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We arrived last night via train from Xi’an. We went Business Class, which was a godsend because we could lay the seat flat and we had space with just five chair and food. Great food. It was expensive and took 9 hours but an enjoyable ride.
(This post never got posted so it’s not last night!) So I’ll cut straight to photos.
On the platform
Below are the business class seats.
The gang!
Writing on the train
A shot of the view
Another bullet train
Railway food!
The hotel lobby
The view from the hotel room
Urgent yum cha!
These prawn dumplings are coloured and different flavours
This is my son’s favourite type of yumcha. They were so good, crunchy!
I’ve been back in Australia for a few days now. I’m still in Sydney and there are perks. I get to spend time with my daughter and it’s warmer than Canberra. However, my partner misses me. I really miss my Singapore life and the China trip was awesome. However, it’s back to real life.
On the writing side, I have a draft of The Prudential Light and now have to edit/revise and restructure it as well as find an editor. Today I have written to the cover designer for a cover. I’m very excited about this book. There was so much more to Aunt Prudence than I first thought.
Don’t forget
Ruby Heart is currently free and it’s been getting a good lot of downloads. It is soon to be promoted on Apple Books. The link to my store is here. So if you don’t have your copy get it now.
I’m so excited about The Prudential Light, which I am going to call Book 4 because I have two layers of story, one is Aunt Prudence’s memoir and the other is what is going on in Aunt Prudence’s now with Jemima, Milly, Fulton and Edward.
There will be another book, Edward Huntington Esquire: Gentleman Magician, covering Edward’s story between sending Jemima to school and meeting her again at Primrose Manor. Basically, the story of Heaton and Edward meeting and then healing Fulton. No romance I think in this one. This may just been a series novel rather than a numbered book in the series. It’s a not quite sequel.
I have been here three weeks and one day. Wow, time has flown. And on Saturday we fly out to Beijing for 12 days in China. What I thought might be a short side trip has become the big China trip and I feel the excitement building.
I made a few goals for my time in Singapore. Pool walking every morning. I have done this, sometimes with more enthusiasm and a few days with less. I am sleeping a bit longer than those initial days where I woke up at 5am. However, I can’t seem to sleep in past 7.30am. But I am reaching sleep goals according to my Apple watch. I’ve also road tested these two last days taking my Apple watch into the pool. It is a much better way of keeping track than lap counting. When I count laps I lose count because I starting thinking about Aunt Prudence.
My other goal was writing 30,000 words of the novella The Prudential Light, which is Aunt Prudence’s memoir in the Cry Havoc series. Well I am at 44,000 words so I should at least make 45,000 words today but you know there’s a lot going on in this story and it may be a novel after all. I blame the condo’s swimming pool for that because many of my ideas came to me while pool walking and losing track of how many laps I did. The reason I think this is that I have written so many scenes and I think the plot might come together at 50,000 words but all the restructuring, back filling skipped scenes etc is going to bring it up in word count. Anyway, I’m very happy about that.
Next steps is to commission a cover and also a cover for the next installment, Edward Huntington Esquire, Gentleman Magician. This will cover the period of Edward finding out he was a magician and his meeting with Dr Heaton and Fulton. I probably have another story in the series, which would be a novella (god I hope so!) about Wilbur Hardcastle and Jemima’s mother. It will be a love story but not a romance because we all know that Jemima’s mother died young.
Then I might start on my spin off series.
Meanwhile in Singapore I have caught up with my mate Dev and we have hung out. Yesterday, we had a marathon Orchard Road experience yesterday from 12pm to about 7pm, including most importantly a trip to Kinokuniya. We started at Pizza Express which is fine dining in Singapore. Then we had tea and something naughty in Paul’s, which is outside Kinokuniya and then later I had a kind of Hawker Centre experience in the Food Republic, which is sort of the same thing except in a mall and airconditioned. I had some fried prawn noodles and oyster omelette. I’m not keen on oysters, I can eat them, but I really liked the egg part, which was crispy and tasty. Dev tells me it is eggs with water and tapioca starch.
Me and Dev and Kinokuniya
Lychee Fanta and Cream Soda flavoured Fanta. They were a $1 each and interesting.
To get back on the research track on Monday we went to the National Museum of Singapore to see their Once Upon a Tide special exhibition, about the history of Singapore. Well worth the visit. We also did a quick walk through of the permanent exhibition on level one. Lucky I did because I found out Rickshaws were invented in Japan later than I thought and where popular from 1880s until 1930s.
