Living the dream!

I have a confession to make: I had totally forgotten that I have a profile on Authors Hotline! It is a fantastic website where you get to learn all sorts about your favourite authors. I must have written it ages ago so  I thought I'd better check to see what I'd written. In answer to the question :
"What do you day dream about?"
I've written:
" Having a little place in the country with a couple of cows, a few sheep and a donkey..."

And guess what? I now live in a little cottage surrounded by fields of sheep and cows and I can usually see the two rather gorgeous donkeys - Nelly and Cocoa - from my office window. I truly am living my dream! How lucky am I?
Check out http://www.authorhotline.com/ It's a brilliant resource and I check on it all the time now to find out more about MY favourite authors!

Go on, read something different today!

There's always that moment of trepidation when you hear that one of your favourite books has been turned into a film or TV production, isn't there? You think 'please don't spoil it for me!' And that was just how I felt when I heard about the BBC adaptation of 'Birdsong' - how to capture that unbelievable yearning erotica of the love story as well as the total gut-wrenching horror of the World War I trenches. But on the strength of last night's episode at least, justice has been fully done.
In truth I probably would never have chosen to read 'Birdsong' thinking it wasn't really 'my kind of thing'. It was a Christmas present, and I think it's great when people say 'I chose this for your Fiona because I know you'll really enjoy it'. I love having my eyes opened up to new things. As I say, 'Birdsong' is now one of my favourite novels and I have recommended it to so many other people.
A very good friend recently recommended the 'Shardlake' series of books by C J Sansom, and again I didn't think they would be my kind of thing at all. But I find myself lost in a world of intrigue in the time of King Henry VIII; the stench and the strife of every day life, the power struggles of the courts and the political and religious intrigue. The books have opened my eyes to a period of history about which I was shockingly ignorant. And they're a mighty find read on a cold winter's night!
So go on, let someone recommend a book which you'd never have chosen yourself, you never know where it can take you!

New year, new focus!

I have been shamed into kick-starting the blog by a letter I received from Alice a pupil at New Mills Primary school which I visited last year. To say I enjoyed my time there would be an understatement - I had a BRILLIANT morning at the school and came away feeling completely energised. There is nothing to beat thinking on your feet with a class full of excited 10/11 year-olds creating a story about a bunch of rock star sheep in search of new hairdos!

When I received Alice's lovely letter (along with the fab one from Chloe) I realised that I was letting down people who I would love to stay connected with by not updating my blog very frequently. So here we are - along with the usual new year's resolutions involving diet and exercise, I promise to keep up to date with this!