Again, time passes
How quickly months pass never ceases to amaze me. I look back and see that my last entry in this ‘Latest News’ page was back in April – and suddenly it’s September. So ‘latest’ may be true, but there’s a lot of ground to cover.
It’s been as always, a busy time since the launch of my recent book, ‘Witnesses’. Many public speaking events, with one of the pleasantest an author event at The Ark bookshop on a spring day in the Barossa Valley. People gathered in the courtyard between historic buildings in the glorious morning sunshine, almond tree in full blossom, birds singing, to listen to me talk about my life as a writer and the twelve books I’ve had published over the last fourteen years. However, most of my public speaking has been about Oberammergau and my book ‘Passion Play’, still much in the public mind following the 2022 five-month season of the postponed 2020 play. The more than forty talks about this famous event that I’ve given during the last years shows that interest in this famous Oberammergau event is still high.
Between this and travel, the months have flown by swiftly. We made a very satisfying five week trip north, driving first to Queensland for oldest son Nick’s sixtieth birthday (now that a scarey moment when your children reach ages like that!) followed by a long slow meander down the south-eat side of Australia on what we labelled a ‘people tour.’ And it was. Our travels became a series of catch-ups with relatives and friends, some dating back to our early years. Many Brisbane friends, of course, from my eight years there, then family in places like Lismore, Sydney, Canberra, Bawley Point, Albury, Melbourne, and a final visit to Ballarat as we made a reluctant return to Adelaide. The sort of time one looks back on as utterly satisfying, with nostalgic moments and much reminiscing.
But now my attention is fixed on two future moments – our long-anticipated return to Scandinavia, this time to the glass igloos in Finland, (maybe this time we’ll get a better look at the Northern Lights) then on north to board a coastal steamer for the trip down Norway’s west coast with a three day stay in Tromso, a place we loved within the Arctic Circle. Back on board to continue south to Bergen, next a flight to Hamburg, and travel north again to stay with dear friend Lotte in Schleswig Holstein. Home for Christmas.
After that the second future moment will need full concentration on planning for the release of next year’s book, currently being edited at Wakefield Press in readiness for the March 20 launch. ‘Finding Emma’ is another historical fiction novel, a companion piece to the 2019 ‘In Search of Anna’. Put the date on your calendar because I hope to see many old and new friends at that launch.