Blogs

This lovely little plant turned up last year. I didn’t plant it, so it had to be another gift for the birds!

Wonderful to see it again this year…

Time to catch up on my reading, and these two kept me company during some of the worst times…

It’s Christmas in Lyme Regis, and DC Tina Abbott is looking forward to some well-earned time with her family.

But then her mum Annie, true to form, reports a crime. The pottery shop has been broken into and the owner Peg, Annie’s friend, attacked.

The evidence is scant. A solitary fingerprint in blood, but nothing stolen, at least as far as the police can tell.

But when Annie discovers a gaudy pottery reindeer that was left at the scene of the crime, she and her swimming club friends get drawn into the mystery.

Was the man who attacked Peg the same man PC Dougie Anderson almost ran over on the night of the crime? Why does the local councillor keep turning up? Does the car Annie saw leaving the scene belong to her friend Rosamund’s husband? And just what’s going on at the dilapidated café across the way from the pottery?

The Shattered Bauble is a Christmassy mystery which makes an ideal gift for anyone who loves whodunnits, the stunning Jurassic Coast, or evil seagulls.

About the authors

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3. Millie Ravensworth is the pen name of two authors, Heide Goody and Iain Grant. They have been writing entertaining and humorous novels together for more than ten years. The Millie Ravensworth books focus on their shared passion for crime stories. They love sitting down together to create charming characters that readers will want to spend time with.
4. About the authors
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7. My name’s Rachel McLean and I write stories you can’t put down, with characters you’ll be rooting for.I’m best known for my Dorset Crime series, which has sold over a million copies. The first book in that series, The Corfe Castle Murders, won the 2021 Kindle Storyteller Award.Here’s what Clare Balding (the lead judge) had to say about the book:’I particularly enjoyed the detail of the landscape and the humorous oddities of Dorset life. I enjoyed the richness of the characters, complexity of life for a working mother who is thrown into a new environment and has to prove herself, all over again.

Our Review

The Shattered Bauble is a Christmassy mystery, which makes an ideal gift for anyone who loves whodunnits, the stunning Jurassic Coast, or evil seagulls. 

The characters and the location are delightful and a joy to read about. Everything feels so real, it was as if I was really there. I have been to this part of the Jurassic Coast, and reading this story really took me back there.

I love being an armchair detective, and Rachel makes it such fun to follow along.

This is one hell of a read, and I look forward to many more!

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Shattered-Bauble-Christmas-Jurassic-Mysteries/dp/1835602258

Across centuries, three women are bound by an invisible thread, one that dares them to question everything and follow what whispers in their souls. Because it turns out, we are far more magical than we ever imagined.

1307 England: Miryam, a weaver’s daughter, longs for more than her impending arranged marriage. When she meets a handsome monk and begins practicing magic in a secret mystery school, she believes she has found her true path—until the earl begins hunting heretics, and her new powers may cost her life.

2017 California: Leah, an atheist fortune teller and boxed-wine connoisseur, just wants peace during a brutal custody battle and debilitating migraines. But when a strange journal from the 1300s arrives addressed to her, she is drawn into a mystery that challenges everything she believes.

2307 New Soteria: Karaia, a rising marketing analyst, witnesses an impossible murder in a world where crime was supposedly eradicated. Thrust into the dark underbelly of society, she learns of disturbing government cover-ups, repressed childhood memories, and her own connection to a thousand-year-old prophecy.

As fate and free will collide, Miryam, Leah, and Karaia must unravel their pasts, face their deepest fears, and embrace their power. Ultimately, they must decide—will they accept the lives written for them, or risk it all and step into the unknown?

For readers who love interwoven timelines, secret societies, ancient prophecies, and character-driven fantasy, Woven in Time is the first book in a sweeping, genre-bending work of adult speculative fiction that fuses alternate history, dystopian intrigue, and a powerful message of personal transformation into one unforgettable journey across the ages.

About the author

Jessica Ann

Jessica Ann is an author, intuitive, and creative entrepreneur who believes in living a life guided by passion, purpose, and possibility. Through her work, she invites others to awaken to their own inner magic and follow what whispers in their souls. Her storytelling blends fantasy and spirituality into genre-bending explorations of life, fate and free will, and the invisible threads that connect us all. Drawing inspiration from myth, nature, and her own personal journey, Jessica writes stories that blur the line between the mystical and the everyday—reminding readers that magic is not something to be found, but something to be remembered.

