Happy Christmas

Stopping by to say that the first draft of book 12 aka Murder at the Jubilee is done and marinating now until the New Year when I'll polish it up and send it to my new editor. Thank you to all of my guest bloggers. And a huge thanks to all my lovely supportive readers for the kind comments and reviews this year. It means so much to know that someone has enjoyed a story that I've created. It makes all the research, muttering and neglected housework worthwhile. I'm looking forward to bringing you more Matt and Kitty stories in the New Year. Stay safe and have a lovely, healthy, peaceful celebration xx

Picture this!

I found this fabulous picture which captures Lucy at Enderley Hall in Murder at the Bell Tower so wonderfully I thought I'd share it with you all along with a tiny snippet.

Matt glanced around for Kitty. She was assisting Lucy while the craft table was full. He wanted to speak to her to tell her about his visit to the police station and to ask if she had seen her uncle. He excused himself from the group and carried his decoration over to Kitty. “Another one for your tree.” She studied it for a moment. “What is it?” “A robin, obviously.” He was a little disgruntled at her disparagement of his artistic endeavours. “Of course, I see it now,” she grinned and hung it on the tree next to a slightly malevolent looking cherub.

The Christmas Beetle

Every Year I write a story especially for my niece, Sophia as her Christmas gift. I'd like to share this one with all of you. It's the first one I wrote for her in 2010. The Christmas Beetle Bertie, the small black beetle was tired. He’d flown around all day long in the sun until his wings ached. All he wanted was to find a nice dark, safe place where he could settle down for a good nights sleep. Then he saw the perfect spot, a beautiful hat made of soft purple fabric. Just the right bed for a small, tired insect. He snuggled in and closed his weary eyes. When the sun rose the next morning Bertie discovered he was in a strange new place. He stretched his wings and left his bed to see where he was. The ground below him was hot and dusty and the sky a bright cloudless blue. The only green things he could see were a small group of palm trees. The human whose hat had provided him with a bed for the night sat with his friends and their camels resting in the shade. Bertie had a nice day flying around in the sunshine before creeping back into his warm safe bed. That night he couldn’t sleep. His bed in the hat rocked and moved as its owner travelled through the darkness following a big bright star that lit up the sky. Bertie held on tight as they approached a small but busy town. He took a peep over the brim of the hat when his bed stopped moving and saw the humans talking to a group of shepherds who had come down from the hills. He quickly hid again when one of the lambs saw him and bleated hello. He didn’t want the owner of the hat to throw him out of his bed. After a few minutes his bed started rocking once more as the people moved on. Bertie could hear the lambs still bleating and wondered where the owner of the hat and the shepherds could be going. He heard lots of noise, people talking and the clatter and bustle of the streets. Overhead the huge star shone down as bright as the sun filling the town with its light. He was almost thrown from his perch when the owner of the hat climbed down from his camel. I wonder where we are? Thought Bertie. The noise had stopped and everything was silent except for the sounds of beautiful music. He crept to the brim of the hat and holding tight with his pincers he peered out. In front of him was an amazing sight. Golden winged humans stood at the back of a small room which had straw on the floor. They were the makers of the music. A man and a woman knelt next to a small basket made of wood filled with straw. The woman looked happy but tired as she looked at the manger. Bertie glanced around the room and saw the donkey and the ox kneeling and looking at the manger. He was almost thrown to the floor again when the owner of the hat also knelt down on the stone cobbles amongst the straw. The shepherds had filed in behind the owner of the hat and his two friends. Now the lambs were also kneeling and had stopped their bleating. The owner of the hat and his friends gave the man and the woman gifts, strange boxes filled with scented special and expensive things. Bertie could resist no longer. He had to know what was in the manger that was causing this strange behaviour. He stretched his little black wings and took off from his perch landing carefully on the edge of the crib hoping the humans wouldn’t notice him. He looked inside and found the source of the wonder. A tiny human baby wrapped in cloth lying amongst the straw. Bertie looked at the baby and the baby looked at Bertie. The baby gave a tiny smile and Bertie felt a strange warm glow spreading throughout his tiny body and he knew this was a very special baby. He bowed his head before spreading his wings once more and retreating back to his bed in the hat before any of the other humans saw him. After a while the owner of the hat and his friends left the stable and went back out onto the street. By then the sun had begun to rise once more for the start of a new day. Bertie decided he would fly and get a drink of water before the day grew too hot. He saw a bucket of water beside a well and flew down to take a drink. As he leaned forward he saw his reflection in the water. What he saw surprised him so much he almost fell in. He was no longer Bertie the small black beetle, instead he glowed with a rich yellow-green colour. He had become Bertie the Christmas Beetle. © Nell Dixon 2010