Below is an early map of Singapore in the period that I’m interested in.
I also got some good photos of things that will help in my story of Aunt Prudence and that’s the main focus of my visit to the museum.
I have really enjoyed hanging out with my son and daughter-in-law. On Tuesday we went to the island of Sentosa to check it out. We mostly did things like the free shuttle bus to check out the beaches and we did a skylift up and back to look around and at at the Shake Shack. We don’t have Shake Shack in Australia. The chips are good but this time they weren’t as hot as they should have been. The Shake Shack in Gardens By the Bay were so good! The cheese burger I had was real and yummy.
On the skyride
Today is going to be an at home day. I need to do some writer admin, hang out my washing so I can pack for the trip and write. I really need to do something with my hair but that remains to be seen if I have the energy. I thought a pink rinse would go down well in China, except I didn’t bring any with me so my hair is very blonde and curly. However, apparently Beijing will be hot but not as humid so my hair could remain straight.
My Kinokuniya purchases. Thea Guanzon is from the Philippines and Sue Lynn Tan is Chinese from Hong Kong.
Above is the emotionally needy Siumoguai who had snuck into my room and perched next to my swimmers.
I have had an enjoyable time in Auckland in the run up to Ages of Pages. The weather has been interesting. Wind, rain and some sun, but compared to nights in Canberra warmish. I associate visiting New Zealand with cold so I packed warm things. Unfortunately I had to buy some summery things to get through. Poor me! I now possess a very pretty blouse and a blue floaty dress.
I spent a windy night up in Warkworth, not in a caravan (see previous post). However, I did get a night in a caravan but the wind had died back by then. Also a nice walk along Martins Bay. It was a really interesting experience in the caravan park. I think it might be my first time and I found it fascinating. I’m sure there is a story idea in there. We did a walk to Whangapaparaoa Pennisula, along Orewa Beach and around Mitre 10 in Silverdale. Interesting that I was in Silverdale when I have a Silverdale in Argenterra! The steps from walking around malls and hardware stores are shopping steps. These can really mount up. My mate Wendy helped me out by taking me on walks, which helped to counteract the food and the wine. (what happened to your diet Donna? Well you see I went to New Zealand and …um..).
Whangapakaraoa Pennisula view
Martins Bay view
Martins Bay view
This is a view from near Manly Beach
This delightful, sprawling Pohutukawa Tree. They have red flowers and look amazing end December and early January, so my friend Wendy tells me. I’ve seen amazing displays driving to Thames.
View from Orewa near the caravan park.
Even with clouds, New Zealand is beautiful and there are so many harbours and bays around Auckland, particularly north that there is wonder for the eye no matter which way you look. I’m very grateful for my long term bestie, Wendy and her hubby Paul for showing me all these beautiful spots.
This sign cracked me up and had my imagination running hot.
This is a locally made cider in Warkworth. It has citrus in it so quick fresh and bitey.
Last night I met up with Keri at Auckland airport and she drove us to Hamilton and we are both in our beds in a hotel on our laptops. Hahaha. And drinking tea. Today is ANZAC day where Australia and New Zealand commemorate the lost lives in two world wars and everything is shut until 1pm.
Liar liar pants on fire! I found a cafe open today so we can have breakfast after all!.
Tomorrow we attend the Ages of Pages book fair. It’s my first time and I am excited. I believe there is going to be about 90 authors and vendors, mostly from NZ but a few of us Aussies there as well. For readers the event is free so come along and check it out. Venue information here.
I’ll have a very limited number of books available so please come say hi.
I cannot see any reviews for Amber Rose yet, but there is a four star rating on Kobo so that’s a relief. Us authors are always keen to see how our book is received. I have most of the plot in my head for A Prudential Light, a novella come memoir of Aunt Prudence. It’s going to be fab.
That sounds like a tag line from the Xfiles! Hahaha.
Now all I have to do is wait in case some one likes it enough to give me a review. Taps fingers on the desk.
On launch day, yesterday, I had my hair done. I don’t think I mentioned this story. I was feeling a bit down, a bit anxious around the middle of March. I decided I wanted to dye my hair grey, steel grey. I did not do any research. Rocked up to a random new salon and asked for that. I was shown a colour and that looked ash grey to me. However, I walked out of there with medium ash brown hair. Matthew blinked when he saw me. That’s not what I was expecting, he said. I was miserable about it. My mates were great and told me the new colour looked great. It made me look younger, which is true. Yesterday, I got it fixed. Previous posts you will see a different hair colour.
