muse to strike.  And if it doesn’t, then I keep on writing until it does.

April 
Apologies for the lateness of this newsletter, but we’ve been offline for over a week as our satellite system was down.  We still don’t have a land-line, which in this part of rural Spain is hard to come by.  We’ve only been waiting for five years!  We’ve just applied again but we aren’t holding our breath that it will be any time soon.  So frustrating.  Trying to fix the internet while getting support on a mobile phone from Ireland is not exactly fun. Anyone thinking of purchasing a holiday home in Spain, do check out the possibility of a telephone, along with everything else, before you buy. 

The good news is that on 1 May comes the publication of Who’s Sorry Now (see below for details) the fifth book in the Champion Street Market Series.  So do rush out and buy a copy from your local bookshop!  Or visit Amazon on line.  It should also be available in Australia too at about the same time.  See below for details of the latest Prize Draw.

I’ve had my head down working hard this month.  David and I both celebrated our birthdays, so we’ll quickly draw a veil over that one.  Thirty-five again.  OK, forty-five.  Huh, I wish!  They come round quicker every year.  Not that age matters, the sun is still shining and we’re still waiting for rain.  None since early February, but we’ve been suffering from some severe Levante winds which has smashed a few pots on the terraces, broken a trellis and an arch, and flipped over the gas space heater, much to the annoyance of our roosting black wheatear. Fortunately we’ve had no structural damage although a friend’s garden wall has fallen into their pool.

The swallows have arrived for the summer, and we’ve spotted one or two bee eaters already.  We’re off to the UK at the end of the month for a short visit, mainly to see family and friends on this occasion, but if you’re anywhere near Kendal on the 28^th, do pop in to Sizergh Castle where I’m giving a talk.  The castle alone is worth a visit.

Book Club
So what have you all been reading this month?  I’m just coming to the end of A Hollow Crown by Helen Hollick.  I love historicals and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed this one, except that at 800 pages I think it rather over-long.  It could easily have made two books, as I felt the for a break in the middle.  It’s set in Saxon England, which is unusual, and tells the story of Emma of Normandy, Aethelred and Cnut.  A rich, textured, tale, very well written.  Our reading group has also been reading Atonement which was beautifully written, a good story, but I found it rather slow and wordy in the first section.

I had a few emails this month telling me of books you enjoy.  Labrynth was one.  Margaret Forster a favourite with some of you, as was Ann Tyler, and Jodi Piccoult.  The book for next month in our Group is The Memory Keepers Daughter by Kim Edwards.  It was a winner in the Galaxy Awards.

Did anyone read House of Riverton, which was another Richard and Judy choice?  It was a good yarn, well written, although had some glaring inaccuracies in it such as a housemaid at the turn of the century pulling on her tights.  The transition into different time periods was at times rather confusing, but generally I enjoyed it.  I’ll let you know what  I think of this one.  If you want to make recommendations for other readers, do drop me an email.

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