4 Easter egg hunts you can do at home

Hi there, Normally we’d be thinking about trips to go on during the Easter break, but, well… In previous years I’ve posted home Easter egg hunts on here, and I figure this year is probably the one to collate all those posts together. The hunts are suitable for kids between about 6-11: younger ones might

It’s a Kindle Countdown Deal! Murder At The Playgroup goes on sale today

Ah, Easter. Flowers springing everywhere, chocolate cravings satisfied, and new beginnings. of course, What could be more appropriate for Easter than the tale of a heavily-pregnant heroine moving to a quaint English village and investigating a murder? OK, maybe I’m stretching it a bit, but if you’re in the US or UK then the first book in

Egg Hunt 2018: The Quest for the Dragon’s Hoard

Hello all! A bit close to the wire this year (too many books to read and edit) but here is Egg Hunt 2018: The Quest for the Dragon’s Hoard. This year there are fewer clues, but participants get a purse of chocolate coins (or mini eggs would work as currency), and also object cards to

In praise of laziness

It’s been a shockingly long time since I wrote a proper blog post. Apologies, but I’m not quite sure where March and most of April went! I think the last time I mentioned my NaNoWriMo draft from November 2016, Murder At The Playgroup, was when I’d done a read-through preliminary to beginning THE EDIT (I finally

Egg Hunt 2016: The Quest for the Easter Bunny

After last year’s egg hunt with rhyming clues, I felt I might have painted myself into a corner. This year, therefore, I’ve written a little story which has the clues incorporated into it, called ‘The Quest for the Easter Bunny’. To stage the egg hunt you’ll need 7 envelopes, a printer, and some mini eggs (larger

Scrabble

Happy National Scrabble Day! To be honest I had no idea that there even was a National Scrabble Day until I heard it on the radio this morning. However, now that I know I might have to mark it in the calendar. I wouldn’t describe myself as a Scrabble fiend, but I do like a

Egg Hunt: Happy Easter!

For the last couple of years I’ve done an Easter egg hunt for the boys. Last year I was a bit lazy (and pushed for time) and I recycled some of the clues. Which of course they spotted immediately. And they also noted that the Easter Bunny’s handwriting is exactly like mine. Not much gets

A Boys’ Own adventure: Night at the Museum 3

I’ve been meaning to post this for a while – don’t worry if you haven’t seen the film, no spoilers here! Night at the Museum 3: The Secret of the Tomb begins in Indiana Jones territory: a boy, on an archaeological expedition, in the past, who of course stumbles upon the tomb they all seek.

Blue for a boy, pink for a girl

At the top of the page you should be able to see Exhibit A. May I present gender-specific Boots Advantage Card coupons. Forgive me if this is old news to you, but I don’t think Mr Bitsa and I had ever opened the coupons at the same time. Certainly I hadn’t noticed this before. I

Goodbye 2014, hello 2015

You can blame WordPress for this post. I wasn’t going to do a ‘year in review’ post and then I opened WordPress’s infographic of visits, views, and posts for this blog and, well, I thought it would be rude not to. The WordPress review reminded me that this blog only began in July, which seems