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Dear Reader,
We have a guest author today, but before I introduce her, let me remind you the deadline for the Write a DearReader Contest is fast approaching. Entries must be received by October 9th. Find out all the info here.
Before joining forces with her daughter Maria to write three adult murder mysteries, today's guest author Annie Dalton, wrote forty-plus books for children and teens, including an internationally best-selling series about a ditzy high-school girl who inadvertently becomes an angel.
Annie also worked for three years as writer-in-residence at one of Her Majesty's prisons. Maria has a varied CV which includes guerrilla film-making at the New York Film Academy, and a stint as an apprentice to a chimney sweep where she had access to some of the most spectacular rooftops of rural Scotland. Between them, Maria and Annie have two dogs, a Border collie, a Springer/collie cross, and three cats. Their latest title in the Oxford Dogwalker mystery series is A Study in Gold.
Please welcome Annie Dalton to the book club. You can reach her at: dogwalkingmysteries@outlook.com
My daughter and co-writer Maria and I had been shut up indoors all day working on the final chapters of our latest murder mystery. We stopped for a scratch supper then carried on. The outside world felt very far away. Nothing seemed real except our unwelcome discovery of some troublesome plot holes and our increasingly looming deadline. We were suddenly startled by a knock at the front door. I opened it, feeling frazzled, to find our neighbour Jai holding a tray which he handed over. 'You've both been working so hard. John and I thought you needed encouraging,' he said, before disappearing back into the dark. The tray held a plate with two slices of pumpkin pie and a small terracotta pot filled with Chantilly cream. The pie was still warm. It was the loveliest possible reminder that despite being anti-social writers Maria and I are still considered to be part of our tiny community.
Our little Norfolk cul-de-sac of nine cottages dates back to the 1500s. By the early 1970s, four out of the nine had become completely derelict but were rescued at the last minute from the developer's bulldozers by what my estate agent described rather charmingly as 'like-minded 1970s idealists'. Four young families bought the cottages for a song, living in caravans while they rebuilt these characterful dwellings, scandalising locals who rechristened the street 'Hippie Hill'.
One of the original couples still lives here on this hill-which-isn't-really-a-hill, in a cornflower-blue cottage with solar panels. Aileen tells the story of how their stairs were finally completed mere heart-stopping moments before the midwife arrived to deliver their new-born son! Other people have come and gone since those days, including an American diplomat, an artist, a retired rock-musician and a merchant banker. Yet somehow the inclusive Hippie Hill spirit is universally embraced by even the most conservative of newcomers. This is most evident at the annual street party where everyone invites extended families and friends to share food and talk, often late into the night. But, more importantly, it warms our everyday lives with countless small acts and exchanges that, in days gone by, would have seemed like normal human currency; neighbours sharing surplus produce or tools or gardening advice, fetching shopping or cooking a meal for someone just out of hospital.
This summer we all joined forces to create a scarecrow tableau on a Star Wars theme for the village show. Somehow, a task we had all slightly dreaded ended up as an impromptu party. Maria and I consider ourselves incredibly fortunate to have neighbours who function more like a family, with all the warmth, security, ups, downs, fallings out and irritations that real families provide!
--Annie Dalton
Email Annie & Maria
I'm waiting to read your entry in this year's Write a DearReader Contest.You'll find all the info, including cash prizes and to read last year's winning entries. Go here.
Thanks for reading with me. It's so good to read with friends.
Suzanne Beecher
Suzanne@DearReader.com
* This month's Penguin Classics book is THE WOMAN WHO HAD TWO NAVELS AND TALES OF THE TROPICAL GOTHIC, by Nick Joaquin. Click here to start reading, and be sure to enter the drawing for your chance to win a Penguin tote bag:
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