Maybe my New Year Resolution should be to be better with my time keeping as once again I’m late writing my fortnightly blog! I suppose expecting to find the time to write one on Christmas Eve was always a little optimistic especially as my ninety-five-year-old mum had already arrived to stay with us and I was awaiting the arrival of my eighty-seven-year-old mum-in-law, Audrey.
I was also up to my elbows in flour and butter making shortcrust pastry for mince pies and quiche, and flaky pastry for the Vegetarian Nut Roast Wellington we were having for Christmas lunch – I didn’t manage to get a shot of it after it was cooked unfortunately but it tasted good!
Not only was I busy in the kitchen, but also paid a visit to the local food bank to deliver the reverse advent calendar. It was mostly vegetarian stuff, as that doesn’t exclude anybody, but we did add some tins of tuna and also a tinned steak and kidney pie for good measure. I hope it made someone’s Christmas a little more comfortable.
I’d also covered the Christmas cake in marzipan on Christmas Eve morning (while making Minestrone soup for lunch!) so all that was left to do after dinner was the icing and the decorating of the cake. In the past, our children have always decorated the cake but, as neither of them live with us anymore it was down to our mums…
Anyway, Christmas has come and gone for another year, so this blog is mostly about looking back over the past twelve months and picking out the positive bits. I’m not going to dwell on the two cataract surgeries and the operation to remove the pituitary gland tumour that I didn’t know I had, or talk about the seventy-six actual medical appointments and nine phone consultations over the past year, but it has reminded me to thank you for all the good wishes you left in the comments on my last blog re my latest cataract op. The good news is that it went really smoothly, and recovery is progressing better than I had dared to hope after what happened in May!
It’s also reminded me that I need to announce the winner of my Christmas Giveaway. Thanks to everyone who entered, but there is only one randomly selected winner and on this occasion it is Chris Nicholson who I’ve already notified by email. Congratulations Chris! Don’t worry, there will be plenty more chances to win goodies in 2022!
So, books-wise it has been another brilliant year for me with my publisher, Bookouture. My first book of 2021, My Mother’s Secret was released in January and has now had 582 global ratings/reviews with an overall rating on Amazon of 4.5 out of 5 stars which I’m thrilled about. The most recent review describes it thus; ‘This book is truly a heart-breaking, gripping page-turner.’ Thanks Lady-Anna and everyone who has taken the time to leave a review – truly appreciated. And if you haven’t read My Mother’s Secret yet, there will be some news about it in my next newsletter which you can sign up for on here.
While My Mother’s Secret was riding high in the charts, I was busy finishing the first draft of The Woman on the Beach which was a struggle as I was unable to work for more than an hour at a time because of my poor vision. I even considered giving up on it, but my editor, Ruth wasn’t having any of it, although she did give me an extension to my deadline which meant the book was published a month later than originally planned.
Ironically, The Woman on the Beach published on August 19th, the date I found out that I had the brain tumour, so it was definitely a slightly ‘different’ publication day! She has been my best-selling book to date, spending a couple of months in the Amazon top 100 and topping several of the category charts. As I write this, she has 1151 global ratings/reviews which is HUGE for me. Not everyone has loved it, in fact the two most recent reviews are chalk and cheese;
2 stars – Bland and Dull
5 stars – Story gripping from the start
I think my favourite review for The Woman on the Beach though has to be by Cardorple53 from the USA (it still blows me away that people around the world are reading my books!) The title of her review was, Masterful and Moving, but I especially loved this sentence;
‘Oddly, I didn’t have a favourite, or saw one as ‘good’ and another as ‘bad’, but each had serious flaws and redeeming intentions – so very human.’
I’ll take that!!
In other book news, the third in my DCI Rachel Hart crime thriller series, Why She Died has been acquired by an audiobook company so you will soon be able to listen to it if that is your preferred way of reading – the other two in the series are already available as audio books. And the interest generated by The Woman on the Beach has resulted in an upturn in sales for all my self-published books. Thank you if you’ve recently discovered me and are now working your way through my back catalogue. I’ve also had discussions with my editor about new book ideas and should have some news surrounding that early in the new year.
So, 2021 has certainly been a bit of a mixed year for me. Book-wise, my best year yet, health-wise not so good, although I’m eternally grateful that the vision issues led to the discovery of the brain growth which could have remained undetected until it caused serious permanent damage – I’m very lucky!
My family have as ever been wonderfully supportive, and we’ve had two new additions this year of course. No, not grand-babies… puppies!
Both Quin (above) and Baxter (below) have brought us a lot of joy, although I must confess, I wasn’t expecting to ‘puppy-sit’ quite as much as we have – I wouldn’t have it any other way though.
Thank you for all your support this year too, and here’s to an even better 2022 for us all.
Much love
Julia xx
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