I like my new hair. It’s not steel grey yet. I put a lighter champangne type rinse in it. After the last shock colour I wanted to be careful. I have planned a bit birthday bash for my 65th birthday in early May. For the birthday party, I will do steel grey. However, I am very happy and it made launch day special. Bonus is that today my order arrived so I have some print copies.
New hair!
New hair. New Book.
I’m hosting a birthday dinner for a friend tomorrow. And I’m making a cake today. I’m going to try for a black forest cake. My first time. If it sucks of course I’ll duck out and buy a cake instead.
I pop off to New Zealand next week. I’ll be in Hamilton at the Ages of Pages book signing event on the 26th of April. Back just in time for my party!
PS I forgot to mention. Did you all see the Murderbot trailer dropped? I’m so excited. I loved the books.
I’ve just checked and my last post was October 17. Where did the time go? I’ve been to Adelaide, tick. Then, we had family visiting from the UK so lots of stuff to do, food to eat (oh dear my gut bulge) and things to do.
Highlights for me were Matthew’s sister took us to the Taronga Park Wildlife Retreat. It is an amazing hotel, purpose built, tastefully fitted out and you wake up to koalas outside your window and you can do an evening tour after the zoo closes. And the view across the harbour was amazing. Our UK guest was very impressed. I thoroughly recommend if you are visiting Sydney and want a nice hotel, probably pricey but great as a special treat. Then some of us took the ferry over to Circular Quay and walked around the Sydney Opera House, had lunch on a street side cafe and then walked to the Rocks until we headed back to our new hotel, the Sofitel Wentworth, newly reopened after a grand refurbishment. I was too tired to go out but the gang went to Chinatown and had dinner. Then it was a visit to Coaster’s Retreat before heading back to Canberra with our guests. There were visits to the zoo and aquarium, National Museum and other things. Too soon our guests were off again to return to Sydney then home.
Life feels a bit like a roller coaster. Writing tasks long neglected, tiredness and so on. At the moment, I’m doing the final read through of Destiny’s Blood (much delayed due to the above) and then life might decouple a bit from writing. I’ll be drafting Amber Rose again, but also assembling deck furniture and doing house related things in the lead up to Christmas. I honestly don’t know how I fit it all in, but I always feel like I’m not doing enough.
I am really looking forward to going nowhere in particular, except Matthew is taking me to Sydney for a concert on Sunday but we will be back Monday so not quite the big expedition.
Two manuscripts on submission reach their useby day on the weekend so I’ll be looking to review them and send them out again. Sigh.
After a quick stay at home for one night on our return from Rarotonga and Auckland, we headed off to Adelaide by road. We were going to take the EV but given we only had two days to get there and the time added to charge and the amount of boxes, I rented a bigger car. I was hoping for a hybrid but lucked out. However, we did end up with a Subaru Outback Stationwagon which was fairly new. It was great except it was a bit gutless when overtaking on single lane highways where you have to get passed before another car comes your way.
I love the landscape as we travelled-The mallee scrub, the flat Hay plains, the silo art, the sunsets. We overnighted at Mildura on the way down. That town is huge, so flat and so spread out. There were cafes to choose from but not being local we chose by name and went to Nash Lane. That was a real happening place.
Emu in the wheat. There were lots of emus.
The Fiction and Friction event was something. It was my first dedicated independent book convention. We stopped in Murray Bridge on the way down and checked out the Fiction and Friction bookstore before heading into Adelaide. Nice!
We saw this on the way down, near Loxton I think.Fiction and Friction shop front.Flat plains near Hay I think
There were over 80 authors I believe and over 400 attendees, some of whom were VIPs so had early access and an afterdark function. I have never seen so many dedicated readers with trolleys. At other romance events I’ve been two there are maybe four people with trolleys. There were loads. Some people even did trips back to their cars and came in for more. I met a lot of readers, mostly due to the souvenir booklet where attendees were encouraged to get autographs. I sold books too. Not a sell out by any means, but I’m always grateful when readers buy books when they don’t know my work. I learned heaps too from the event about the scene that I didn’t know. I’ve not been to a RARE or BABE event. I’ve been wait listed for years…But I’m not well known enough and maybe not writing the right thing…However, it was a great opportunity to get my name out there and maybe acquire new readers.
Hay silo artThe river in Hay (Murrumbidgee)
What was popular is dark romance, and I’m guessing that include taboo, also explicit stories as well as Male Male romances (which have a big female readership). One reader told me she liked them because in her opinion male/female gets annoying because the female lead is meant to be strong but comes across as an idiot. A point to take note of.
