My, how fast time passes. Everyday I intend to get back here but the day passes and time is gone. Mind you, it is the time of year when family birthdays abound, 2 in May, 2 in June, should be 3 but one granddaughter seems to have gone walk- about, 2 in July, I think it is 3 in August, I am not sure about September will have to check, 4 in October, 3 in November and then it will be christmas. Every year I write down the family birthdays in a notebook and then promptly lose the notebook. Ah well.

It is winter here. I know, my northern hemisphere family laugh at me for being cold but when you spend 9 months of the year in 30-40C when it drops to below 20C I freeze and put on top of that, the wind blowing off the antartic ice and you can see where I am coming from, so I am freezing.
But I do have some good news. I saw my doctor this week, there is no damage done to my body through my last illness. My spine really shows the amount of arthritis but no breaks, bumps or swellings but nothing can help the pain so I will have to put up with it. Now I have to get my body stronger, from all the taking it easy for a long time, I have to strengthen my muscles and bones because I have decided that I am going to visit England again next year, because of my age and strength, it will probably be the last time to go and catch up with the rest of the family and friends. So now the saving starts for the airfare. I shall have to work harder at my writing and get a few more book loaded as e-books and some of my patterns as well and promote them to edge up sale, every penny helps as they say, and apart from some little gifts for birthdays and christmas all other spending is off. I have enough clothes and my one weakeness, buying books, I have forbidden myself, one excuse I keep telling myself is, there is no more room on my book shelves and there is no room for another case in my little unitl, I already have 6, NO MORE. That will save me a few dollars and they say every little helps. So off the England next year. My borther is thrilled to bits. I shall go at the end of April/beginning of May, when it is warmer, I don't think I could take an English winter any more.
Now back to writing.

After I finished here yesterday I took the plunge to load my poetry book into smashwords and create an e-book. I made it. It took me quite a while as I new to this sort of thing and not used to techy stuff and have no one to ask or help but I made it so now I have two e-books on line. I know I have sold a couple of my novel The Celtic Fabler so I will keep my fingers crossed for Book of Dreams.
Gosh, I am feeling clever.

http://www.smashwords.com/books/search?query=Valerie+Stewart+Lewis

I AM A WRITER.
There I have said it out loud.
I am normally a little shy about my writing but after an inspiring week end with the Bundaberg Writers Club WriteFest I have become more bolden.
From now on I want to talk about writing and there is a lot to tell.
I have been writing since I can remember but none of that remains, I won't go into details but it is enough to say that for the last 10 years I have returned to putting pen to paper, so to say, and I have self published one book which is also an e-book, The Celtic Fabler http://www.smashwords.com/books/search?query=Valerie+Stewart+Lewis
which my dear brother Rob fomatted for me and surprise, surprise, it is doing quite well.
I have another small book ready to load up, a book of poetry called Book of Dreams and in a couple of days there will be a novel called Time Again but I will tell about that later.

I love history, always have. Read my first history book when I was 8 years old, a 7 volume Battles of England from 1066 to 1914. I read the set several times and it fascinated me. The next I read was a 3 volume set on The Monachy of England from Victoria to George V. Again read several times but it started me on the road to history and 60+ years later I am still reading history. I am telling you this because most of my stories has a historical setiing.
My first novel, The Celtic Fabler, is set in Briton in 577AD during the Saxon invasion.
I came across a small sentence in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicals for that year, the Saxon boasting about a battle in which they boast they killed three British kings. For some reason this made me very annoyed. how dare this invaders come in and kill my ancestors and boast about it. I know silly of me but there.
What I did though was went straight to google and reseach this battle. Of course there wasn't very much but I did find out the names of the kings and where that battle took place. To my surprise, it was not far from where I have grown up as a child but I had never heard about it, no one seem to know about it. Slowly a story formed in my mind, I would tell this story but from the eyes of a young Bitish girl and her people caught up in the fight and there struggle to rid the island of the invaders.

My next one, which is going through a re-write and edit at this moment, is set in 1704 and again the idea came from a small piece of writng that I found in a book about a royal secret. More of that when I have finished, it will be another e-book

I think I have writen enough for today. I hope to up date thei lot evry week as I am going to be very busy and I must keep up with my face book family as well. So you will hear from me gain soon.

Lazy day.

I got up yesterday full of ideas for the day, what work I would do and how to do it but hey ho, I did nothing. I did find a book to read. It was an old one on my bookcase 'The Book of Insults Ancient and Modern' It is hilarious with insults recorded from people all over the world and through the begining of time. I felt very good after having a good laugh.

My new book.

I made it at last. I think my computer was playing up before.

Back again.

Greetings to all my friends.
I know it has been a long time since I have written here but I really didn't have anything to write about except pain and discomfort so I stayed away.
I am recovering well now from surgery and every day I am feeling better but I haven't been completely idle.
My book 'The Celtic Fabler' has been selling well and those that had bought and read the book were pestering me for another one. As I had been unable to write for several months I decided to put together a book of my poems. I discussed it all with my printer and she was most enthusiastic and with her help I have produced 'Book of Dreams'. It is only a small book of little poems that I have written over the years, some funny, some sad and some are just my thoughts. To my surprise it has been successful and is selling well and it has only been a week since I announced it on my facebook.
It is only a small book so the postage hasn't been so high in fact I sent one to Canada and it only cost AU$17.00 and has been well received. I am trying to load a picture of the book here but at the moment nothing is working for me. I will try again later.

I am hoping to get back to finish a novel that I started late last year and I am able to knit again and have started designing another baby gown. Of course, it is going to take several months for me to finish it so you will all have to wait, so I hope you have patience.

My youngest daughter.

Today, my youngest daughter, Elle, has the first of three operations on her right shoulder. She has had problems with it for years but it has only recently discovered what the problem is. Apparently her colloar bone is too long and is pushing against the shoulder socket. Since then it was also found she had a cist in the ball socket and a ligament torn so today she is having that sorted. It will take about 12 weeks to heal and then she will have another op. I am not sure what they are doing there but it will take about 12 months to heal and then there is supposed to be a third op.
The poor girl is an avid tenpin bowler and coach so she has spent the last few months learning to bowl with her left hand and she is confident that she is almost as good woith her left arm as she is wih her right so she is happy to be able to continue bowl and continue coaching the littlies. I just hopes all goes well for her.