I was one of 12 authors involved in the first ever literary festival in my home town of Lee-on-the-Solent (Hampshire UK) yesterday. Here I am watching the mayor and The Bookshop owner Sarah, open the event.

The first ever Lee-on-the-Solent literary festival is taking place this Saturday, 9th August. Here’s the programme of events –

There will be books to buy – quite a few authors (including me) will have stalls and of course the bookshop will be open. Please come along if you’ll be in the area. Entry is free and the sun is almost guaranteed to shine!

Two of my cosy (cozy) crime novel ebooks are reduced to 99p (99c) for the next few days.

Disguised Murder and Community Spirit in Little Mallow is the first book in my Little Mallow cosy crime series. Each book is a complete story, but the character’s lives carry on one from another.

‘plenty of twists and turns … a clever plot that keeps you guessing until the end’ 5 stars
‘Patsy’s humour comes through in bursts throughout’ 5 stars
‘moves along at a good pace and was a joy to read.’ 5 stars
‘characters who you care about … as well as concocting a darn good mystery to solve’ 5 stars

Acting Like A Killer is a stand alone novel.
‘ lovely read, gentle but not afraid to confront some difficult areas, all wrapped up with a goodly dose of humour.’ 5 stars
‘felt like I was right there … I love the characters …They seem like real people that I’d love to read more about. 5 stars
‘a delightful read’ 5 stars

Both novels are set on the south coast of England. Both can also be read through kindle unlimited, bought as paperbacks, or requested from the library. The price reduction ends 8th August, when they’ll go back to £2.99 / $3.99.

Some of my stories, which have previously been published in My Weekly are available to read for free on their website.

The former Royal Navy Hospital Haslar, just down the road from me, is being converted into rather nice (and expensive) apartments. On Saturday they had an open day, so I went for a nose round. Sarah from The Bookshop at Lee-on-the-Solent told me there was a library which served cake, so obviously I had to investigate that!

The library is lovely – very comfortable and relaxed. Did I mention the cake? They have an interesting selection of books, many by local authors and including my Little Mallow cosy mystery series. Sarah tells me she’ll also be running a book club there. I believe these facilities are available to anyone, not just those people living in the new apartments.

The website has been down for a while – due to me not understanding how technology works and losing the domain. That means the associated email was also lost. Both are (hopefully) up and running properly now with a new domain. I’m gradually updating all the links everywhere. Please let me know if you spot anything which doesn’t look right.

Here are some photos from our most recent campervan adventure – can you guess the country we visited?

I’m happy to have a short story in the current People’s Friend Special. This one was inspired by my writing friend Sheila who, just like my lead character, survived cancer and an amputation.

Disguised Murder and Community Spirit in Little Mallow, the first book in my Little Mallow cosy mystery series is currently free to download – but only for a couple of days.

Get it here!