Paris Imperfect and Bookcrossing

Many thanks to Bookcrosser/librarian LizzyBee for this encouraging review which she’s posted on Amazon. “The front cover of this book, the Eiffel Tower in a knot, is delightful and promises quirky charms that are delivered by the bucketful. The author's deft ways with an approachable, identifiable-with heroine and a cast of supporting characters are well demonstrated in this charming novel. A familiar setting - Paris - comes to life as do the environs, as we struggle alongside Clio….. A lovely setting, marvellous characters (her women are as usual a delight, from the porcine boss to the frosty mother-in-law and the all-too-perfect third-wife-of-the-first-husband). My only wish would be that this could come out in paperback”

Bookcrossing (swapping) stretches far and wide. Sometimes Bookcrossers post books to each other and sometimes they leave them around town to be picked up by a passing stranger. One of my books has recently turned up in Ontario, Canada, and another has made it to Australia and just been left “in the unisex toilets outside the café at Strawberry Fields, Palmwood, Queensland.” Crikey, as Boris would say.

New-mown lawn in April

I promised I'd put the newly mown lawn on my blog so here it is. It'll probably look more exciting in a couple of weeks when the apple trees are in bloom. Global warming hasn't yet hit Hampshire this year but the birds - blue tits, all kinds of finches, robins and the inevitable pigeons - are singing or cooing away so spring must be here soon.

I was invited to the London Bookcrossing Convention last weekend, where several Transita writers spoke. Many other author friends are not that keen on Bookcrossing or free book-swap in general, because we lose out on our meagre royalties, but the Bookcrossers seriously love reading and they do buy as well as exchange. They also take the trouble to review books on line which is encouraging.