Lazy Days, the 40 year old story of one of the best holidays we ever had, took a long time to get right. Our memories of that time were a little rusty, to say the least, and sometimes we remembered things completely differently!

After such a difficult (and often hilarious ) undertaking, we both agreed that it deserves special treatment, not just an upload to Amazon on the 7th of January.

We were hoping to run the book tour in 2017, but the time has flown by and Christmas is almost upon us, so we have chosen the 8th to 12th January 2018…

We were two women, four kids and two small dogs afloat on the Norfolk Broads in a rented boat. The holiday of a lifetime, something we would remember for a long time, but it was also a recipe for disaster, being so far out of our comfort zone.

Would it be the stuff that dreams are made of, or were we putting all our eggs in one basket?

Excerpt

We had waited a long time for this day to arrive, and now the time had arrived, we could have flown to the Norfolk Broads powered by our excitement. The tension coming from all of us made the air crackle with electricity as we prepared to leave. Going anywhere with the kids is never easy, but we had planned this holiday with far more skill than our usual days out, and researched everything of interest and planned our route to ensure plenty of happy days. For the first time in our lives, we would be miles from home on a boat for two weeks. There would be six of us on this holiday, two women, four kids and two small dogs. There was the possibility of enough trouble there to last us a lifetime!

I wasn’t expecting much trouble from the teenage girls, Anita Jr and Heidi; but the two younger boys, Stephen, ten and Darren, eight would be a challenge, for they have the knack of finding trouble anywhere.  Added to the mix were our two small dogs.  Lady, a cross between a Pekinese and a Yorkie, blessed with sharp teeth and a ferocious dislike of strangers, and Katy, an adorable chocolate coloured toy poodle pup.

Getting them all in our car proved a bit tricky. A big Ford Granada, normally a comfortable fit for all of us, but this time we had Heidi, our younger step-sister to fit in too. She had been staying with us while her mother was in the hospital.

I sensed an air of resentment as the kids tried hard to fit themselves into the back seat. Various elbows were used to show disapproval, prompting a chorus of complaints. For a moment, it looked as if we wouldn’t be going anywhere. The situation looked hopeless. Anita finished packing our luggage into the boot of the car and appeared at my side.

‘Is there a problem here? Do we want to go on this holiday or not?’

No one spoke, but as I watched, a subtle relaxing of tightly packed bodies occurred as they all thought about it. They knew their mother well. She would cancel everything if they didn’t accept their fate and settle down, and if the holiday was cancelled because of them, they would never hear the end of it…

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This is where I get down on my knees (I can just about get there) and ask for volunteers to take part in the blog tour for Lazy Days. It’s a true story, a novella, based forty years ago when we and the world were a hell of a lot younger.

We will supply #free books, promotional material and posters, and our eternal devotion to anyone who has some free time in January.

Please leave your details in the comments, or on the contact form.