Hi,

The best of Christmas Cheer and Happy Holidays to all of you. May the New Year bring some positive aspects into a time that seems to be bogged down with negativity on so many fronts.

What a strange year this has been. For most of us it has been one of confusion and some irritation, but for some a time of deep sorrow. While being eternally grateful that none of my own family has been affected, I do have huge sympathy for those who have lost family or friends through Covid, or any other reason.

For ourselves, we have been unable to visit family in UK, including my partner's mother who is 99 years old, facing a possible 100th birthday with neither of her sons present, a sad possibility for someone who has lived through social changes we can only imagine. In earlier generations, however, people had to carry on, never knowing whether their loved ones were alive or dead, so I'm actually grateful to be alive in this day and age when communication is so easy.

We are keeping well, barring a few minor glitches. In stamping on a piece of wood to break it small enough to fit into our Rayburn, I didn't notice a rather large rusty nail... I was attached to that piece of old pallet for a while, until my partner heaved me free, and drove me to the doctor for a tetanus injection and a dose of antibiotics. I was limping for a week, but it's healing with no infections. But it did mean I had a really good excuse to sit by said Rayburn and do very little while he got on with the work... He has moved the 'kitchen' from the living room into the new extension, and it's functioning and clean, and animal-proof. I can now leave the butter dish out knowing that one of the cats hasn't tipped the lid off and finished it up. This means the living room is a place of dust, wires, and multi-coloured walls with holes. But we have lived with worse!

Thank you so much to those who read 'The Silence of Children,' and reported back on their enjoyment, and a few typos and mistakes in the book. So far the only response I have had from mainstream publishers is negative, if they bother to reply at all. It matters to me that you, the regular readers, like my work. Over the years I've read some fairly tedious books that have been hailed as literary fiction, and some really great stories sneered upon as commercial fiction. What do agents know, eh?

Anyone who didn't read it, it's still up for grabs. All I ask in return is an email with your comments, and an online review once I've published. Thank you to those who have already responded. I will probably use some of these as quotes. You'll be identified just as initials, with location, so I'd be pleased if you'd include the latter.

This is a corrected copy, courtesy of one of you amazing people, but if we've missed anything, please let me know. Next month, it's likely I will publish this book on Amazon, and will be asking those who read it if you'd be kind enough to post a review. If you're feeling generous, you can also review on Goodreads, blogs, reading groups, or anywhere else you feel will spread the word! And do check those book readers. If you haven't read Night Shadows, or any other books I've promoted, maybe you'll find time over the holiday to do so.

My storyboard this month is Our Own Wreck, being the project we bought when we moved to Ireland. In this Storyboard I'm simply showing images of the mammoth undertaking, and subsequent stories will betray a few of the amusing and sometimes scary moments we shared while living our 'dream'. (Click on the image)

The free books this month can be found by following the links below. Click on the image). I can't vouch for quality, but if you do read something particularly good, thank the author with an online review.

You're probably receiving this email as you subscribed via a book offer. Or you're just lucky. It's easy to unsubscribe, via the link below, but you're welcome to stay with me, if only to follow my storyboards... I love to have feedback. Let me know you're out there, listening... writing is a lonely old business.

All the best

Chris