Some days you can’t do what you’ve planned.

So, you take a different route. And you see these gorgeous little babies, who were NOT in a row. They didn’t want to be in a row. Maybe they’re too young to know that rows exist and you can't just have fun? Or maybe no one’s conned them into believing that rows are better? They were certainly having fun, while they swam, explored and climbed onto the concrete edging and fell into the water. They were zipping around, and cheeping and their mother was calling to them to be careful and then being ignored in a way that felt very familiar to me, and I expect to any other mother.

Then you look wistfully at the path you love and wanted to take, and accept the truth, which is that physically you can’t do it today. So you walk back along another route you don’t normally take and see this amazing Mandarin Duck, who is a previous star of BBC Springwatch and got Chris Packham really excited and some more ducklings.

Then you walk home and eat the Easter cakes you bought and think, ‘shall I think about Prime Ministers, Presidents and Ayatollahs or shall I think about ducklings? The ducklings won… so here’s another picture of them before we go on to this week’s book promotions at 99c in the US and 99p in the UK.

Lost and Found

Amy Hammond had always said that she wanted to have adventures before she was too old to enjoy them but she spent years juggling a job in a bank with caring for her elderly parents. She moved house when they died and ended up living next door to retired Brigadier and nothing like as retired as he claims he wants to be former spy Peter Cunningham. They moved from friends to lovers while finding far more trouble than Amy had ever dreamed of, and there' still doing it now that they're married and she's doing her dream job as manager of a craft complex at a beautiful English stately home.

She doesn't always enjoy finding trouble but when she’s not terrified, she likes feeling that she can stop at least some of the bad things from happening and protect the people who get sacrificed to the so-called greater good. This means that she and Peter are the obvious candidates to help when two of their young friends  find a sick baby who's been abandoned in a church. Their first priority has to be to trace her mother, but they've also got to deal with conflicting beliefs, threats against the girl who found the baby and a hired assassin.

It's only fair to warn you that Amy will be cross with anyone who says 'so pretty much a normal day.’

No retreat no surrender

Amy Hammond always thought that she wanted to have adventures after years of caring for her elderly parents but she was happily embedded in her rut until retired Brigadier and nothing like as retired as he claims he wants to be former spy Peter Cunningham moved in next door to her. They got closer and closer as they found more and more trouble and now they're married, and she's doing her dream job as manager of a craft complex at a beautiful English stately home. When she’s not terrified, she enjoys feeling that she can stop the bad things from happening and protect the people who get sacrificed to the so-called greater good.

Surely they can't find any trouble at Swansmere's first ever festival of craft? Only who’s been stealing the salad vegetables  fruit and eggs down at the farm activity centre and who's been literally mending fences? And why does the youngest member of the tour that Amy is leading have to find a dead body on the beach at lovely Kimmeridge Bay? 

Thankfully, Peter, his cousin Drew and all the Swansmere gang are there to help and hinder so it can't be too bad, can it?

A Nasty case of death

Avid craftswoman and accidental trouble-magnet Amy Hammond is more excited than she’s been for years now that Christmas is coming to Swansmere, and the world is coming back to a new kind of normal as the threat from COVID recedes. Being at the Doctor’s surgery when a much-loved doctor collapses and dies was frightening, but all she did was take a list of names of people who were waiting while receptionist Mary was busy.

Then someone throws a stone through the craft shop window with a message round it, telling her to keep her nose out of what’s none of her business. That’s only the first incident, and the police aren’t convinced that the doctor’s death was accidental but don’t have enough resources to investigate as fully as Amy’s friendly policemen think they should.

So it’s inevitable that Amy and her husband, the nothing like as retired as he claims he wants to be, spy Brigadier Peter Cunningham should get involved. She almost wishes they hadn't because this is one time when she doesn’t want to find out the truth, or deal with the memories that are being dredged up because not everyone gets a happy ending…

A taste for adventure

When bored bank manager Kirsty Sawyer rescues a man from a crashed car she's swept into a world of danger and adventure that she never believed existed.

Lew Meredith is an agent of the elite British intelligence unit known as the Shadows because they are officially never there. He didn’t believe in love at first sight until he was rescued by a beautiful redhead who refused to kiss him goodnight, and he has always believed that limits are there to be pushed as far as possible.

As they team up to try to catch ruthless drug dealers, they learn more about themselves and each other than they’re comfortable about, so it’s anyone’s guess whether they’ll be able to find the happy ending they both want, or if they'll both survive.

The little English village of Christians Cross is a hidden gem that's set deep in rural Dorset. It's a beautiful old-fashioned place with a shop cum post office that has everything you need as long as the owner likes you, a delicatessen and butchers, a pub with brilliant local food and a school that's thriving. It's high proportion of paranormal residents means that you won't find it on any maps or Google earth because they long ago cast a spell that makes that outsiders take anything odd for granted. That's very necessary because the village was built on a transition point between universes where magic builds up, and, all too often, escapes.

Things ought to be settling down for virtuous vampire and private investigator Kit Conway, and her friend and partner Handsome the werecat who's also Phil Jones the Grail Knight Handsome, from dawn to dusk, and a human during the hours of darkness after the Archangel Michael intervened on his behalf.

Only now, obsessive Civil War reconstructor and professional pain in the backside Paul Masters has bought the local Manor House to run as a reconstruction centre. He wasn't welcomed with open arms, and things deteriorated rapidly when a local poacher is shot with a flintlock pistol after arguing with him. The village s angry, and out for vengeance, and that's the least of Kit's problems.

