March 6th 2013
Hello there …
In Yorkshire it’s a cold, foggy day, and I cannot get my feet warm. I haven’t been to the Gym this morning because it’s my shopping day. I’ve been down to Tesco’s and bought all the fresh grown stuff such as raspberries, strawberries, cabbage, apples and so on. Then I went to the shoe shop for new pair of black shoes for those formal occasions. I like to look smart. Strangely, I have kicked a hole in the toe of one of them. Yeah, and it’s not as if I go scampering up walls or anything like that that we did when we were kids. I was one who always had a grazed knee. However, the shop was shut. Maybe that was providential? I glanced in the window and on display they had black leather shoes for men from £110 to £225 pair. Wow!
I said I would let you know how the slimming battle was doing and the truth is that I have lost only 1/2 lb in four weeks, which is very disappointing, considering all the sacrifices I am making and the exercise I am putting myself through five mornings a week. Mind you, sexy Linda is not too upset by this. She says, taking everything into account, if I manage only ½ lb a month, every month, that would be 6 lbs in a year which would be good progress. Considering I no longer need to take a blood pressure pill at all and I don’t need to have injections in my shoulder for the great pain I used to have there. That is progress. I’ll let you know how I get on.
Since last writing I have heard from an old friend from my school days, Peter Mitchell. He found me by seeing my name on a book. He read the book and deduced from the story, and some of the character’s names that I was the chap he went to school with many years ago in Gloucestershire. He was right. He phoned the publishers and they sent me a message down the line, and I was delighted to speak with him on the phone. He and his wife are calling on us later this year. I’ll let you know how it goes.
I have just checked through the manuscript of THE BIG FIDDLE and it goes to the type-setter, then it is checked again and printed and made into a book. It will be published in April or May. THE FRUIT GUM MURDERS is being checked over at the moment and I expect it will be published later this year. Needless to say, I am writing another Angel book but I haven’t yet decided on a title.
I have just realised that while there is no VAT on a printed book, there is VAT on all ebook editions. It sounds incongruous to me. What do you think?’
Spring isn’t far away. Have a great time and enjoy your reading.
Shrove Tuesday
Shrove Tuesday, 12 February 2013
Hello there.
Well, as far as the weather goes, we’re in the worst of it. It is very cold but there isn’t much snow around. It has mostly melted. As the song goes, ‘It can only get better!’
In my last letters, I said that I’d tell you about my weight. Between December 7th 2012 and January 4th, I gained 4 lbs. I was devastated. That was the second time I had put on weight. I had a good long talk with sexy Linda of Change4 Life and she said that maybe the gargantuan helpings of potatoes I was serving myself were possibly to blame. So I cut them down to three medium to small potatoes per meal, and upped the other vegetables, cabbage, cauliflower, peas, carrots or whatever accordingly. She pointed out that vegetables (except potatoes) don’t put weight on. And it seemed to have worked because when I was weighed on February 1st I had taken off 2 lbs. Now if I can maintain the regime, I should be able to manage to lose 2 lbs every month. That’s healthy and that would be great. I’ll keep you posted.
At last I have finished another Angel book. It will be the 21st in the series. When I first started writing about this character it was just the one book, IN THE MIDST OF LIFE. Now everybody wants to read more of him, so I haven’t time to write anything else. It’s called THE FRUIT GUM MURDERS and I hope it will keep you mystified and amused to the very last page. I don’t think it will published before June.
I am told that my Christmas sales of Angel titles were well up, boosted by the cheap ebook offers of some titles in December. Sales of THE DIAMOND ROSARY MURDERS was published on December 31st 2012. I have no sales figures, but I do know the large print rights have already been snapped up by Ulverscroft.
Whatever you do, have a great time, and enjoy your reading.
Hello there.
Well, as far as the weather goes, we’re in the worst of it. It is very cold but there isn’t much snow around. It has mostly melted. As the song goes, ‘It can only get better!’
In my last letters, I said that I’d tell you about my weight. Between December 7th 2012 and January 4th, I gained 4 lbs. I was devastated. That was the second time I had put on weight. I had a good long talk with sexy Linda of Change4 Life and she said that maybe the gargantuan helpings of potatoes I was serving myself were possibly to blame. So I cut them down to three medium to small potatoes per meal, and upped the other vegetables, cabbage, cauliflower, peas, carrots or whatever accordingly. She pointed out that vegetables (except potatoes) don’t put weight on. And it seemed to have worked because when I was weighed on February 1st I had taken off 2 lbs. Now if I can maintain the regime, I should be able to manage to lose 2 lbs every month. That’s healthy and that would be great. I’ll keep you posted.
At last I have finished another Angel book. It will be the 21st in the series. When I first started writing about this character it was just the one book, IN THE MIDST OF LIFE. Now everybody wants to read more of him, so I haven’t time to write anything else. It’s called THE FRUIT GUM MURDERS and I hope it will keep you mystified and amused to the very last page. I don’t think it will published before June.