The other things that are popular are special editions. Some people do all their reading with ebooks but then like to get the first book or the series as a special edition. Who knew? Well now I know right. And merchandise either as a freebie when you preorder or to buy if not. I had a preorder form up but didn’t have many preorders. An author friend said that her preorders covered the cost of her table before she sold anything there. I saw some authors with half a normal sized room with preorders laid out. The author guy next to me wrote mafia books and he had an all black special edition. People were just drawn to it. Black cover, black pages with white text and he had included some explicit images. I think special editions as objects in themselves are fascinating.
The venue was nicely decorated with a starry drape. It looked impressive but made where I was a bit dark. People couldn’t read my blurbs.
The vibe was absolutely amazing, positive, uplifting, exciting and joyful. Meeting up with other authors (known and not previously know) was such a buzz and sharing tips and bubbly was a nice ending. The after dark event was okay but many authors packed up which upset some of the VIPs who had paid to be able to chat with authors. I was a bit confused myself about what we were meant to do. There were panels and so on but mixing cold was a bit hard. I think if you do a mingle you should do speed dating or number draws to meet people and break the ice. Going up to a group of people already talking is a bit hard. However, I did get sales during the evening.
The starry ceiling as people were setting upI forgot to switch my watch to local time so turned up half hour early for a mingle. I was directed by staff to enjoy the river.My table set up. The theme was gardens so I went for it.Keri Arthur was my neighbour on one side. Love the branding on the banner.
Overall a very worthwhile experience. My big takeaway is that I need to do more with my pen name Dani Kristoff and also do some branding like Keri’s as I think it was confusing to only have my Donna Maree Hanson banner but I sold mostly Dani Kristoff books there.
It was also very valuable to get an insight in this indy convention thing. There are a lot of dedicated readers out there not reading traditionally published books.
I am off again tomorrow for a few weeks, mostly to Rarotonga. Do not feel bad for me. While there will be tropical distractions and family, I will try to write or at least read.
I didn’t post about Worldcon in Glasgow and I didn’t post about RWAus in Adelaide. Naughty me. Things are just well busy.
Destiny’s Blood is with the editor and sadly will not be ready in time for Fiction and Friction in Adelaide on 12 October. Not unless by some miracle. But it will be available later in October.
I have not been diligent with drafting Amber Rose. I have tinkered and I have thought about things. The downside to seat of the pants writing. I need to think about what comes next. Also, I think I burnt out trying to get Destiny’s Blood ready for the editor. I wish I thought up plot as fast as I do excuses. However, Amber Rose is extremely fun. I just love being with Jemima Hardcastle and Ambrose Fulton.
It is funny how people ask me sometimes, which book is your favourite. All of them are my favourite and for different reasons. The Silverlands (Argenterra, Oathbound and Ungiven Land) is about the world, the magic and the deep joy in there. These days it would be called Romantasy. Of course there’s Sophy and Oakheart. Such a great set of characters. I love the sisterhood of Aria and Sophy and also the pure steadiness and focus of Rae. The trilogy is about romance and magic and finding yourself. Everytime I pick it up, I get sucked into the story. It was my first fantasy novel, which I penned back in 2002 I think. It was hard because it is so difficult to do something different with fantasy and I was so happy to think up a world where everyone can use magic except my heroine and how frustrating that would be.
My online store is functioning so feel free to check it out. I haven’t got all my print books there but all the ebooks are.
I will miss Conflux in Canberra this year. I’m sad to miss it. I love conventions.
I feel like a slacker but I have been busy. There’s so much going on, so much to write about. We’ve been back six weeks. It feels like a short time and a long time. I’ve been back at the day job and writing.
Now writing doesn’t just mean writing. I’m doing a bit more than that and writing admin takes time. But the good news is that I’m getting there. My newsletter has been sadly neglected and I will end up losing most of my subscribers with the last one I sent out. But it’s my own fault because being a slacktard! Lesson-Don’t stop sending newsletters! Because you get restricted to only those who interact with your newsletter in the last 90 days.
Next thing is picking up subscriptions for Bookfunnel, setting up my store (in progress), reducing the price of Awakening to $0.99 USD (check out the link in my books) and then getting in various newsletters etc. I’d really like to write a sequel to this story but i’ve got no reviews and it’s not selling and I don’t know why. Mind you I don’t advertise but that’s crazy these days, particularly on Amazon.