Prepping for Christmas

The tree is up and turkey is sorted. Youngest belle is home from Uni. We're looking forward to our annual trip into Birmingham for the panto. Christmas for me isn't Christmas without panto. We've the Christingle service on Christmas Eve to look forward to. Thankfully, I'm off for Christmas eve and Christmas day although I have 2 fourteen hour shifts for New Years eve and day and shifts in between.

Rushing towards Christmas

I'm so topsy-turvy this year. My cards are written but not posted. My presents are bought and wrapped but the house looks like a bomb went off and I haven't done any of the cleaning and tidying that needs to be done before the tree can go up.

Life has been so busy - lots to do at the day job, lots to do on the writing front. My middle belle is having college interviews, youngest has some medical appointments, eldest has arrived home from college and filled the house with her stuff. Plus, of course they are still swapping and sorting out rooms - except they seem to be waiting for me to do all the work!

There has also been lots of serious health issues in my wider family. The end result is lots of half done things and chaos all round.

Today though I'm escaping for a little space for Christmas lunch with Phillipa Ashley and Elizabeth Hanbury - aka the Coffee Crew. We've all had an amazing year writing wise and plans need to be hatched for next year.

In the meantime why not check out our latest releases? From me, The Cinderella Substitute and the New Bay box set. Phillipa Ashley has the fantastic Miranda's Mount and Liz has The Cinderella Debutante. All available from good e tailers for your nook, kindle or kobo.

The gift of Christmas

I've now officially broken up from the day job for a week or so. Time to rescue the house - having three teenagers at home whilst I'm at work is not a good thing. The fridge has now been filled (again), the freezer is stuffed with goodies and the pantry is a danger zone thanks to the shelves groaning with treats ready for family and friends.
For many people life is not so kind, my next job today is to send my charity donations for Christmas. I have some causes I support all year round - my local hospice, the RNLI, and the air ambulance are my main ones but at Christmas I always try to give extra money where I can. The real message of Christmas isn't the gifts or the food and parties but in the true wealth of life, family, friends and the thankfulness for the bounty we've recieved all year. The joy of Christmas lies in sharing with others especially with those who may be struggling.
I wish all of you a Merry Christmas and hope that the season is filled with blessings for you and yours.

How was it for you?

I hope you all had a lovely Christmas and Boxing day? We had a fab time. The belles thought Santa did a great job this year as they all got things they really wanted. Some of them small like a Sylvanian family item for Miss La and some a bit larger like a camera for Miss Boo. The hit present appears to be a shared one which was Raving Rabbids go shopping for the Wii. This is fab fun, totally bonkers and as hilarious to watch as it is to play. A cartoon bunny wearing a thong and getting a spray tan? fab.
We spent lots of time with family just eating, drinking, pulling crackers and chatting.I got some of my favourite perfume and a gift voucher from Mr Nell and some yummy chocolate from Hotel Chocolate. I got some fab things from the belles and lots of my fave presents - socks!
So, what did you all get? Was it what you wanted or did you get some surprises?

Santa Claus is coming to town

Last night we went to the pantomime to see the wonderful Joe Pasquale and Ray Quinn in Sleeping Beauty. The special effects were as always breathtaking, the dame had the best costumes I'd seen since we saw the late, great Danny La Rue and as always the bits where things went wrong were hilarious.
At the moment I have frozen meats thawing in the kitchen, Mr Nell has gone to the farm shop to collect the fruit and veg and I've fresh baked bread sending lovely aromas around the kitchen. Later the eldest belle is helping me make cauliflower cheese and prepare pigs in blankets for tomorrow and Mr Nell has threatened er promised to make sausage rolls.
This evening we're off to Chapel for the Christingle service and supper with family then home to watch the Muppets Christmas Carol before the big man arrives down the chimney.
Wishing all of my friends, readers, fellow authors and anyone who regularly follows this blog a Happy and Joyful Christmastime whatever your celebration may be. Take care in the ice, remember to be nice and if you are naughty don't get caught!
Love Nell, Mr Nell and the belles XXX

Dashing through the snow...

