A Big Thank You and An Apology

First of all thank you to everyone who posted a birthday message on my last post - they all made me smile. (Yes, Sid - even yours!) What a lovely way to add to my birthday celebrations. And it was great to 'see' so many of the visitors to the blog this way. Now I can put more names to some of the visitor count.

I had a lovely birthday -quiet and relaxing. Just visiting Beverley with the BM and having lunch there then coming home for tea and cake (choice of chocolate or lemon if enquiring minds want to know) with The Offspring and his girlfriend. The sun shone, the cats purred, I had loads of cards . . .just right And at sometime I have Australia to watch and do some more heavy duty research. I need some inspiration with a new plot to think up and to help me decide which of a couple of stories that are brewing in my head I want to go with next.

As an extra birthday present I also came home to another 'classic' reprint of one of my books brought out in Japan to celebrate their 30th anniversary this year. This time it was Constantine's Revenge. So that's 2 reprints and one translation of my recent books already this year in Japan - and it's only just May. (Joanne wondered what happened to the translations of my bokos that I receive - well I am always looking for useful ways of using these, ways that can help people. I have donated some to the international collections in libraries - some specialise in particular languages, some colleges use them for teaching foreign languages - the Japanese translations have been populer there! I've given some to an International Women's Group. Some to the Prison Service where they often have non-English people who need something in their own languages to read . . . but I'm always looking for other worthwhile ways of donating them so if anyone knows of any other places do let me know.)

The apology - I was supposed to be at the Lincoln Book Festival on Sunday 17th with Milly Johnson and Jane Johnson at a talk about romantic fiction at 4pm but sadly the event has been cancelled by the organisers as there was very little interest and only a couple of tickets sold - so if you were planning on heading for Lincoln without having booked, please don't as I won't be there!