Well first off I suppose I ought to wish you all a somewhat belated Happy New Year. Belated due to my lovely, lady wife having the first week and a half of 2023 on leave and there having been quite a large amount of high drama over the past ten days.

Drama? I hear you say. Pray, tell us more. We’re dying to know.

Yes, drama indeed, and plenty of it. I won’t go into all the gory details but it’s been a testing time. Not least in the culmination of it yesterday when our car conked out after travelling just a few yards from our home here at Blessham Towers. We managed to block the road, forcing other vehicles onto the footpath to get around us. Something or other to do with the fuel pump in the end and to cut a horribly long story short the whole sorry episode lasted well over three hours and left us feeling extremely red-faced in front of our neighbours.

Thankfully, we’re mobile again now.

Anyway, 2023 has begun and we’ve all got that New Year, New Me feeling haven’t we? Oh, right, just me then. Yeah, I suppose 2022 was a bit of a downer, all things considered. But I’m feeling hopeful for this one despite a bit of a rocky start so far.

Plans for this year include the publication of three (yes you read that correctly) books this year. The current ball-ache of a work-in-progress by February, the next Joe Wilkie book by Summer and the welcome return of dear old Archie and Aggie Stone by Christmas. Well, that’s what I’m aiming for at least. Watch this space.

To help me focus more in my endeavours I’ve treated myself to another new hat. I do so love a nice hat. I’m a sucker for them. You see, I received a lot of Amazon vouchers at Christmas and have dabbled a bit on the old online shopping and when I saw it I just couldn’t resist.

How will a new hat help you? You might say.

Well, because it’s my designated writing, blogging, podcasting, Youtubing hat. That’s why.

Actually, it’s what’s known as a Nepalese thinking hat and if you want to know what it looks like then watch Michael Gambon as Dumbledore in the Harry Potter films and you’ll be getting there. But in case you haven’t seen any of the films, and kudos to you if you haven’t, then there is a photo of my good self wearing said hat at the bottom of this post.

And I think it’s rather natty. Plus my beautiful Ange likes it too so that’s approval enough for me.

I want to wish you all a bright, healthy, happy 2023 and I hope I can make it a bit more fun for you with my novels/blog/podcast/videos etc. I haven’t really made any resolutions as such, other than to shift a ton of weight, but I am determined to be a lot busier and have a greater online presence than last year. I hope you’ll join me on the journey.

Anyway, here’s the hat…