Work in Progress

I have never been afraid of getting older in fact until now; the benefits have outweighed the negatives. Even the back problems I have suffered in the last few years haven’t seemed insurmountable, just annoying.
Then at the beginning of summer, in the first week of summer sunshine I got covid and everything changed. I have had all my vaccinations, so had no reason to believe it would be bad. It wasn’t bad in the sense that I didn’t need hospital treatment, but I am not completely recovered 3 months later. I have spent whole days in bed or lying on the settee too exhausted to move or gone for a walk and spent the rest of the day in bed.
For the first two months, my brain felt as though it was full of fog. I couldn’t think clearly, I certainly couldn’t write, or sew, or crochet even mending was beyond me. At the moment I have more and more good days where I feel normal. Great, that sounds positive you must be recovering, you may be thinking. Well yes, but then we spend a day in the garden or go out for a long walk, and for the following two days, I am back to sleeping all day.
The worst effect has been psychological, it’s affected my confidence. The advice, anecdotal and medical is to wait it out because it will improve.
So the point is that at the moment, I feel old and useless and cannot guarantee when I will get anything done.
This nicely brings me on to my work in progress. I am hoping it will be out by the end of January, but for the reasons stated above, I do not dare to put it on pre- order until I am confident that it will be ready by then.

The book, as you can see, is called Bitten in the Bathroom. Esther investigates the Murder of the local newsagent Martin Munro. The trouble is that the four suspects are people she likes, and she hates the thought that one of them might be a murderer. Will she use her head and put logic above emotion? Only time will tell.

I have also re edited the book of herbal medicine which will be published under the new name of Murder in Matlock and act as a prequel to the Browns books series. So look out for both of those.

Writer almost in the wild.

I missed the summer, so sadly, have spent little time outdoors. Another thing which had a negative impact on both my mental health and my ability to be creative. I’ve been longing to get outdoors again and spend time in the woods with my notebook. Until I can do that, I am making do with slow dog walks,

I was hoping to find ceps along this path, but only found parasols. We left them as I knew there would be plenty in the field below my house. I dry Parasols but, unlike Ceps, normally ground them into powder to use in one of the seasoning mixtures we use regularly. They are mild in flavour but in a seasoning have a lovely umami quality.

This is the farmhouse we passed today. It was an old granite house with barns attached, but must once belonged to someone very wealthy and it was enormous with ornate stonework and spectacular views. The photo doesn’t do it justice.

Welby had no interest in stopping and admiring the view. Each time we did so, he turned and looked at us in disgust.

The path we followed ran through fields and woods, and because of the proximity of the farm were filled with curious occupants. They were not at all phased by the racket that Welby was making. (Don’t worry, he was on a lead at this point. We live in a farming village and are careful about other people’s livestock.)

Special offers.
November will be a month of special offers on my books. All of the will be discounted each at a different time, so if there are any that you haven’t read, keep your eyes open for the discounted days.

Keep in touch with me in two ways: by subscribing to my readers’ group and receiving a newsletter, or by subscribing to my blog and receiving an email each time a new blog is published. However, there is more news to come on this, and all will be revealed in the new year.

That’s all for now folks, so enjoy yourself.

Abigail