Hey everyone,

How’re you all doing? I really hope you’re all Ok and muddling through what must be the craziest year in my lifetime.

As we come close to the end of year, I thought it was a good time to reflect on the last 12 months.

I know 2020 has been an awful year for so many people, and it’s hard to remember the good things that have happened, but when I sat down to write this today, I had to remember that in all that darkness, there were bright spots of colour. Not many, but definitely a few.

My year started badly literally from January first, when within twenty-four hours, my sister lost her best friend of 40+ years (suddenly to a heart attack), my mother suffered a stroke, and my mother in law was diagnosed with end-stage pancreatic cancer.

The first few months of 2020 were really difficult with my husband and his younger brother trying to care for their mum while my sister and I tried to care for my dad who has dementia, while my mum recovered in hospital. We really were like ships that passed in the night.

Then, just as my mum came out of hospital, my husband lost his mother, and the whole planet went into pandemic mode and lockdowns were enforced all over the world.

My personal lockdown started around the tenth of March, and apart from a funeral on the day lockdown started (23^rd) I didn’t leave the house again until July. Seriously! That sounds crazy now, but at the time it just became normal. Facetime and Zoom are now everyday features of my life.

I had a few health issues in the spring, so while I had the option of working at home for my employer, I knew I couldn’t give the job 100% of my attention. I couldn’t take money for doing less than my best, so I took unpaid leave for a few months. I was due to be made redundant at the end of the year anyway, so it seemed a good way for me to transition, and as my husband had also just lost his job, it seemed like a good idea to use our enforced time together to get on with tidying up the house ready to sell up, and getting rid of a lot of stuff that hasn’t seen the light of day for twenty years! Hubby is now on fist name terms with the men at the local tip, and we’ve taken so much to the charity shops that I wondered where we fit it all! We haven’t even started on the attic!

Of course, suddenly losing eighty percent of our income wasn’t the best thing for our mental health, but the thought of being able to downsize into a smaller place and have fewer money worries in future was a big incentive to spruce the house up.

I recently tried to work out how many litres of paint we’d used, and how many pots of filler had gone into the walls, but I failed miserably. The closest I can guess is dozens of each! And we still have more to do!

The summer lockdown was made worse by the loss of three family members. My aunt and uncle died within weeks of each other having caught covid in their nursing home. A cousin died about a month later. She was battling breast cancer already, and winning, but the covid battle wasn’t a fair fight. So sad.

Now, I understand that all three of them were in the high-risk category, but it really drives me crazy when people don’t take the virus seriously because they’re young and healthy. Like young and healthy people can’t die of covid? Or infect others who do? Hogwash! (That’s me being as polite as I can be!)

When I hear people on the TV saying nonsense like, ‘The virus hasn’t affected me. I don’t know anyone who’s had it.’, I want to scream at the TV screen, ‘You don’t know anybody who’s had it YET!’

News of the new vaccines has come as a relief to the whole world, but realistically, I don’t expect to get a dose for at least 6-12 months because I’m nowhere near the top of anybody’s list.

In the meantime, I’m just hoping people don’t take their eye off the ball.

The point at which I worry we’ll be most vulnerable in 2021 is when some people have had the vaccine and some of us haven’t.

You won’t know whether people around you aren’t wearing masks because they’ve been vaccinated, they’re unable to wear one due to underlying health conditions or because they’re either; stupid/careless/selfish/exercising their constitutional rights or making a political statement.

All I can hope is that until this is all in the past, more and more people will come to realise that wearing a mask isn’t a political statement or a sign of weakness. It’s your effort to protect you and your loved ones from a potentially fatal disease. Is it really too much to do to keep your grandparents safe, or your parents? I don’t think so. It’ll be too late to say, ‘Oops, my bad!’ when you’re burying your loved ones, and especially when everyone knows you gave covid to them in the first place.

Anyways… Sorry, I digress! Where was I before I got on my soapbox?

DIY!

Well, having started on our mammoth DIY project, we realised pretty fast that we weren’t going to be able to move anywhere this year, so it took a bit of pressure off us knowing we didn’t have to get everything finished quickly. A blessing, since my back and feet problems mean I can’t do much of anything continuously for any length of time.

We’re now about 80% of the way through, having decorated almost every room in the house already, floors, doors, walls and ceilings, and we can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Just two more (biggish) jobs indoors, and then after Christmas we can paint the outside, repair a path, and renew a few fence panels and we’ll be done.

