Authors Electric

  Sunday morning started with a tiny sprinkling of snow. An hour later, the path had a dusting of snow. By the time we had breakfast, the snow almost covered my children’s wellies! So much change in such a short time. It’s been a white world ever since, as the temperature has been ridiculously low, with only Goldie, our Labrador puppy having a wonderful time. It looks beautiful, as long as you’re wrapped up in enough layers to stop you from moving your arms. It made me think of the Christmas books around, which will be popular this year. People going for lovely walks in the snow, without mentioning frozen toes, soggy socks and fingers that struggle to turn to key to get back indoors. On the other hand, it’s tempting to keep taking pictures. Snowy trees, a gorgeous sunset, a bouncing puppy...all worth another few pictures. Again, not something you can put in a book. Nobody wants to know there was another amazing sunset. More pink and orange this time, unlike last night’s which w...

We arrived in the Netherlands early Saturday morning, after an absence of nearly two years. My kids were thrilled, so was I, although dropping the puppy off back with her mother was rather hard... We found one of our favourite places for breakfast, and we all had our favourite drinks. It’s all about favourites when we get to the Netherlands. My kids discuss these at length before we’ve even packed the first few socks and shirts. It starts with what to have on the boat, before disembarkation. Mummy will have coffee, of course, and they will have a strawberry milkshake. After our wonderful breakfast, we went to the holiday place we own, dropped off a few things, then straight to the supermarket. That is where things started to get interesting. We hadn’t had Dutch food for two years, but none of it had been forgotten. So as soon as we walked in, all six of us spotted things we loved. We went around the supermarket, my four kids getting more and more excited as well as more dysregula...

Leaning back in my car seat, I thought about characters in books, trying to compare myself to them. I love crime fiction and the main characters usually are overflowing with energy. They get hit over the head, shot at and threatened but they jump out of bed at 4am, ready to dash into the shower, have a coffee, grab their gun and they’re off to catch bad people. I totally relate. Well, to the need for coffee at least. The rest? No chance. And I wondered, how realistic should I make my characters? Should I make them bash their alarm clocks into snooze mode at least five times? Should I make them ignore cobwebs in corners until a visitor mentions it? The thing that intrigued me about the Famous Five was the fact they could be tied up for hours on end, yet nobody was desperate to go to the toilet. Then there is the lack of energy. With the world in turmoil and the stress of the last two years, I have days where it’s hard to move or think. Hearing dreadful news about an acquaintance’s h...