Can she and her friends, the vampire, werecat, witches, witchhunter, archangel and vengeful river spirit find the killer, stop any more killings, broker a peace between the Manor and the Village and sort out the timeslips? And what will happen if they can’t?

Nature Strikes Back

The  apparently idyllic picture-perfect Dorset village of Christians Cross still has shops, a church, a pub and a thriving village school. The Vicar is doing a brilliant job; probably because he's actually the Archangel Michael who is temporarily in human form as part of the redefinition of the deal between heaven and hell that postponed Armageddon. You won't find another English village like it because it's set on an intersection point between our world, hell and infinite alternate realities, and a lot of the inhabitants are doing their best to seem human.

Virtuous vampire private investigator and writer Kit Conway and her werecat partner, the Grail Knight Phil Jones (aka Handsome when he's a cat), were drawn there to defend the world and are helped and sometimes hindered by a band of unlikely heroes. They're heading for trouble yet again because a New Age group have moved into the grounds of nearby Crosshayes Manor just as it’s preparing to open as an activity centre for disabled children. They claim they only want to worship their gods in peace, but there's so much magic in Christians Cross that the gods return and antagonise both the Vicar, who's also the Archangel Michael and the owner of the local pub, who's also a sometimes homicidal river spirit.

Add to that a vindictive hedge spirit who curses the witch hunter policeman Detective Chief Inspector O’Donnell with Tech Knowledgy when he refuses to bow down and worship him, and it’s safe to say that Kit, Handsome and the rest of the gang are in trouble again. Still, at least O'Donnell's got a new sidekick, and nothing can go wrong there, can it?

No greater love

Virtuous vampire and occasional private investigator Kit Conway lives in the apparently idyllic Dorset village of Christians Cross with her apparently normal cat Handsome, who, quite normally for Christians Cross, is human between dusk and dawn. He’s also the Grail Knight who’s been assigned to lead an unlikely team while they protect the world because Christians Cross was built on a crossing point between our earth, a lot of other dimensions, and hell. So it’s only fair to assume that anything can happen and, unfortunately for Kit and her friends, it all too often does.

How has Simon Smith appeared, apparently out of nowhere?

What’s going on at Crosshayes Manor, and what happened during the Second World War?

Why are anti-terrorism police officers so interested in a break-in there?

Kit makes new friends, including a white deer who is far, far more than he seems, while she and the others tackle a weapon that’s so powerful that it has to be destroyed; no matter what it wants.

Mistletoe and Mischief

Christmas is coming to the apparently idyllic Dorset village of Christians Cross, and the always beautiful village looks like a Christmas Card now that it's under a thick coating of snow. Children are carol singing and preparing for the nativity play that'll be held in the church with real sheep and a donkey. The Mummers are going round the local pubs to raise money for charity, and it seems to be the season of goodwill to all. Sadly, things are rarely what they seem when you're living in a village where most of the population isn't human and a group of unlikely heroes have been called to guard the gateway to hell and infinite other dimensions.

Can virtuous vampire and sometime private investigator Kit Conway, her friend Handsome the werecat Grail Knight, and the rest of the team tackle the spirit of Misrule, rescue a man who’s been trapped in another dimension, and save a man who doesn’t deserve it when the fight between the Oak and Holly Kings turns real? Most of all, can they help a teenager who's coming into her powers and has to make a world-changing decision and cope with the consequences of things she never intended to do and didn't know that they could do?

The stakes are as high as they always seem to be; but this time they’ve got to get ready for Christmas as well. Will it be the best Christmas ever, or could it be their last one?

Picking up the pieces

Hannah Johnstone is making a fresh start when she starts her new job at the retirement complex at Harbourside. She dreams of being an artist, but right now she’s using the skills she's learned when she moved down from London to care for her godmother who has rheumatoid arthritis.

Liam Clarke is off work after a breakdown and keeping an eye on his beloved Gran who’s swapped being matriarch of a large family for trying to do the same for all the people who live at Harbourside. She and George clash constantly, especially since he’s deliberately planted wild flowers in her carefully ordered planters, so Hannah has to find a way to bring peace.

A flood brings the residents together and Hannah and Liam find something in each other that they’ve both been missing, but can they juggle family expectations, past history and a fresh crisis? Are they ready for new relationships and friendships?  And why is it that getting older doesn’t seem to be making either of them feel any wiser or more confident?

Crafty sew and sews

Harbourside is a retirement complex on the beautiful Sandbanks peninsula where the rich people come to play but the people who live there aren’t multimillionaires and the women who come together each week for the club they call the Crafty Sew and So’s have their own share of problems and joys.

There’s Lizzie, who’s doing her best to support her husband while he waits for the results of his latest cancer tests and is scared that it isn't good enough, and Katie, who’s coming to terms with widowhood, a heart attack and her feelings for widower George who saved her life. Laura Hardisty lives just down the road and is determined to have a full and happy life despite rheumatoid arthritis and her goddaughter Hannah runs the complex while she develops her dream of becoming an artist. She’s getting closer to Katie’s grandson Liam, but it’s not a straightforward romance, so all the women lean on each other and learn from each other while they try to work out what a happy ending would mean for them

This is part romance, part a tribute to the resilience of women and the support they give each other and the difference that craft makes to a woman’s life. It’s slow, sweet and cosy and the story will continue to unfold as their lives develop. The one thing that’s certain is that for the people of Harbourside, being older doesn’t mean being past it.