Not a lot of words here, but it was an event-filled year in many ways.

January to March saw our front garden being remodelled – hedges ripped out, fencing installed and a new garden layout. And then the Beast from the East arrived just after the new plants were installed. (This is photo in the back garden – miraculously all the plants survived.)

In April we visited Shibden Hall for the first time (only having lived in the area for 24 years!) – just before it closed for the filming of the Anne Lister story, Gentleman Jack.

My fifth year as a volunteer excavator at Vindolanda took place over two weeks in May. Many exciting discoveries as usual.

June 1st was the release date for my eighth published novel, Calling Home. Later in the month, I submitted novel number 9 to Affinity Rainbow Publications. (It was accepted and is due out in February – cover reveal and blurb coming soon!)

In July we visited Settle to view the Flowerpot exhibits – many wonderful creations spread throughout  the village

My 7th novel, Changing Perspectives was a finalist for a Goldie Award at the GCLS Conference in Las Vegas.

2018 Goldie Finalists: Changing Perspectives in General Fiction – and short stories included in each of the finalists in the Anthology category (Winner: Our Happy Hours)

August was also a busy month with the Happy Valley Pride Festival and another successful Lesbian Writers Read event. This was followed a few weeks later with the inaugural European Lesbian Literary Conference (ELLCon) in Bristol. And we managed to fit in a trip to Manchester to see the magnificent bee sculptures.

In September I took the initiative and contacted Gay’s the Word bookshop in London to see if they would be interested in stocking some of my books. (They were – and here they are pictured on a shelf, next to Ali Smith’s books!)

We visited Bolton Abbey in October. The last time I was there would have been many years ago with my grandparents.

November was a time for reorganising and redistributing books as we had new carpets and flooring installed throughout the house.

All this leading up to Christmas and a fantastic five days spent at a country house hotel on Lake Windermere. We’ve spent seven Christmases now in similar locations in the Lake District. (Where do you think I got some of the ideas for a house party in Christmas at Winterbourne?)

Looking forward to 2019…and more adventures, more reading, more writing…and just more living!