My Diary – Archive

Late again – sorry. I’ve just returned from my first cruise and unfortunately I was unwell most of the time. A recurrence of the infection that put me in hospital in June. Thank goodness they have an excellent medical team on board and the very strong antibiotics prevented it from getting worse. Despite the illness it didn’t put me off cruising and I’m really looking forward to returning to the same ship, Ambience, Ambassador line – in April when I’ll be sharing a cabin with a friend. I realise that this is going to be an ongoing health problem that I’ll just have to live with – getting older isn’t fun but the alternative is worse. I’m going for my flu and Covid jabs today so no doubt will be unwell again for several days, but three days of feeling rough is worth it for the protection they give you.
I handed in the second book in my Harbour House World War II series set in Wivenhoe, Essex, Stormy Waters at Harbour House on 9 October and as of yesterday I’d completed the second round of edits. The first book, Wartime Arrivals at Harbour House, will be released on 29 November. It’s on  pre-order – I hope you fall in love with the characters in the same way that you did with those in Goodwill House. The first two books in my four book series At Pemberley, Return to Pemberley and Trouble at Pemberley were released on 31 October. I expect most of you read them when I indie publish them a few years ago but if you haven’t and you love anything Pride and Prejudice related I’m sure that you’ll enjoy them. The second two in the series will be out on 14 December. Boldwood have also taken my six book Regency series, The Duke’s Alliance, and the first two of these will be released, I think, in January. I’m about to start writing the third book in the Harbour House series which will be handed in next February and published, I think, next summer.
It’s election day in America and I, like most sensible people in the world, will be holding my breath waiting for the result – hoping against hope that Harris wins. The thought of a another four years of that fascist, would be dictator, Trump, doesn’t bear thinking of. We have a stable Labour government, not perfect, but moving in the right direction.
I’ve just had my garden fence repainted – it’s a bit brighter than I expected – but I love it. Unfortunately the chap who did it has also dripped paint over a lot of my garden path and terrace. He said he’s coming back to fix that but so far hasn’t appeared. The nights are much longer but the weather here is surprisingly mild for November – I’ve still got some bedding plants flowering. My bulbs are planted, shrubs pruned and I won’t be seeing my gardener until the spring.

Until next time – best wishes
Fenella J Miller

I apologise for being nine days late putting up my monthly diary – I’ve been on a tight deadline to give in the second book in my new series and just managed to do it a day early. I like to write my books fast – eight weeks – and then give myself six weeks without writing. I do research, social media and so on but don’t actually write during those six weeks. The first book in my new series, Wartime Arrivals at Harbour House, is now on pre order and will be out at the end of next month. I have the first two of my Regency Pemberley series out at the end of this month and the second two are coming out in December. I think that will make sixteen or seventeen titles out this year – four of them new and the rest back list.

Boldwood have agreed that I can leave World War II for a while – after I’ve written the third book in this new series – and return to my Victorian sagas. Then I’ll be writing a single stand-alone Regency title to go with my six book backlist Regency series, The Dukes Alliance, which will be coming out early next year. The Nightingale Chronicles, there are four of them, my bestselling books on Amazon so it makes sense to continue that series which I always intended to do. I can’t wait to return to Victorian Colchester and leave the bombs and rationing behind for a while. I’ll return to Harbour House in 2026 and intend to write a further three books, possibly four.

On the domestic front I’ve now booked three cruises which might seem a little foolish as I’ve not even been on one yet – my first cruise on the Ambassador line, Ambience, is at the end of this month. It’s a writing retreat with my good friend Lizzie Lane. It’s only five nights and goes from Tilbury which suits me as I live in Essex. The second also from Tilbury will be in April and I’m going with an old friend and the third in August is with saga and is going to Norway and this is also a writing retreat as there will be four of us working together during the trip.

Loki continues to be an absolute delight although him arriving in my bedroom at three a.m. this morning chasing one of his little plastic spirals about the floor didn’t fill me with joy. Eventually I had to lock him out of the bedroom – I then didn’t sleep much until I had to let him out at five fifteen. He then proceeded to chase next door’s huge bad-tempered Bengal cat from the garden very noisily. I’ll be shattered by this evening.

Until next month

Fenella J Miller

How can it be the start of autumn when it’s still 23 centigrade in England? Normally in September I heave a sigh of relief and stop watering the garden and think about planting my spring bulbs. I’d have to pull up still flowering plants in order to put in the bulbs and I’m not going to do that – anyway I’ve got Nigel now to do it for me. Everybody needs a Nigel and it took me months to find him. I also have an anonymous chap who comes every six weeks to valet my car inside and out for £15 . I have a window cleaner who also clears the gutters, washes the facias and soffits and cleans my solar panels – how lucky am I? The man who services my central heating boiler is coming next week and I haven’t even thought about putting the heating on. Strictly Come Dancing starts in a week or two and I can’t get enthused because that’s the start of the lead to Christmas. Nobody thinks about Christmas when it’s in the high 20s – unless you live in Australia or New Zealand!

