Happy New Year All!

Yes, it's that time of the year when otherwise normal-seeming people everywhere cut loose, get wasted and scream like banshees between shots of Jägermeister (or heaves).

Thanks to all who follow my blog, visibly or otherwise, and for taking the time to read my posts. Next year I'll continue to update this place with news of my books and current writing projects, but I also plan to have a lot more random posts about anything that interests me (though whether they'll interest you remains to be seen :).

2011 has been a mixed bag for me. On the plus side, I began my ePublishing journey (inspired in no small part by the most lovely Helen Smith), and 9 months since I first went up on Amazon I can tell you I've learned so much. Sometimes the hard way, but sometimes that's the best way. So I enter 2012 with a lot more knowledge than I had at the beginning of the last, and a determination to get my work in front of as many people as I can. The adapting will continue, of course, but I also plan to write my first full-length novel this coming year. And I have to tell you, I'm very excited about the prospect. In some ways it feels like this year has been a training ground that has been preparing me for this task.

It's also been a difficult year for me. In the autumn I lost my oldest friend to breast cancer. I can't describe to you how much that impacted me. Still now I haven't fully got my head around it. And there have been other health-related problems with people I love that I shan't go into here. But as trite or clichéd as it may sound, these experiences serve as a harsh reminder to be grateful for your own good health as long as you have it, and to treasure the time you have with those you love, as it's finite - no matter what the circumstances.

So with 2012 looming on the horizon, I look forward to another year of the inevitable good, bad, and the ugly, though hopefully much more of the good than those other two.

I wish you a happy and healthy New Year, and all good things to you and yours.

See you next year!