New Year 2018 news and views

A week into the New Year and I wish you an awesome and inspirational year ahead. I know my year looks exciting. I hope yours does too. On my list is a lot of travel. I’ve had time to reflect in the last month, having watched my best friend slowly lose her battle with leukaemia bit by bit, day by day, for more than a year. Life changed overnight for her, yet I saw how determined she was to do her amended, reinvented and constantly changing bucket list while she could. She inspired me and encouraged me to get on do and do the things I want to do. That includes catching up with people we haven’t seen for some time, because who knows whether any of us will see each other again, and visiting places and attending events that have been pushed aside in the rush of life. At this time of the year, my OH and I love to hitch on the caravan  and head off wherever the road takes us for however long. But this year we are a bit more organised and know where we will be on some specific dates as the Hawkes Bay and Wairarapa beckon catching up with friends along the way. The Art Deco Weekend in Napier is a definite this year. I’ve promised myself for years that we should do this, but we’ve always missed it. But not this time. Then we are going to do something most city people have probably never done. We are going to the Castlepoint Beach Races, simply because we can, and the Vintage Austin Car Club rally at Easter will see us back in Napier. Other than that, we are footloose and fancy free deciding each day whether to stay or move on from wherever we are. In the second half of the year, a combination of planes, trains and cruise ships will whisk us around the world and back again – filling our bucket list of places to see, people to meet and events to attend. We are thankful we are able to do all these things, which is why I love the freedom on being an indie-author. Deadlines are goals I set myself, rather than dates I have to comply with and while I’ve started writing the next story, I can’t promise when it will be finished. One thing I can say is that it will be a sequel. So, to all my readers who have asked to know more about what happened to Brigid (The Girl from County Clare) and Gwenna, this next story will, hopefully, tell you what you want to know. I’ve been so thrilled and honoured to received both a B.R.A.G Medallion and a Chill with a Book award for both stories, that I cannot resist bringing the characters to life again. Through the eyes of the younger generation in both stories, Laura and Jane (The Girl from County Clare) and Charlie (Gwenna) you can catch up on all the drama, tragedy and love the world of Edwardian New Zealand has to offer. If you’d like to follow me on my journey, you can sign up to my newsletter. Who knows – you may find me in your town.