Hello!
We're back home after a lovely week's holiday in North Wales and my batteries have definitely been recharged.
We spent the week staying in part of a converted coachhouse on the edge of the Snowdonia National Park.
It was our second visit to the area - we had a family holiday there last August - and I'm sure it won't be our last.
With one son at university and the other at home revising for his A-levels and looking after the cats, it was just me and Adrian this time.
[Not sure how much revision was done, but at least the cats were still alive when we got home!]
Although the weather wasn't great, we managed to pack a lot in, including a walk up and down a very misty mountain, a visit to the beautiful Bodnant Gardens and a day on the bikes exploring the Gwydir Forest.
I also managed to tick an item off my bucket list after a visit to Portmeirion, the Italianate-style village designed by the Welsh architect Clough Williams-Ellis.
Afternoon tea at the art deco Hotel Portmeirion was an experience I will always cherish.
I managed to finish my latest pony adventure story before we went on holiday (for those of you who don't know, I also write middle grade fiction under my married name, Amanda Wills), and once that's published this week I will turn my attention to my fifth domestic thriller.
I had the germ of an idea while we were away, so I need to sit down with a pen and a notebook and start plotting in earnest.
Being a discovery writer at heart, plotting is by far the hardest part of the process for me, and not one I look forward to. I just have to remind myself that the books I spend time plotting are so much quicker to write than the ones in which the stories unfold as I write them.
Anyway, if all goes to plan, I hope the new book will be released this autumn. I'll keep you posted!
In other news, the audiobook of The Promise You Made, read by the brilliant Fiona Mitchell, is out now.
I have a handful of review copies up for grabs, so if you'd like to listen to the book and leave a review on either Audible or Amazon (or preferably both!) please drop me an email and I'll send them over to the first people who get back to me.
If you'd like to hear a sample, just head over to Audible.co.uk or Audible.com.
And so that's all from me for now. Don't forget to let me know if you'd like a review copy of the audiobook of The Promise You Made.
Hopefully by the next time I write I'll have made a start on Book 5.
Finally, here are some more photos of Snowdonia for no other reason than it's beautiful and I'm missing it already!
Amanda
