A LONG ABSENCE

Yes, I am back after a long absence.   The past year was not easy for my husband, Vernon, and certainly not for me.   It is only by the grace of God that we have come through it in the way we have, and can find enjoyment in life again.   At our age any kind of illness is making us aware of our own mortality, and at the same time it is also making us more aware of this beautiful world we live in, and how fortunate and how blessed we are.

            I kept myself busy during this past year with things that I could put down at any time without feeling irritated at being disturbed when I was needed.   I knitted eighteen jerseys for needy children between the ages of two and eight years.   They are ready at the moment to be distributed before the winter.   I also crocheted a queen-sized blanket for myself.   It was a mammoth task, but I’m very proud of myself now that it is finished.

            I have just recently started writing again, and I might have mentioned before that I was putting together a volume of all the short stories and articles I have written over the years.   This started out as a project which was intended solely for my children, but it has developed into something bigger than I had originally imagined.

            This compilation is partly a personal journey, starting with stories written long before I had anything published through Mills & Boon.   There are also a few articles written for the Ingagane Live Wire.   And for those of you who don’t know, Ingagane was an Eskom power station situated about fifteen kilometres to the south of Newcastle, Natal.   At the start of my writing career I also wrote a few Afrikaans short stories which were published around the same time that my first full-length novel was published.   I have also added a story in Afrikaans which was written last year.   Added to all this I have made comments at the end of each article or story, giving a little inside information on some of them which the reader might find interesting.

            As I said, it is a personal journey for me, but since there were so many people who indicated that they would like to have a copy of this book, I made a decision to have it nicely printed and bound together.   The problem with a self-publication is that I had to do all the editing myself and, as in this case, a few typing errors did go unnoticed.   But who hasn’t read a book with a few printing errors in it?

            To print only a limited number of books is a costly procedure, so I am forced to recoup some of my expenses by attaching a price to it.   So ... if any of my friends and fans out there are interested in procuring a copy, then please get in touch with me.