Birthday Month!

February already and my birthday month. Murder at Sea will release on Feb 23rd and preorders for Murder in a Yorkshire Village will go live soon. I can't wait for you all to see the cover as it's so lovely. I'm working hard on the next Secret Detective Agency book as The Afternoon Tea Murders will release in April. I'm also outlining the next Matt and Kitty Christmas book ready to dive into that one too. It's slow going without my furry assistant and my caring responsibilities at home have increased too but hopefully if it will just stop raining things will improve. Where I live, here in the South West, we have had terrific storms and what feels like non stop rain for weeks. I can't wait to get in my garden. I think my daffodils have water wings at the moment.

Rainy days

I went out in the rain last night to take the eldest belle and her friend to one of the local colleges for their open night. Mr Nell drove thank goodness while we attemped to avoid being swept away by the water torrenting down all around us. We got to the college and thankfully they had a carpark. Mr Nell went to park and I noticed the amount of surface water so he pulled to the edge of the car park where the ground was higher. By the time we got out of the car to walk across to the reception area the car park was a lake. The force of the water had lifted a manhole cover underneath a silver Vectra in the centre of the carpark and water was gushing up under it like a fountain! Quite an experience. Today everywhere is just soggy and debris from the trees is lying in heaps in the gutters. It looks as if we might be in for a wet and wild weekend.

Wet, wet, wet

And I don't mean the group. Everywhere around here is flooding. The drains are clogged with the falling leaves and the rain has been so torrential there are hugs pools forming across the lanes. I guess it's better to have it falling as rain rather than snow but I wish it would stop falling at all - at least for a few days.
We lost our lovely little black Molly fish the other day and Angie, my lovely but dim, angel fish ate one of the neons. We've bought some more rosy gourami to make up for the loss and another pretty lady dalmation molly for Mr Molly to add to his hareem.
Angie and Brad - the angel fish have been bribed with blood worms to try to stop them snacking on the three remaining neons while if the clown loach get any fatter they'll get stuck in the windows of their pineapple house.
If the rain keeps falling I shall grow gills and a fin myself.

Row, row, row your boat...

It's still raining here. The brooks and pools are full to bursting and many of the lanes are flooded. It makes reaching many of my clients interesting to say the least. We're avoiding the fords at the moment.
My good friend Kate Hardy is holding a party on her blog to celebrate her 25th book for Mills and Boon. Kate writes medicals and Modern extras. Call over if you have chance in the next couple of days and help her celebrate. There are prizes!
http://katehardy.bravejournal.com
Eight weeks now on Charlie and the RNA conference is looming nearer. It would be good to hear one way or the other before then as I know Maddie is going to the RWA conference in America just after that.

Wet, wet, wet

No, not the group - the weather. We all got pretty soaked today hitching up the caravan to come home from our weekend at the seaside. Luckily the motorway was quiet as there was a lot of surface water and the rain was torrential.
We had a near miss when we were almost home when some moron in an orange car decided to cut us up on the island. Mr Nell thought he'd hit us as the orange car appeared to sport a large dent but Baby appeared undamaged - not that Mr Orangecar moron stopped to see. He pretended he was going to pull over then sped off. The belles were shaken up but are okay now. We stopped off at the policestation and reported him.
We went to Burnham for the weekend as a prebirthday treat for La as she'll be 9 next weekend. We had dinner at La Vela, our favourite restaurant on the Friday night then spent Saturday shopping at Street. I spent some of my romance prize money on a new bag for my laptop. Not just any bag though and I know Kate Hardy will like this - a Radley laptop bag. There's a Tula outlet shop and I have the most gorgeous laptop bag for a bargain price.
La bought a new top, converser shoes in blue polka dots and more Sylvanian family stuff so she was very happy.We had lunch at a nice pub then hit the heady arcades of Burnham to win stuff on the 2p fall machines followed by a barbecue and eurovision party.
How did Serbia win?! The Ukraine was robbed!
The perfect birthday treat weekend as far as La was concerned.