An Ordinary Gift

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It's out! The first episode of my four-part serial for Woman's Weekly is in the shops this week.

It is called An Ordinary Gift, it is set in lovely Ely in Cambridgeshire and it is a slightly spooky paranormal mystery.

The main character is Clare Somerset, an ancient-music archivist, who arrives in Ely to start a new job and a new passage in her life. As far as she knows, she has never visited Ely before, but almost from the first moment she starts to experience near-memories...

I set the serial in Ely because it is local to where I live and is one of my favourite towns. Here I am taking tea in Topping&Company Booksellers with a view of the Cathedral filling the upper windows. Anyone who has ever visited Toppings and been entranced by the interior will notice a certain similarity to Clare's new workplace!

Enjoy.
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Before the Conference...

Jan Jones with workshoppers

With pre-conference tasks to do, I went to Caerleon in advance of the main RNA crowd. While there, fellow organiser Roger Sanderson and I gave a talk at beautiful Brynglas House in Newport on "Writing Romance".

Entrance Hall

This elegant building, built in 1852 and now a community learning and library centre, has been lovingly restored and is a wonderful local facility. We were very flattered to be one of the inaugural events.

The talk went well - but I was mostly blown away by the architecture. Why don't I have a house like this?

Or a fireplace like this?







[If you are wondering why there are no photos of the front of the building, it's because it was raining. Well, we were in Wales.]
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