I’ve been on an unexpected and unplanned hiatus. I was only a mere week or so away from publishing my new novel and was feeling very excited accordingly. And then, out of the blue, I get a dose of pneumonia and end up hospitalised with tubes in (almost) every orifice and as weak as the proverbial baby cat. That was three weeks ago and fast forward to now. There has been a tremendous amount of bed rest and recuperation and that beautiful wife of mine has been quite the most perfect Florence Nightingale I could possibly wish for. I’m still weak and very breathless (as I write I’m waiting for a prescription for an inhaler) and I’ve done very little creatively in that time. It’s just been a case of getting my body back to some kind of place were I can write again.

Well, today is that day – I’ve fired up the laptop at last. Poor thing hasn’t seen the light of day for almost a month and had to be gently coaxed and soothed into working like a nervous rescued dog. It feels good though to be back at the old coal face once more. I’ve been working on the novel all morning, adding a few final amendments and then I thought I’d best churn out a quick blog post. And here we are. This afternoon I embark on the final proof read, the artwork is all done and has gone to be digitised and with a fair wind behind me I reckon I might be able to publish within a week or so. In fact, there’s a renewed, almost manic like fervour in me to get it done. Or should that be – a new mania! (Groan)

Watch this space.