Well, I don't dash anywhere these days but we did get snow last night. Luckily my friend made it to my house this morning and we had a lovely catch up. Hopefully it won't be as long before we do it again. I've just a few parcels left to deliver now and a couple of cards. Fruit and veg are ordered from the farm shop for the big day so that will just leave bread to get and a couple of bitty things - other than that I'm pretty well set I think. On Wednesday we're going en famille to the Hippodrome in Brum to see Sleeping Beauty with Ray Quinn and Joe Pasquale. I don't know who is more excited, the belles or Mr Nell's Mum as she has a bit of a thing for Ray.
Then Christmas Eve it's the Christingle at Chapel and home to watch A Muppet's Christmas Carol. Although I am very, very disappointed with the DVD version as they've cut the scene that is in the original film where Scrooge and his old love sing the most beautiful song. Bah Humbug on Disney for doing that as it spoils the film. GO HERE and watch it

Home for the holiday

I'm off from the day job now till after Christmas so hopefully I'll be able to catch up on my writing deadlines in between the festivities and Christmas preparations. I'm almost into the final third of Just Look at me now and I've a good idea what I need to rewrite in the first third to make the book much stronger. Not as much as I'd first feared - just the realisation that I'd revealed some information too early and that it weakened the plot. I'm also hoping to tackle a nice big chunk of You, Me and Him.
I've the final lot of cleaning and tidying to do in the house - cleaning out the family room and the belles bedrooms. I've also got all my local cards and parcels to deliver to various destinations. I'm hoping to do some nice things with the belles too and see some of my oldest friends. Of course if we get snow then I'll be in front of the fire watching old films on the telly!

Shopping day

Today is my big shop day - I save all year on an Asda card and Mr Nell and I go off today to buy the essentials for Christmas - you know like Turkey. I also get some bits and pieces for a few parcels although most of my buying is done - I just have to do the wrapping. I have a wreath on the front door but that's as far as I've got with decorating the house. I still feel lousy with this head/sinus thing. Last night I hardly slept as I kept feeling as if my ear was running even though it wasn't. Two of the belles have parties tonight so Mom's taxi will be in full swing and then I'm back at work so if they aren't careful the wreath will be all the decorating I'm doing.
In other news Happy Birthday to my mil!

Newsflash - Christmas is comiing

Argh, I am so not ready, I wrote loads of cards last night, thought I was almost done and then discovered I need to do loads more. I must go to the post office tomorrow to post the bookmarks for a Christmas exchange that I do every year. I have wrapped the grand total of five gifts and two of those are books for the book swap at my writers group on Wednesday. I haven't planned any of my grocery shop or ordered my fruit and veg at the farm shop yet either and I'm working extra days at the day job so have less time, To make matters worse, my cloakroom is still not finished so the house is still upside down and I've realised I need to do a major rewrite on Just Look at Me Now if the book is going to work! I'd go drink some wine but I haven't sorted that out yet either!

Throwing yourself into things

I celebrated Christmas by hurling myself down the stairs this morning. I'm not too sure how it happened. One minute I was padding along the landing clutching my empty coffee mug ready to go get a refill. The next minute I was airborne. I landed on my (fortunately in this case) well-padded rear and bumped from step to step landing in an unceromonious heap four steps from the bottom and still holding my mug. I now have a nice line in black bruises all down my left arm and a small bruise forming on the right side of my bum. Once my family had ascertained that I hadn't damaged myself or the staircase my plight provided them with their entertainment for the morning.
Sigh.

Only two more sleeps till Christmas

I finished work today at the day job. It's so lovely to be working with such nice people. We had a mini Christmas buffet party with nice food and finished off our work. The house is starting to look more like somewhere guests could come as the belles have finally tidied up their rooms and cleaned up the family room. I've straightened the kitchen so now all I have to do is collect my veg from the farm shop tomorrow and defrost things. Oh, and buy bread.
Tomorrow will be lovely as I do a lot of prep for Christmas day - setting the table, making the bacon and turkey rolls and the cauliflower cheese. Then at teatime we visit my mom's chapel for the Christingle service which the belles love. I see all the people who I've known since I was a child. Then we're going back to my mom's for hot pork sandwiches.
Then when we get home Mr Nell will have finished work and we plan to watch The Muppets Christmas Carol together and eat chocolate and popcorn. Fab!
So, however you plan to spend your holiday, from my home to yours have a wonderful Christmas.

