Penny Plain - the final episiode

The final part of Penny Plain for Christmas is out this week, featuring a heroic charge through the snow, a nativity with provisos, a real baby birth in a church and a happy-ever-after. Now how could anyone resist that?

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Happy Christmas reading!
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Penny Plain 4 - part three

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Part Three of Penny Plain: The Christmas Present is in the current issue of People's Friend. Items are still going missing, the mystery of the WW2 wedding photo deepens - and Leo's son arrives to spend Christmas in Salthaven.

Only a couple of days until the final episode is out!
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Penny Plain 4 - part 2

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Sorry - blogging late again. You only have a couple of days to buy Part 2 of Penny & Leo's Christmas serial before the new issue comes out on Wednesday.

Go on, you know you want to. It's not often that you find boats, petty theft, Nativities and car boot sales all appearing in the same story.
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Penny Plain for Christmas!

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The fourth Penny Plain serial starts this week in People's Friend and - as the illustration below shows - it is a Christmassy one!

You need to be quick, though, as Part two will be out on Wednesday/Thursday!
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Merry Christmas!

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This year's tree is up and decorated. It is about two foot shorter than in previous years (and that's without the foot I usually have to lop off to get it in the room), but we still managed to crowd all our tree ornaments on.

The decorations have been added to over the years. As well as the general ones, we each have 'our' special ornaments that we place - and woe betide anyone who tries to sneak them on first. Just one of the family traditions that binds Christmas together and keeps it working.

Some branches this year have several baubles dangling off them but we couldn't miss them out, now could we?

MERRY CHRISTMAS, EVERYONE ! ! !
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Sale time!

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Due to the unaccountable absence of any liqueur chocolates in either my birthday bag or under the tree, I felt impelled to visit Waitrose this morning and browse the sale bay. (That and the fact that we only had an inch of milk left in the fridge.)

Have now spent another £2 of my birthday money and feel nicely mollified. There were bigger boxes, but I do love these miniature chocolate bottles with an appreciable amount of liquid inside.

So, what didn't you get this Christmas and what are you going to do about it?
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Happy Christmas!

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Happy Christmas all!

Happy New Year!

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Happy New Year!

Thought I'd share photos of the cats with this year's Christmas presents. Having still got last Christmas's mad tinsel mice kicking about the place, I went for something more restful this time.



These are cat pillows from the Cats' Protection League. Tasteful fake-fur oblongs filled with catnip.

It said on the label that they may induce vigorous play. What they actually induced was vigorous washing!




And then vigorous sleep.

So here's wishing everyone a nice, peaceful 2009.

Yes, yes, it's Christmas - Tree. Part Two

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So, anyway, I got him home (Mr Tree, that is), suggested he slip into something more comfortable, we had a discussion about how much he'd like off the top (I swear EVERY YEAR they grow a foot taller between the Christmas Tree Farm and my lounge), and then I judiciously wielded the lopper.

I gave him a drink. He began to relax. Started to look, oh, you know, a bit Bob Geldorf.



So that's when daughter and I really went to work on him.

And see? They can be taught!
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Yes, yes, it's Christmas - Tree. Part One.

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Yes, well, it apparently wasn't enough to admit that Christmas might just be approaching. I have to actually do something about it.

So the car and I went out - in the rain - to interview applicants for this year's post.

This chap seemed to have the right qualifications. Tall, strong, the right shade of green. Not so opulent around the mid-section that we'd have to be edging past him for the next couple of weeks.

No conversation, though. I mean, he just sat there in the passenger seat all the way home without saying a word. Possibly he didn't want to distract me from calculating safe braking distances on a wet surface.
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Oh, all right, it's Christmas

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All right, I give in. It's Christmas.

I got an inkling of this when the Romantic Novelists' Association Cambridge Chapter (small but perfectly formed) met for our bi-monthly lunch and discovered Roast Turkey With All The Trimmings chalked up on the blackboard menu.
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We celebrated Judith Lennox's news that one of her German editions had sold 25,000 copies in the first ten days after publication and Louise Allen having pressed the send button just that morning to dispatch her 30th title to HM&B. In addition, Judith was within two pages of finishing her next book (each one takes her 18 months!!!) and Mary Nichols had also delivered a manuscript within the last week.

It was a lovely, chatty meeting (so much so that Judith and Mary left with about 90 seconds to catch their train) and we drank to those of us who unfortunately couldn't be there due to illness / dead cars / deadlines / work.

So, from the RNA Cambridge Chapter to you:

CHEERS and HAPPY CHRISTMAS!!!
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