Does it ever stop being a thrill when you see your book on a bookshop shelf? Many thanks, Waterstone's Deansgate, Manchester.

A lovely launch last night for this great collection of short stories by Jane Rogers

Tickets selling fast for this, apparently. Winners of the Withington Book Festival Competition, and a group of us supporting them.

Today I'm doing the edits for a collection of five linked stories - never done that before (written linked stories). To be pub'd by Confingo later this year in their collaborative mini-collection series. See Precipitation by @ailsacox.bsky.social and Loners by @adrianslatcher.bsky.social

My garden's been rubbish the last couple of summers, due to the awful weather. But the winter-flowering clematis is doing all right, and the holly's still got berries.

Went for a walk yesterday down by the river to see what happened to the bank in the flood, and to the allotments nearby

Spring is coming! But the wind!! And I have had primroses flowering in my garden since October. I told my mother and she said 'How lovely!' (She is 101 in 10 days, and a bit fragile, so I won't upset her by talking about climate change.)