I saw Ursula's Secret in the library the other day here in Edinburgh and was ridiculously pleased and excited. In fact, I think more excited than when I first saw it in a bookshop. I don't really know why, except that I love libraries and always have done. Like so many people, I have great childhood memories of the Saturday morning trip to the local library, a green library ticket with my name on it and the three book limit. But three books in a week was no problem in those days - it's only now that life admin and so on gets in the way that my reading rate has slowed. I'm still a frequent visitor to libraries and love browsing the shelves and selecting titles at random. I like to think of other people doing just that, happening upon my novel and then taking Ursula home with them. Just another reason we need to do what we can to keep libraries open...

Not long back from a writers' retreat in Spain (Casa Ana again) where I got on really well with the current work in progress. Still a long way to go of course, but have got most of a rough draft down. Once it's on the page the real work can begin - and there's a lot of it to do including rewriting or deleting the first 30,000 words so that will keep me busy through Christmas and into the New Year. However, two weeks solid work on the book meant I felt justified in taking a couple of days off at the end in Malaga which is one of my favourite cities these days. I went to the new Centre Pompidou Malaga for the first time and came across these wonderful tinfoil ladies. Not sure why they appeal so much to me but they do and I feel they may trigger a story one of these days. But in the meantime, thought I'd share in case they trigger something for one of you. 

I also loved the Christmas tree and lights on Larios and sneaked in just one breakfast of chocolate and churros. The wonderful thing is that because the next book is set mainly in Spain, I might just have to go back again soon for more research...here's hoping!