I am told that my Christmas sales of Angel titles were well up, boosted by the cheap ebook offers of some titles in December. Sales of THE DIAMOND ROSARY MURDERS was published on December 31st 2012. I have no sales figures, but I do know the large print rights have already been snapped up by Ulverscroft.
Whatever you do, have a great time, and enjoy your reading.
22nd December 2012
Hello there…
Well, I hope you’ve got it all done, cards, tree, decorations, pressies, food. And now you’ve time to reflect on Christmas itself … I hope that you’re set for a happy time, perhaps with family, perhaps with just your spouse or even by yourself. Whoever you are, wherever you are, I do hope you will enjoy yourself.
I suppose we should be pleased if we’ve got enough food, warmth, a comfortable bed and a friend. At least one good friend. And good health.
I don’t know why I’m talking like this. I think I’ve seen or heard so many stories recently - both true and fiction - about people deprived of the necessities of life that I really find it biting at my soul. It’s telling me to be grateful for what I’ve got and not to be grumbling all the time, to which I must plead guilty.
I’ve said enough about that. Let’s get jolly. I’ve good reason to be jolly. I am delighted that Amazon have chosen three of my Angel books to put in their ‘100 Kindle books for £2.99 or less’. I am greatly honoured. I understand that at £1.99 each, sales are well up to expectations. But this all comes to an end on December 31st, when the price goes back up to around £6 each. The titles are MURDER IN BARE FEET, THE MAN WHO COULDN’T LOSE and THE CURIOUS MIND OF INSPECTOR ANGEL.
Watch out for THE DIAMOND ROSARY MURDERS, another Inspector Angel mystery which will be out on December 31st.
By the way I did get weighed on December 7th and I was exactly the same as last month. I’m not pleased because I work so hard at the gym and try to keep to the diet suggested by the course leader, sexy Linda, who is very good and knows what she’s talking about. However she says that after two years, six hours a week in the gym some of my body fat will be changing into muscle which weighs heavier than fat. I believe her. She could sell sand to the Arabs. I get weighed next early in January (after all that Christmas pudding and brandy sauce!). I’ll let you know the verdict anyway.
Say a prayer for your loved ones and yourself.
Have a great Christmas, and a very happy New Year.
Hello there…
Well, I hope you’ve got it all done, cards, tree, decorations, pressies, food. And now you’ve time to reflect on Christmas itself … I hope that you’re set for a happy time, perhaps with family, perhaps with just your spouse or even by yourself. Whoever you are, wherever you are, I do hope you will enjoy yourself.
I suppose we should be pleased if we’ve got enough food, warmth, a comfortable bed and a friend. At least one good friend. And good health.
I don’t know why I’m talking like this. I think I’ve seen or heard so many stories recently - both true and fiction - about people deprived of the necessities of life that I really find it biting at my soul. It’s telling me to be grateful for what I’ve got and not to be grumbling all the time, to which I must plead guilty.
I’ve said enough about that. Let’s get jolly. I’ve good reason to be jolly. I am delighted that Amazon have chosen three of my Angel books to put in their ‘100 Kindle books for £2.99 or less’. I am greatly honoured. I understand that at £1.99 each, sales are well up to expectations. But this all comes to an end on December 31st, when the price goes back up to around £6 each. The titles are MURDER IN BARE FEET, THE MAN WHO COULDN’T LOSE and THE CURIOUS MIND OF INSPECTOR ANGEL.
Watch out for THE DIAMOND ROSARY MURDERS, another Inspector Angel mystery which will be out on December 31st.
By the way I did get weighed on December 7th and I was exactly the same as last month. I’m not pleased because I work so hard at the gym and try to keep to the diet suggested by the course leader, sexy Linda, who is very good and knows what she’s talking about. However she says that after two years, six hours a week in the gym some of my body fat will be changing into muscle which weighs heavier than fat. I believe her. She could sell sand to the Arabs. I get weighed next early in January (after all that Christmas pudding and brandy sauce!). I’ll let you know the verdict anyway.
Say a prayer for your loved ones and yourself.
Have a great Christmas, and a very happy New Year.
6th December 2012
Hello, friends.
Just a few lines to say that …
I have just heard that Amazon, the on-line booksellers, have chosen three of my Inspector Angel mysteries to be in their pre-Christmas selection of ‘100 Kindle books each for £2.99 or less’. They are MURDER IN BARE FEET, THE MAN WHO COULDN’T LOSE and THE CURIOUS MIND OF INSPECTOR ANGEL. Electronic editions for Kindle readers can now, for a month, buy them for £1.99 a copy, which means I’ll be able to have turkey at Christmas instead of shredded copies of my first book boiled up with a chicken stock cube.
My latest book, THE DIAMOND ROSARY MURDERS will be published in hardback on December 31st, as if you need reminding.
By the way, getting weighed tomorrow all being well. Snow is forecast for the Pennines, which is us. If it too much, I shall not venture out. I’ll stay in and write. In which case I will probably wait another month before going to sexy Linda at ‘Change4Life’ – that’s the new name for ‘Weight Wise.’