What have I been working on? Sihem, now called The Founders’ Legacy has been revised, reworked and will go to the CSFG novel crit group next month. Meanwhile I’ll start trying to put it on submission. I’m also working on a kids’ fantasy, Grandma Neebs: Through the Pantry Door. I had some lovely and encouraging feedback on this book. This, too, I will put on submission. It’s middle grade and around 43,000 words. I have a couple of things in drafting stage. A paranormal romance that links into by two series, Spellbound in Sydney and The Cursed Ones. I am also writing something else for a new pen name. Plus there is a backlist of stuff that needs revising/restructuring etc. My next project will be Amber Rose, in the Cry Havoc Series. We shall meet with Jemina and Fulton yet again. This time they are up against evil machines. Meanwhile I’m rereading Ruby Heart and Emerald Fire to make notes for Amber Rose. I’m also picking up typos so will fix them soon. I’m thinking of doing a paperback version of these.
Now for the photos.
This is the River Trent, Nottingham, in flood. It rained a lot before we got to England and more while we were there and it was still raining when we got home. I thought the submerged bench spoke volumes.
While in Nottingham we took a day trip to Cromford and Buxton, because there were bookstores there. This is Scarthin in Cromford. Cute town too. Below is a pond and tree opposite the bookstore.
That’s me walking into Scrivener’s bookshop, Buxton. I’m wearing my very warm Macpac coat. It was a godsend. Pity I’d spent a lot of money in Scarthins.
My bad but I can’t remember which shop this was in. Forgive me, I’m getting old. Matthew will probably know as he has a functioning brain. Lol.
By the way, Buxton is a pretty town. Apparently, the Dukes of Devonshire was wanting to make it rival Bath so there is some amazing Regency architecture there. It is also very hilly so some great views. If only I could paint.
In Nottingham we visited Warhammer World twice. Matthew was trying to connect with his editor but we had no luck as his emails went to spam. However, we had fun. Bought stuff and went to look at the gallery. I’ve posted pictures from this before. Actually my most popular images in the life of my blog. It used to be free but now you pay a small amount. But it’s now huge and amazing. Here are some shots.
I took this shot of Angron, because it was cool, of course, and because Matthew wrote a story about Angron in After Desh’ea, appearing in Tales of Heresy. The final masterpiece was a huge room for one diorama featuring the attack on a planet.
I should mention we took my son and grandson to Warhammer shop in Singapore, Katong to be precise. My son has painted some awesome miniatures but then he’s artistic.
And finally for this set of photos, me with Marc Gascoigne at a restaurant in West Bridgeford, Nottingham. Matthew took the photo. I have no idea what Marc is doing. Oh well. We’ve known Marc a while and he first published Matthew when he headed up Black Library. It was great to see him again. The food was good too.
Of course, there are more photos and I’ll try to put more up over the coming weeks. We stayed in a delightful village outside of Lincoln. Now I’m using it in a story.
I was telling Matthew that I haven’t found my groove yet. I’m currently grooveless.
Last post was from London. I don’t think I’ve ever walked so much in my life. Even using the tube and so on, there’s always a walk and those steps add up. This was a good thing because it helped with the weight gain. Lot’s of nice but expensive food to be had in London.
We also discovered the river bus (ferry), expensive but so much better than being crammed into a tube train. And there was coffee.
Biggest takeaway was how to ordinary people live-it’s so expensive. And why are there so many obviously wealthy people.
After two weeks in London we went to Malta for about five days. Why Malta? It was on a list of the possibles (Spain, Ireland, Italy) but what it had in it’s favour was one flight direct, warmer and dryer than the UK, cheapish flight and lots of accommodation to choose from. We loved Malta. We stayed in Sliema, with views of the beach (St Julian’s Bay I think) and we did tours as you do. Not quite warm enough for a swim for me. We even took a day trip to Sicily, which was awesome. It’s only 52 Nautical miles from Malta. Next time, more Sicily and Malta. Also, did my fan girl, Montalbano, visit to his police station. I didn’t pay to go in, just took photos.
Next stop was one night in London and the Hilton Heathrow Terminal 4 and then Singapore. We stayed with my son and his wife and my grandson in their apartment. We ate crab! Thanks Taamo! and did the Night Safari and the Amazon experience. Again more walking. We also did the Gardens by the Bay, which was lovely but Singapore is humid and hot. We caught up with some writing friends, Dev and Joyce and ate lots of yummy food and swam in the condo pool, well I walked in the pool, which was lovely and huge.
