A happy and blessed Christmas
This is my last blog for this year - I am a third of the way into my new novel, and that will be my sole concentration for the next few weeks.
Thank you for all your support over the last year; your purchases of my books, your reviews, and mentions in your Facebook posts. I would even add your support on Twitter, but I find Twitter a bit incomprehensible, so I don't go there too much!
I have many people to thank in the literary side of my world; Betsy and Fred Freeman stand right at the top of my list. Bloodhound Books have given me 100% support since my writing journey began, and my thanks seem totally inadequate.
The team at Bloodhound are also very much in the thanks equation - Alexina Golding, Sumaira Wilson and Sarah Hardy. What would we do without you? Stars, all three of you.
And then there are the bloggers, the men and women who promote our books, firstly by reading them, and then by reviewing them. Without our bloggers, we couldn't survive. There are too many to list, but you know who you are.
To my utter shock, I seem to have acquired many fans, people who wait patiently for the next Anita Waller novel, many of whom nag me to write faster. You are lovely, each and every one of you, and I thank you for making this author very happy indeed.
I can't dish out all these thanks without mentioning my fellow kennel mates at Bloodhound. When I signed my first contract with Fred and Betsy, I think we totalled between six an nine of us. Now there are around seventy authors, all willing to give advice and help whenever one of us screams for information or support. Brilliant friends, amazing writers. Thank you.
So - a very happy Christmas and a wonderful new year to all of you, as we enter 2018.
In February Bloodhound will be launching my sixth book, Captor, a tale of kidnap... and maybe the odd murder thrown in. I can't show the cover yet as it hasn't been officially launched, but it's a cracker.
This will be followed in May by book number seven, currently called Undergrowth, but that will probably change.
As it's Christmas in four sleeps, I'll offer up to you a small gift, a poem I wrote back in 1989. The first line is from someone else's poem - I gave it to the group of ladies I was currently teaching, and told them to write a poem with that line as the starter. This was my offering.
Winter Trees (1989)
A man that I know likes the bare trees best,
The moonlight streaming through blackened twigs
Bare of leaves, just an occasional nest
Of a long gone crow, leaving the sprigs
Of his home for a land to the west.
The man loves the snow, needs a wintry clime,
When the earth is cold, the buds all asleep.
When the skeletal trees stand covered in rime;
Before crocii and snowdrops raise shoots for a peep
At a land facing Spring, preparing to climb.
A man that I know likes the bare trees best;
His reason for being - a child full of joy.
A bare tree means winter: a childish request
To the man dressed in red for a special toy -
A man that I know completing his quest.
*******
The first line is from a poem called Full Moon, by Clifford Bax. The other lines are all from my head!
And that's it, my final missive of the year. Have a wonderful Christmas, plenty of egg nog and turkey, and love. My final round of thanks go to my family; Dave, my ever-patient husband, Matt, Richelle, Katie, Melissa and baby Lily, (the Kirkheaton branch of the Wallers), Siân, Anthony, Dom and Cerys, busy preparing for a wedding in a month, Kirsty with her beautiful children Lyra and Isaac, and last but not least our eldest grandson Brad and his girlfriend Adassa.
You all light up my life.