Hope to see you before Christmas. Keep warm and safe.
November 27th 2012
Hello there.
Well, friends, I am pleased to say that my latest book has been accepted and will be published in hardback initially in 2013. It will be called THE BIG FIDDLE and, of course, it is an Angel book. It has taken ages to write. The storyline is a bit different and I hope you will enjoy it.
I told you I would let you know how my weight losing programme was going on. Well, sexy Linda weighed me on November 2nd and the horrific news was that in three months I have put on 2½ lbs. I was mortified. I should be taking it off, not putting it on. As I said last month, the trouble is, that although I am eliminating all the wrong foods and eating all the right foods, I’m eating too much of them. I have to reduce the size of the portions I eat or increase my activity in the gym. It’s difficult. But I will persevere.
I had a lovely letter from a man who is 64, and lives in Devon. He said he hadn’t read a book in his life. His wife gave him a copy of an Angel book. He read it and apparently enjoyed it, because he then went to the library and borrowed book after book until he’d read them all except THE CHESHIRE CAT MURDERS and DEADLY DAFFODILS. Well as THE CHESHIRE CAT MURDERS was the latest book of mine to be published I expect it hadn’t arrived at the library yet. Unfortunately, DEADLY DAFFODILS is out of print. Well it would be. I first wrote it in 1970. Luckily, I had a paperback copy reprinted in 2002, so I sent that on to him, with thanks for his kindness in bothering to write and say nice things about the books. I wish him well. I’m sure you’ll join me. And good luck with his reading, whatever it may be.
I have now six Angel titles on Kindle and other electronic readers.
They are
THE SNUFFBOX MURDERS
THE MAN WHO COULDN’T LOSE
THE CURIOUS MIND OF INSPECTOR ANGEL
FIND THE LADY
THE WIG MAKER
and MURDER IN BARE FEET.
So all you posh Kindle owners have the opportunity of reading about Angel. I hope to have all my titles published this way as well as in hardback.
Well I did get started on a new Angel book. You can’t stop me writing once I begin. I’m about a third of the way through. I shall have to knock off in about two weeks time to concentrate on Christmas. We make a bit of thing of it here. I like sending cards and receiving them. Many of them are the only contact I have with friends and loved ones we rarely see, perhaps sadly only at funerals. Well, it’s the sort of lives we all lead. Everybody is busy busy busy doing their own little thing … I’m as a bad. There’s no talking to me sometimes when I am struggling with a plot or a character. If I ever hurt anybody through being far away, so to speak, please excuse me. I apologise most heartily. I don’t mean to be thoughtless or rude. Please forgive me.
Well, it was ‘Stir up’ Sunday, two days ago,the Sunday before Advent, the time traditionally when you made your Christmas puddings. I hope you’ve got yours ready. To tell the truth we buy ours from Tesco.
I hope you are healthy and that all your family are in good form. Not every family is harmonious this autumn. Unemployment is bothering some, the shortage of money and illness of one or more members of a family is worrying others. And there are other problems … we hope that nevertheless you are able to enjoy the preparations for Christmas as we still do.
Whatever you do, enjoy doing it. Have a great time and enjoy your reading.
October 1st 2012
Ah, there you are.
At long last I’ve managed to finish my latest book. It is a very unusual story which pushes Angel into some tricky situations. I have had my head down and tried to ignore everything and everybody in a mammoth effort to weave my way through the plotline and finish it. Great joy!!
It’s my 20th Angel book and it’s called THE BIG FIDDLE. I’ve submitted it to the publishers for publication in hardback first, and I’ll let you know what they say. As a consequence, I have a pile of papers on my desk 15 inches high, which I must deal with.
Now, as I finish a book, I usually have an idea for a new book on my mind, but I have to admit I haven’t an idea in my head. You know, one of the first questions people ask when they get to know me is, ‘Where do you get your ideas from?’ I always have to say, ‘I don’t know,’ and that’s the truth. I really don’t know. I will have to wait a little while and be patient.
What usually happens is that I hear about (or see for myself) a real life situation which may seem unusual or odd. I think about it and begin to wonder, if it was changed around a little and someone did this, and someone else did that, how the situation might turn into a suitable criminal plot. Most of the ideas fall on their face but eventually out pops a storyline for Angel.
Well, I’m still managing to lose a little weight. I am losing it at around two pounds a month, which I know isn’t much, but, as sexy Linda said, multiply that by 12 for a year and that’s more than stone. And it’s always harder when you’re into your 3rd year of ‘Change 4 Life’, which I am. The trouble is, that although I am eliminating all the wrong foods and eating all the right foods, but I’m eating too much of them. I have to reduce the size of the portions or increase my activity in the gym.
My next new Angel book, THE DIAMOND ROSARY MURDERS is still on track to be published in hardback on December 31st.
It’ll soon be time to hang your stocking up. The only contribution I have made towards that is that I’ve ordered our Christmas cards from Barnardo’s.
Have a great time, and enjoy your reading.
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