Cold and carols

My youngest belle broke up from school today and is busy gloating. The other two don't finish till Friday. This afternoon was the traditional short carol service at the village church for Miss La's school. It's always a nice service but the heating didn't seem to be working today so it was cold. I wish too that as well as the more modern carols that chuches would sing the traditional ones too. Not that my singing was up to much thanks to my cold and sore throat.
I do feel quite Christmassy now though. If I can just get around to wrapping up the last couple of presents and distributing the cards I give out by hand I'll be almost there. The house is still not tidied as I've felt too crappy to do all the things I'd planned - ah well, I can always rope in the belles to help at the weekend.

Bleurgh

As I still feel like crap on a stick I succumbed and went to the doctors. I now have antibiotics so hopefully I'll be back to what passes for normal around here soon. I did another post office run, so more stuff got mailed out. I love sending people surprises. Getting stuff in the post that isn't a bill or someone trying to sell you something is always so joyful. I adore getting Christmas cards too, catching up with peoples news and hearing from old friends.
The stuff is down from the loft and my landing is covered with boxes. The Belles are planning to decorate the house this weekend although I see the stash of chocolate decorations for the tree have already been sampled.
Next stop will be wrapping everything up and distributing family and neighbours stuff - plus I usually get to see one of my best friends too.

It's oh so quiet

Shaggy has still got no voice, so she's at home - sigh. I put her to work wrapping some of the presents for family and friends. I've been doing one of my least favourite jobs - cleaning windows. I'm rubbish at it. They always look smeary even if I try all the tips from Anthea Turner or the how clean is your house people. Cleaning windows effectively is not one of my gifts. Actually, I'm not over brill at cleaning the oven or ironing or well, actually most kinds of housewifey type things.
I make a great roast dinner though and know lots of different ways of getting stains out of stuff. (The last one is because I'm clumsy and I have three kids)
At least you can see through the windows now, in fact, in a rush of blood to my head I even cleaned the brass on the front door ready to hang the Christmas wreath that I haven't got yet.
Now if I can just dig out the lounge and the family room and move the mountain of fossilised laundry in the utility, we might be able to put the decorations up at the weekend.

X Factor yay

So it's down to Alexandra, Hedgehog and the Wiggles for the final. Diana has gone. I'd like Alexandra or JLS to win as I think Hedgehog will have a career anyway. Plus time is on his side.
I got up this morning to some lovely emails and comments from readers who'd read Blue Remembered Heels. It still stuns me when people say they've enjoyed one of my books and I so appreciate hearing from people.
I have the next chapter of Crystal Clear ready in my head and I want to go over the first third of my project book. However, my eldest belle has lost her voice - much to the delight of her sisters and my house is still not clean/tidy enough for us to even begin getting ready for Christmas. In my defense, cleaning and tidying my house is like the painting of the Forth Bridge. I'm sure I'll get there, it just may be Christmas 2009 instead of this year.

Foggy day

The world outside my window is enveloped in white mist. I can just see the outline of the squirrel picking his way along the bare branches of the tree at the end of the lane. I had a lovely surprise parcel in the post this morning which is making me grin. I just love surprises especially nice ones. Mr Nell has retrieved the advent box from the attic so now I have to fill the drawers with goodies for the belles. I love this run up to Christmas with the rustling of paper and hiding away of little treats and surprises.
I think I'm going to do another chapter on Crystal Clear this weekend. I know I said I was going to hit 30k on my other project but I need to give it time to breathe as it isn't quite right and if I forge ahead too quickly at this point then I know it's not going to work. I need to tidy, expand and adit the first third and I need a degree of separation in order to see clearly what I need to do. In other words, the fog has to lift in order for me to focus.

Brrr

Who turned the heat off? It's turned very cold here now and I had to spend five minutes this morning de-icing the car before I could go to work. I've been planning my Christmas lists, presents, stuff I need to do around the house and all that kind of thing. It'll be so nice this year now I'm out of pain and mobile unlike last year when everything was so bleak. I'm really looking forward to enjoying everything.
I've put my project book on hold for a few days to give myself some perspective as I think I need to work more on polishing up the first chunk of the book before I can write the middle part. This means I'm back working on Crystal Clear which has been bubbling away nicely in the back of my mind. My poor heroine is just waking up to reality and it's not going to be pretty.