Happy New Year to any of my old faithfuls who still check in to this blog from time to time. My plans to switch to using the blog on my new website didn't quite come off, as I discovered that this one was more user-friendly after all (or maybe I just like what I know). So I plan to update this one more often this year.

The two Penelope Kite mysteries written with Rob under the nom de plume of Serena Kent will come out in paperback in the USA and Canada in February and March. But meanwhile, I have been playing around with a new solo novel, one I have wanted to write for several years but couldn't find the way in. I think I can see the path now, and have been doing some fascinating research.

The photo shows the heroine, my mother Joy, who passed away five years ago. Here she is in Moscow in 1958, at the Donskoi Monastery. What was she doing there at the height of the Cold War? Her diaries tell us very little, though there are intriguing clues between the lines, some that make sense only to those who know some oft-told family stories. It will be a novel about mothers and daughters, and what we don't - or can't - know about those we love. Wish me luck!