Walking | jenjsilver

Producing an end of year blog in previous years has been fun. Lots of places visited with a choice of photos to display. This year has been rather lacking in that regard.

The highlights of 2020 in terms of my writing life include the release of my tenth novel, Country Living, the audiobook of my first novel, Starting Over, and the inclusion of a Christmas story in Affinity’s 10^th Anniversary Christmas Anthology – Winterbourne Revisited.

But sometime earlier this year, probably not long after the first lockdown began in March, my muse left me and I’ve struggled to get to grips with writing book number 11. Even writing a blog has been harder work that it needs to be.

My wife and I have been very careful to minimise contact with other people and have managed to stay virus-free, so far. That’s definitely a good thing. Although we can keep in contact with friends and family through phone calls, emails, Skype, FaceTime, and social media – it’s not the same as being able to meet up for an impromptu coffee or a meal.

However, we do live in a part of the country where we can enjoy socially distanced walks in nearby parks or along the canal towpath.

Here are a few snapshots of our 2020:

Flowers for the garden – ordered online from a local nursery in April

A splash of colour in a Hebden Bridge courtyard

So, after a muted farewell to this year, we’ll hope for better times to come in 2021– and maybe my muse will find her way back from wherever she’s been hiding.

Ebook links for Affinity’s 10^th Anniversary Christmas Anthology

Affinity Rainbow Publications / Amazon UK / Amazon US / Amazon CA / Barnes &Noble / Bella Books / Smashwords

Print and eBooks by Jen Silver are available from Affinity Rainbow Publications, Amazon, Bella Books, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords, Apple iTunes

Audiobooks:

Starting Over is available from: Audible UK / Audible US / Audible DE / Audible CA / Audible AU / Amazon UK / Amazon US / iTunes

Changing Perspectives is available from: Audible / Amazon / iTunes / Beek / Chirp / Scribd / Google Play / Kobo / Nook

A selection of photos from a visit to the Salterhebble canal basin a few days ago.

I’ve passed it many times on the drive between where I live and Huddersfield, but never visited. Turns out to be a pleasant place for a fairly secluded walk around by the lock and the mooring place for boats.

I was fascinated by the guillotine-style lock – something else I’d not seen before.

This basin is an offshoot of the Rochdale Canal, which has a total 91 locks between nearby Sowerby Bridge and the Bridgewater Canal at Castlefield Basin in Manchester, a distance of 32 miles. The canal system is an amazing feat of engineering with work starting in 1798. One section, passing through Hebden Bridge, is built over the river (a hanging viaduct).

Walking through this tunnel, I felt we might emerge into another place and time.