What I'm doing this month - January

This is how I started the second day of the new year, walking around in rainy Venice with my husband to celebrate my fiftieth birthday. With our children safe at home with their uncle, we spent a wonderful long weekend in a city that constantly inspires me.

Come the Tuesday morning, my children returned to school, my husband to work, and me to my writing and plenty of post Christmas housework. Smack down back to earth.

January is my birthday month but unfortunately it's also a month that acts as an anti climax after the festive break. It's cold, often rainy and, let's face it, most of us have usually spent all our pennies until the next pay day comes around. It always seems like a terrible time to me to be making resolutions so I keep those until the spring. This month, therefore, continues without a lot of change.

I'll continue to wait for responses from the literary agents whom I've submitted my novel to. I've had three no's (with encouraging feedback) so far but I'm not downhearted.

I'll continue to work on my latest murder mystery play.

I'll also continue the story from my first novel to the next in the trilogy. This one is a little more tricky. Changes made to the plot of the first novel have thrown my intended story arc off kilter. A new plan is required for books two and three. Last night, you would have found me at the dining table with a post-it note for each main character and a handful of A4 sheets listing all the questions and story lines involved in my trilogy. My brainstorm session raised more questions that it answered but it was a good start.

On a personal basis, now all the festive chocolates and junk food are out of the house, I can return to some healthy eating. My shoulder is very nearly healed so there's exercise on the cards too.

So there you have it - nothing new, just lots of ongoing goodies. Wish me luck.