Happy New Year

I didn't get on so well with my pile of holiday books, as there wasn't much holiday to be had after all. I just couldn't devote enough time to Dr Zhivago to really come to grips with the way all the characters are known by two or three different names - it's really not the kind of book you can read in dribs and drabs on the loo. It's back on my favourite bookshelf though, saved for a rainy day. I went back to Tender is the Night instead, which I'd sort of lost interest in, despite enjoying it so much at first. In the end Christmas was such a hectic period that I still haven't even finished that! I was so tired most of the time that I opted instead for listening to trashy crime thrillers on audiobook at bedtimes. Sorry.

I've been away from my own book for so long now that I need to print it all out and read it with a fresh eye. I really need to pick up the pace in it now, and make sure the story is sufficiently balanced between the different plot points of the mystery. I hate it when you get to the last page of a crime novel and realise that the author is hanging the entire plot on some character or conversation from half a book ago, that you didn't pay much attention to and have long since forgotten. Anyway, I've got no ink in my printer so I've ordered a 'remanufactured' cartridge from Cartridge Express in Leeds and I'm waiting for it to arrive. I used to go to Cartridge World for re-fills but ours has since closed down.

Our boiler's packed in over Christmas too - as if we needed to be any poorer - so we're looking at over £1500 to replace it, all in, and on top of that the plumber reckons that getting the old one out of its cupboard will probably wreck the kitchen as it seems the lovely reclaimed timber units were built around it and are mostly glued rather than screwed. We've still got heating, thank god, just no hot water. My husband's suddenly becoming very keen to take the kids off my hands and allow me more time to write! He thinks I'm going to save us all.

Love A