Before stepping fully into her creative calling, Jessica built a diverse career as a nonprofit founder, city council member, and educator. Her work has always centered on community, connection, and the belief that small acts can ripple outward to create a more compassionate world. Now, she continues that mission—helping other authors and entrepreneurs bring their dreams to life.

When she’s not lost in a story or mentoring other dreamers, you can find her baking sourdough, foraging for wild edibles, dancing barefoot in her kitchen, or spending time with her partner, children, cat, and dog in Missouri. She’s endlessly inspired by the cycles of nature, the resilience of the human spirit, and the mystery of the unseen forces that guide us home to ourselves.

Follow Jessica Ann’s journey and creative work at jessanncreates on Instagram, Facebook, and Substack, where she writes her newsletter, Wildest Dreams—a call to courage, creativity, and the magic of living a life you love.

Our Review

This story grabbed hold of my curiosity the minute I saw it. 

A fascinating, complex story that follows the lives of these brave and courageous women.

Different times, different places, and three very different women, powerfully linked together on a fascinating journey.

History, intrigue and transformation, all blended together to spellbind whoever reads the first book of the Woven in Time trilogy…

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Woven-Time-Trilogy-Book-ebook/dp/B0G2PJQZNT

For a long time now, I have been searching my barely functioning brain for any inspiration that always used to be lurking in there somewhere. This may or not be a good idea, as the pressure in my head gets worse every day, but it’s what I need to find, so it will just have to get used to the idea.

Unfortunately, if there is any inspiration in there, I just cannot seem to find it.

Having spent the last twelve months getting my body moving the way I want it to, I have only recently realised that maybe I should have paid more attention to what was going on with my head. 

How do you exercise your mind? I play a lot of puzzle games on                                        the PC, so I thought it was doing okay.

Now I am back in the blogging chair (and it feels darn good to be back!) I am discovering more holes in my memory. This isn’t new, and has meant a lot of recapping has been going on, just to do the basics.

Now I am up to speed, so to speak, I want to start thinking about promoting and marketing again. Baby steps of course, for just the thought of it makes me giddy.

All of this is necessary, because the latest detective mystery is about to roll off the assembly line…

but getting stronger every day!

Write, a brand new idea from WP, could be just what the writer ordered. 

Still in its early beta stage, but I love the simplicity of the clear screen . 

I am looking forward to using Write for all my posts!

      I just spent a very confusing hour with the WP AI assistant.’They can sometimes be helpful with sorting out complicated problems, but on occasion, they don’t seem to know any more than I do. I used them last week in desperation, to change the layout of a page, and they followed my request to the letter. Things are looking up, I thought, at least there is help out there, if you know where to find it.   Yesterday, I tried to repeat this, but it’s just not happening. It keeps asking me what I can see. Surely, it can see better than I can?   It occurred to me that AI is no better or worse than us humans. Some days we can be brilliant too, and just as frustrating.   I shall continue trying to fix things myself, for that’s how I learn. But if that fails, I will ask for help again, on the off chance that AI is having a good day.  I would appreciate your comments on this subject, folks?   And if you have noticed the new background on our website, that was my very happy accident!   Wishing everyone a very happy and peaceful week! love from Jaye 💕  

  I almost deleted our website yesterday, as I was so tired of the endless struggling and getting nowhere. I knew something had to give, and thought it would be me. Still could be me, I suppose.   I was quite prepared to struggle on, trying to make everything work, but sadly, this doesn’t seem to be possible.   It was while I was desperately trying to sort out our website that I began to realise something. Where had all the fun gone?   I have run this website for nearly fifteen years, and loved blogging and meeting and getting to know so many people, but lately, the struggle is getting to be too much.  I am not getting anything else  done, and I am not happy about that.    When I told Anita that I was thinking of deleting our website, she was horrified. ‘What about all our followers?’ she said.   My sister always knows what I should do, not always with my approval, but this time I know she was right. So the struggle for perfection continues…   I will get there in the end, you know…