And of course, we’ll probably decide that it all looks so nice we won’t want to move! 😊

Now, I’m sure a lot of you are wondering where the books fit into 2020.

A great start to Redemption was interrupted by mum’s stroke, so instead of my usual Easter release date

A great start to Redemption was interrupted by mum’s stroke, so instead of my usual Easter release date I had to push it back to July. I really struggled to concentrate during the spring, even when I had time to do some writing, and I kept having to re-read what I’d already written, over and over, so it really was a superhuman effort to get it all done at all. I was just glad when I finished it that people seemed to like it so much.

I had to push it back to July. I really struggled to concentrate during the spring, even when I had time to do some writing, and I kept having to re-read what I’d already written, over and over, so it really was a superhuman effort to get it all done at all. I was just glad when I finished it that people seemed to like it so much.

As many of you know, I’ve been dying to get started on the new series for about a year! Having finished with the Guardians, I started it in August with a rush of enthusiasm, knowing exactly what the story was going to be about. Unfortunately, trying to fit in physical activity like DIY left me exhausted most days, so I had a few months writing in short fits and starts. For anyone who hasn’t ever written a book, that’s the worst way to do it, because you keep forgetting what you’ve already said, having to go back and read it again. And again! And again!

In early October, about halfway through the book, I set myself a target that if I wasn’t finished writing it by a month before Christmas, I wasn’t going to have another 2020 release. (I have to leave myself a month for editing.)

Of course, also in October, we had one of our bright spots of the year, when our middle son married his girlfriend of ten years.

Covid-restrictions meant they could only have 15 immediate family members at the wedding, including them, and they weren’t allowed to have a proper reception, but we did everything we could to make it a really wonderful day, and the bride looked beautiful and happy, which is all you ever hope for. Of course, my son looked very handsome, rocking his new suit, as did the other three men in my life, but naturally, I’m biased.

I also still can’t believe that the wedding happened during the only two hours of sunshine we had in almost two weeks! Plenty of time to take (socially distanced) photos outdoors!

It was a bit of a bummer when the bride’s brother (a university student) was diagnosed with covid a few days later, and all 15 of us had to isolate for 14 days, but thanks to good social distancing and lots of masks, nobody was infected, and everyone is fine.

Luckily the isolation period wasn’t too bad as it coincided with a national lockdown anyway, and also my youngest son had a notification from the school that a classmate had tested positive, so he had two reasons to isolate, but all on the same dates.

Anyway, preparations for the wedding lost me another week of writing, but at least it made me get focussed.

I always said that when I finished work, writing would take over as my full-time occupation. The disrupted and disjointed spring and summer, along with the fact that I was still in limbo with my job, meant that up until then I still hadn’t got myself in the right headspace.

Well, I’m delighted to say that I’m now a full-time, self-employed author, having previously spent my entire (adult) life up until now working for one employer, and having ended that relationship amicably a few weeks ago. It’s really strange not having colleagues and friends around me all the time, but after this year, I’m kind of liking it that way.

Making the transition has had a really good effect on my mental health and positivity knowing that I have a purpose every day. I’ve even been setting my alarm every day to get up early and start writing!

And as of yesterday, 24^th November, I typed my favourite two-word combo… The End!

Yes, that means a 2020 Christmas release! Yayyy!

I’ll leave all the juicy news about the new book for now. My mailing list always gets the news first, following by Facebook followers.

But yes, I do see that as being another highlight of this year, for me at least.

All I have left to do is spend December editing the new book and sorting out food and presents ready for my distanced Christmas and I can wave goodbye to the worst year I can remember.

Well, that basically summarises 2020 in a few hundred words. Mostly a lot of dark clouds with a few spots of sunshine.

Of course, there was one spark of colour recently that I’m hoping will turn into a whole rainbow next year.

My oldest son and his wife are expecting a baby next spring, so hubby and I are going to be grandparents for the first time, and we couldn’t be happier. There’s nothing nicer than the joy of looking forward to welcoming a new life into the world, even if the world is topsy-turvy crazy right now!

Ok, so having probably bored you rigid, I’ll sign off now, sending you best wishes for a safe and distanced Thanksgiving holiday, and a peaceful and thoughtful Christmas.

Please look after yourselves, and hopefully we’ll all be back in 2021 to do it all again.

Sending much love and virtual hugs,

Beth

xx