Sometimes you just need a little push...

Enjoying my week of relaxation this week, I finally got round to doing a job I'd been putting off for a while: putting all six of the G&P Christmas stories into one Omnibus edition for both print and Kindle.  It's a handsome volume and a definite money-saver as its price is a fraction of buying the six Christmas books separately. I'm only sorry that I didn't manage to get it done before the Christmas holidays. 

Now for the other job I've been putting off for a while - finishing 'Scotch on the Rocks'!

While you wait, one of Mary's simplest recipes.  (Actually, I have reason to suspect she appropriated this from my sister in law!)  This recipe is simple enough for even Hamish to make without a major disaster in the kitchen.  Perfect for lovers of salted caramel.

Ingredients

·         a bag of small salted pretzels (Sainsbury’s do a star shaped one which is lovely for Christmas!)

·         1 family size bag of Rolos

·         1 small packet pecan halves

Instructions

·         Preheat the oven to Gas mark 4
·         Put parchment paper on a baking sheet.
·         Lay pretzels down on the parchment paper.
·         Place a Rolo on each pretzel (you get around 25 in a bag)
·         Bake for 3 minutes watching for them to soften but not melt.
·         Take out of the oven and press 1 pecan half into each rolo.
·         Let cool completely.
·         Share... if you can bare to give any away!

For a more sophisticated flavour, try a bag of dark rolos if you can find them in the shops!

HYGGE!

My new favourite word, thanks to my inspirational brother.  It is a Danish word which has no literal translation, but which is kind of a soul - hug.  And I have been indulging in it all week since Christmas, with fabulous food, soft socks, nice wine, good books and no need to DO anything.

The extras for the Christmas story are available now - pour yourself a glass of something nice,click on the tab above ...and enjoy the hygge!

Christmas Countdown!

Well, it's almost here - just ten more sleeps till the new Grouse and Partridge story becomes available on Kindle!  I've worked like a mad thing this week to get it finished and this evening it made its way to Amazon to wait for the big day!  I'm delighted to have finally managed to finish it.  Just Scotch on the Rocks to sort out now...! Pre ordering is available here!  The lovely reindeer photo is © Moori | Dreamstime.com - Reindeer Photo

It's beginning to look a lot like...

There's a bit of a Christmas Grouse and Partridge countdown going on over on Facebook this month.  I personally am as totally unprepared for the Christmas season as usual, but as the pictures from Loch Fairin's favourite tea rooms show, Nancy is - also as usual - well ahead of the game. Over the next few weeks I intend taking you into the new Slap and Tickle and even Partridge's own home...Steady, girls!
Hopefully, we are counting down to something else as well as Christmas, but much depends on today's events.  If I can get a really good run at something, there might be a little extra stuffing for your festive stocking!  Better get on with it then...

Flatlining...

After a lot of activity on line earlier in the year, G & P have had a very slow autumn and, sad;y, we appear to have totally flatlined on Amazon :(

No one is buying.  Much worse, no one is reading.  Maybe it is time to inject a bit of life into the old birds. After all, 2015 is our tenth birthday... Seriously...!

Don't give up on them: they will be back!

Hint?

Getting back to the typeface...

... is taking some doing. I honestly cannot believe this book has been such a slow one to write. I've added  to the word count, but I just don't seem to be able to get a long, concerted run at it at all.  Since Christmas I've only managed to steal a couple of Saturdays for writing.  The Easter holidays were a dead loss - after several days in work and two trips away, the holiday had gone. I also took on extra work - marking exam papers this summer - because I'm aware that my on-going dental repairs could potentially put quite a hole in my finances, so that was the half term holiday accounted for...And then there was the school show, all the Summer term stuff, a choir trip to Paris...

And now the holidays, so longed for, are speeding past me at a ridiculous pace.  I've managed a couple of good writing days but it is very slow going: writing makes the time speed up so much. There's a big chunk of middle I haven't tackled yet - mainly because I can't decide how to do it - and I think I just need to dive in and get on with it.

Meanwhile, on the cake-eating front, I have been much more successful and there are lots of good things to report.  Having toured around over the last couple of months I would like to single out a few fabulous cake emporia for special mentions. Velvet Elvis - a vintage shop in Durham - do lovely cakes in their first floor cafe which has stunning views across to Durham Cathedral.  In the same town the wonderful Tealicious serves fabulous cakes and light lunches on lovely vintage crockery.  If you are in the Lake District and spoilt for choice, you might want to sample the coffee shop at the Theatre by the Lake in Keswick - proper Victoria sponge!  Or the fabulous chocolate brownies at the stunning Blackwell - an Arts and Crafts House near Bowness.  Visitors to Stratford upon Avon are spoiled for choice, but if you can get a table, the Fourteas Tea shop is a lovely experience - all 1940s decor and music.  I heartily recommend their £5 clotted cream and jam scone with a pot of tea combo'!  But the best cake of the summer so far has to be the Bakewell Tart at Newby Hall near Ripon, North Yorkshire - the best Bakewell I've ever tasted!  (and that includes ones from Bakewell!)

Sadly, I'm not getting up to Scotland at all this summer, except in my head.  Maybe this time next year...

Back in Business...

Heading towards 100,000 words when inspiration struck last week.  Determined to get first draft complete although the plot has more holes in it at the moment than a stack of colanders...