Looking towards the future…

You may well have realised from my last blog of 2022 that things have not been easy over the past few months. I normally do a round up of the year just ended, but I’ve decided not to look back on 2022, particularly the final four months, even though they included the publication of my latest book, The Dilemma.

I do want to say a big thank you though to all of you who have bought it and recommended it to others. She now has over 430 ratings/reviews with an overall 4.4 out of five stars for which I’m very grateful. So, yes, that was a major highlight of the past few turbulent months.

And the other highlight of note was that my ninety-six-year-old mum, Josie was feeling well enough to come and stay with us over Christmas. Here she is pictured with my son, Dan who was with us on Christmas Day, while my daughter, Sophie and her family joined us for Boxing Day. Mum made what could have been a very sad festive period into one filled with gratitude for all the Christmas times we’ve spent in my late mother-in-law’s company… she had visited every Christmas (apart from the Covid restricted one) since losing her husband over twenty years ago.

We had Audrey’s Christmas jumper draped over the back of a chair at the Christmas lunch table, lit a candle and poured her a glass of sherry which we all toasted. We played dominoes in her honour and the traditional ‘colander’ game on Boxing Day. All in all, it was a great deal better than any of us had dared to hope.

It was lovely to spend time with my mum, chatting and doing the crossword which she tries to do each week to keep her mind sharp. Not only does she have an agile mind, she’s also incredibly mobile for someone of her advanced years. It’s probably because of her years teaching ballet but even so, this video of her doing a few exercises would be pretty impressive for someone twenty years her junior!

My only regret was that I didn’t capture ‘her moves’ when Alexa played Frank Sinatra’s version of New York, New York. I threw her her walking stick which she doesn’t actually need but has close to hand ‘just in case’ and she used it a la Fred Estaire and Ginger Rodgers. I know how incredibly lucky I am to still have my mum and it served as a wonderful reminder that your mum is always your mum whatever your age. Someone to share memories with and pour your troubles out to without fear of judgement.

Mum stayed with us for six days in total, although she and my husband, Chris made an early start on the 28^th so that he could set up her bird feeder lamppost, her Christmas present from us. There’d been some discussion about its best position in the garden, but I think we reached the right decision… all she needs now are a few more birds visiting! We have stacks in our back garden of all varieties, but the Nottingham birds don’t seem quite so keen on the Grumpy Gardener fat balls as my Berkshire birds are.

Speaking of Christmas gifts, mine was a new writing desk to go with the ergonomically designed office chair that I treated myself to just before Christmas. To be honest, with everything that’s been going on in my life I haven’t felt like writing so I’m hoping that just jotting out this blog might reignite my love of words and forming them into an eighty-thousand-word story – I need to get a wiggle on as my next Bookouture book is due out in the Autumn.

I was also gifted the book of the Charlie Macksey animation, The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse. Mum and I watched the short film on Christmas Eve which was lovely. It’s a book full of meaningful sayings woven into a story, my favourite of which is, ‘What’s the bravest thing you have ever said?’ asked the boy. The horse answers, ‘Help.’ Many of us don’t like asking for help as it’s perceived as weakness when it’s actually the precise opposite.

I love this book so much that I’ve bought another copy as my first giveaway of 2023 which is going to be different from usual. There is no question to answer, instead I’m asking for your ‘help’ to encourage people to sign up for my newsletter. Simply ask a friend who is into books if they would sign up for my newsletter and leave their name in a comment at the bottom of this blog.

Once it’s confirmed that they’ve signed up, you’ll both go into the draw, you to win the Charlie Macksey book and your friend to win their choice of one of my books, so a win/win! And better still, you can enter as many times as you like with different friends. Entries before midnight on January 31^st and UK only.

Before I go, I want to wish you a Happy and Healthy New Year. We, my daughter, Sophie and her step-daughter, Amber pictured, were fortunate to get tickets to see The Nutcracker ballet at the Royal Albert Hall in the afternoon. We thoroughly enjoyed it and seeing in 2023 at Sophie’s house where we might have indulged in a little slightly intoxicated karaoke.

I was hoping that this would be the start of better things to come this year, but sadly, two days later, I received the awful news that my sister’s husband, Geoff had passed away. I’ve known him since I was eleven years old and even lived with them for six months while I was ‘finding’ myself at age sixteen. Such a gentle man and so utterly devastating for my sister whose birthday it was two days later, on January fifth.

That date also happens to be when I first met my husband, Chris in 1978. It would be ridiculous for me to claim that we’ve never had a cross word in forty-five years, but he is the kindest most supportive partner anyone could wish for, and he’s helped me weather the worst imaginable storms including the recent ones. We moved in together two weeks after we met… I guess if you know, you know!

On that note I’ll finish before I dissolve into a soggy mess, but not before I own up to knitting him that jumper!

Much love

Julia xx