I discovered only two days ago that taking paracetamol every day for my headaches was actually causing the headaches – it’s called rebound headaches. I had this once with migraine tablets but didn’t realise it could happen with something you can buy over the counter. I was blaming an unexpected return of long Covid and it’s actually my fault. I’ve now gone twenty-seven hours without pain relief and so far it’s not been too bad – much harder at night – but I know it’s the right thing to do. My grandson starts secondary school next week and I’m sure he’s going to enjoy it once he’s settled but I know he’s not looking forward to it. To go from a junior school with only four hundred pupils to a secondary school – however good it is – with over fifteen hundred will be difficult for all the new incomers.

On the writing front this month I’ve plenty to tell you. Boldwood have taken a six book Regency series from my remaining backlist and I’m thrilled about that. I’m pretty sure they’ll take the other two series as well and hopefully some of the other stand-alone titles eventually. They took my four Pemberley related books last year and these finally come out in October and December. The final book in my Army girls series came out last week – Army Girls Operation Winter Wedding – and is doing well in the charts. The first of my new World War II home front series set in Wivenhoe, a riverside village near Colchester, is already on preorder – Wartime Arrivals at Harbour House – and will be released at the end of November. I’ve written 25% of the second book which will be handed in next month and come out in the New Year.

I didn’t watch much of the Olympics and certainly won’t be watching the Paralympics but I do watch the test cricket. A very English sport one I’ve loved since I was small as the start of the cricket season always heralded going out of London and spending the day in the country somewhere watching my stepfather play cricket.

Until next time
Fenella J Miller

Here we are again – another month has gone by and  some people are already talking about Strictly Come Dancing which doesn’t start until September. I’ve even heard mention of the C word – far too early for that. I’m tickety-boo and really well, enjoying my garden and my friends and family. It took me fifteen months to get rid of long covid, thank God it’s finally gone and I haven’t caught it a third time. Eagerly anticipating my next holiday which will  be my first cruise, I’m going with Lizzie Lane, another Boldwood writer, in October. We are going from Tilbury for five nights with Ambassador. The ship is small which is what we wanted. We will be visiting Hamburg and Amsterdam.

There’s been an election here and I’m delighted to have a sensible, caring, moral government after fourteen years of Tory corruption and cronyism. It will take years to put things right but they’ve made a good start. The surge of far right fascist voters is deeply worrying and I hope Keir Starmer addresses that.

I finished the first in my new series of WW2 Home Front books set in Wivenhoe. I was taken aback that my editor didn’t think it was the best thing I’ve ever written. 🙂 I’ve completed the edits and hopefully she’ll now love it as much as I do. I can’t start the second one until we’ve spoken about the first as I’m not sure which direction she wants me to go. My next new title is Army Girls Operation Winter Wedding and it’s out later this month.  This is the final book in this series.

Today all Boldies are celebrating the fifth birthday of our fabulous publisher. I joined in 2020 but my first book didn’t come out until 2021. Now twelve new books written and sixteen back list taken by them. The last four, my Pemberley series, come out October and November. There are now over 150 Boldies ( authors) and twenty plus staff. Thousands of best sellers and always at least ten in the top 100 on Amazon. I think there are four 500 000 sellers and four 1 000 000 sellers – hoping I’ll join the former later this year.

Olympics is still going but I only watch glimpses of this. Pleased we have won medals but only really get enthused about test cricket.

Until next month,

Fenella J Miller

I don’t understand how it can be July already – maybe it’s because the weather in June has been so wet and cold it still seemed like spring. My garden has gone wild because of the rain and I’ve got to get someone in to dig things up for me. It’s frustrating not being able to do the things I want to but there’s nothing I can do about that.
On the health front I ended up being taken by emergency ambulance to hospital – spent seven hours on a trolley in a corridor but did have a cat scan, ultrasound, blood tests et cetera. Everybody was respectful, kind and no complaints about that. I don’t understand how NHS staff are still coping. There were two unpleasant incidents they had to deal with and in one of them it was just appalling language from a woman with mental health issues and the other, a man with mental health issues, actually attacked a nurse. Let’s hope the next government can do something about this.
It turned out to be an infection and after two lots of antibiotics I’m more or less better, but it takes longer to recover from anything at my age.
At least Long Covid  has finally gone – it only took thirteen months!
On a much happier note I spent six glorious days in Bath with my friend Lizzie Lane – another Boldwood writer – and finally saw all the places I’d just read about and have written about in many of my regency books. Bath lived up to everything I’d hoped and on the Saturday Lizzie held a writers’ garden party and there were fifteen of us talking shop eating and drinking and that was a wonderful end to my trip.
I had hired a car to drive me both ways – on the way down it took four hours – on the way back the driver decided to go on the scenic route taking me past Stonehenge and goodness knows where and it took 5 1/2 hours; he chewed his nails the entire time. Needless to say I’ll be using a different company next year..
On the writing front I had the first two of my Victorian sagas published and they seem to be doing well – in fact all my books seem to be doing well – I was so lucky to be picked up by Boldwood
I am now writing the first book in a new series set in a riverside village in Essex so far it’s going well. More about that next month.
Until next time, best wishes,
Fenella J Miller