Sadly, all good things come to an end. We came home. For a few weeks we had started thinking about home, what we wanted to do, changes in our habits we wanted to make and thinking about our lovely granddaughter who started school while we were away. Nothing hurts more than those heart strings and she sent us messages that made us almost weep.
I started work on Monday (Day job) and today was meant to be a writing day. Alas, dr appointment, tradie, pool walking, Genius appointment because my phone is chucking a wobbly, and then meeting friends tonight, I can’t see where I’m going to slot even a solid hour in.
I am doing a novel crit group thing so I have at least finished this month’s novel and just need to write up my feedback. I guess that’s what I’ll be doing today because that’s not hard.
Jetlag I’ve been okay. I think the stop over in Singapore helped me adjust to Australia again, although I do zone out and get fatigued.
Weight I’ve lost 2.5 kilos since I’ve been back. Most of that would be fluid retention from the flight. But I found this neat and free calorie food diary thing and that’s helping me keep track.
I’ve also am trying a new self mantra. Instead of looking in the mirror and criticising myself, I’m going to say “Hey gorgeous. You look fantastic. You’re awesome.” I’ve read about two celebrities that I really admire and both have talked about how they have hated their bodies (Winslet and Thompson) and how every woman is unhappy with her body. I think this is mostly the body norms that are thrust at us constantly. For years I’ve had body dismorphia and I’ve hated how I looked. Now I’m going to accept it. That doesn’t mean I’m letting myself go. I get sick if I put on too much weight so I’ll keep my goals but I’m going to stop the negative self talk. Try to at least. Not easy.
Next post I’ll put up some photos. I’m currently backing up the phone so can’t right now.
Since Lincoln we have moved around a lot. We went to Newcastle upon Tyne, staying mostly out at South Shields. We loved this place. My Hanson grandfather was born in South Shields and it was lovely to get a feel for the place, where his father and his grandfather live. I went searching for the houses where they lived. Alas, the Long Row had been demolished and the Long Row now is only part of the original with new buildings, but they lived in these tenements along the river. They were seaman, steveadores etc so lived close by. I went looking for two other addresses. Catherine Street I found was now a library and the other place still existed but the house they lived it appeared on Apple Maps in someone’s backyard so no longer existing. We went looking for St Hilda’s cemetery and it is now a car park. I sort of gave up after that. I was going to go and look where my nana was born in Washington but her street didn’t exist and it was a suburb’s name now. Besides it snowed that day. We did one day in Newcastle and did my Vera thing, including Whitley Bay and the Holy Island on our way to Scotland.
In Edinburgh I caught up with a second cousin on my mum’s side. He and his wife were very interesting people. One of the things they do is medieval music. Fascinating.
We stayed in a lovely hotel, Holyrood with views to Arthur’s seat and very handy to the High street etc. They were so lovely. We left something behind and they posted it to us, charging us only for postage. Food was good, room was large and warm. We did a day trip to Perth to visit Farah and Edward and had a lovely lunch, talked about books etc before heading out to walk through the town/city. It’s quite big Perth. It was also quite cold with barely getting to the high of 1 degree C.
It was time to turn south and we stopped in Lancaster for the evening, meeting up with Patrick and Julie for dinner. Lancaster is a place we’d like to come back to as it seemed interesting but we couldn’t really look around as we were headed south.
In Knebsworth we stayed with my cousin and had a fab time. She took us to Windsor for the day and spoiled us rotten. Now we are in Maidstone in Kent also being spoiled, but today is chill day so I can blog.
It’s kind of sad as I have lots of photos but here are a few.
Windsor castle
Windsor Moat
Matthew in front of St George’s chapel, Windsor Castle.
A snap taken in the Undercroft Cafe with my cousin, whose treat it was for us.
The castle ruins in Rochester, Kent. We went for a day to check it out.
Medway River at Maidstone, we did a long historical walk around the town.
A Tudor style house in Maidstone. Then we went to lunch at La Villetta, enjoyed some great food and company.
We went to Aylesford to visit to Friars again and it was misty and moody and very serene. We enjoyed it so much.
The peace walk lookiing back to the gatehouse at the Friars. Note, to Ruby Heart/Emerald Fire fans, this is the priory I used in the book. It was a great setting for a secret society of magicians.
That’s all for now. Stay tuned for more photos. We head to London for two weeks on Thursday. The sand in our hour glass is running down. Although we are going to Malta and Singapore before we see our cats and family again.
Donna Maree Hanson, Author, Phd in Creative Writing 