Happy New Year!

© Victoria and Albert Museum

It’s hard to believe we’re starting a new one already. Some, but not all, will be glad to see the back of 2022. In my case, it had its ups and downs, but the unblocking of my writer’s block brightened my perspective considerably.

Thank you so much for your patience and understanding and the very kind messages you’ve sent over the course of the year. I wish I’d been able to answer everybody, but that’s an unfulfilled wish for a number of reasons. Among other things, my author email ran amok, and the repair process had some unintended consequences. In short, things got lost.

Still, we can’t totally blame technical problems. Throughout the writer’s block I did continue writing, with a couple of breaks, and that was where my time went. It was very bad writing, but it seemed to me that the only way to get through it was to keep on doing it until the problem, whatever it was, got out of my system. That method seems to have worked. The Blackwoods have stopped being impossible. They’re still a bit out of sorts, and it’s still slow going, but at least it’s going and at least they’re making a real effort to cooperate. Fingers crossed we can get through this whole thing in the brand new year.

I wish you a beautiful 2023, filled with good friends, good times, good books, in whatever order you like.