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I've been looking back through my blog posts and wondered what I had written on this day 19 July 2007. Well here is my entry but don't worry if you never read it (who would remember it anyway?) because I still had it in draft, the post never went live. I wonder why? So I thought I'd correct that four years later. 19 July 2007 "Flicked over to Legal TV yesterday ( yes it was on the air then ) and hey presto there I was talking about my forthcoming marine mystery, Deadly Waters , which will be released in hardback on 27 September 2007. And if you missed it on the box, then here's another chance to see me in action." You can also view this video, and many more interviews on my You Tube Channel or on my web site . Deadly Waters is the second in the DI Andy Horton series and has been published in trade paperback, mass market paperback, large print, as an unabridged audio book and e book and is also available on Kindle. Since thos...

Lee-on-the-Solent Library is my destination this afternoon to give a talk about my marine mystery crime novels and my life as a writer. It's a lovely little place with a High Street set just off the seafront. I'll be able to gaze across the Solent, which of course, is Inspector Andy Horton's patch, to the Isle of Wight beyond, getting a view of the western part of the Island and Cowes - a different view of the Island compared to that seen from Portsmouth and Hayling Island where we look across to Ryde and the eastern reaches of Bembridge. I haven't featured Lee in my crime novels, but there's time yet.  The Andy Horton I am currently writing, ( number six) is coming along a treat.  It's a shame though that the World's biggest liner has sailed.  It was anchored off Lee-on-the Solent (and not Southampton as the Daily Telegraph reported). The Oasis of the Seas is longer than four football pitches and cost £800m. The 6,296-passenger Oasis of the Seas dropp...

My little local independent bookshop - The Hayling Island Bookshop - didn't win the title of the Independent Bookshop of the Year Award which was announced at the British Book Industry Awards last night, shame. The title went to the Hungerford Bookshop and I am sure was well deserved. Never mind, Hayling , there's always next year and from all of us on Hayling Island and the surrounding areas of Havant, Emsworth, Waterlooville and Portsmouth you are our number one star.

On Friday a very nice man from Suffolk drove all the way down to Hayling Island on the South Coast of England and fell in love with "Nutmeg." Once having seen her he just knew they would be together forever. So he hitched his car to her and they drove away into the sunset of the M25 to live happily ever after on the River Stour. I am sure "Nutmeg"will be very happy with the nice man from Suffolk, and we fully approve of their relationship. Sorry to disappoint everyone who enquired about her, but you're just too late - "Nutmeg"our lovely little Winkle Brig has been sold.

September - the official start of the autumn according to the Meteorological office and I for one am not sorry to see the back of August. It has always been a month that I am not particularly fond of. Why? Because in August the UK seems to grind to a halt when half the business population not to mention the publishing world decamps to Cornwall or the Isle of Wight. Or if they can face the trauma of airports and flying then to Greece, Italy or the Mediterranean. My home town of Hayling Island, itself a holiday destination, becomes full of kids and senior citizens. And don't I love the latter, because at least they tumble into our lovely local bookshop and buy copies of my novels. Thank you. Then there's the sailing fraternity who race through our streets towing their dinghies as they head full pelt to the Hayling Island Sailing Club, which seems to have bought up the eastern end of Hayling Island on mass. Not to mention the jet skiers who race through the roads towing jet skis a...

Yes, summer has finally arrived and Hayling Island is looking absolutely perfect - sea, sun and well I'll leave the rest to your imagination. There were people on the beach today, and I even saw a brave soul swimming. Isn't it great to ditch those coats and cardies and revel in the warmth, but knowing the Brits we'll probably all be complaining soon that it's too hot! One of my relations, Miranda Giles, has started a fantastic new blog so I thought I would give her a plug here. She's set herself a challenge to paint 30 pictures in 30 days and today's painting couldn't have captured the moment better. Well done, Miranda. Her Dad's a great painter too! I'm off to Christchurch Library, in the beautiful county of Dorset on Thursday where I will be giving a talk about my marine mysteries. I'm looking forward to it and it has the added bonus of being able to drive through the lovely New Forest. I've also just heard that I am to do another book sign...

I have been very lax writing here lately but put that down to the backlog of work and writing deadlines caused by my flu bug. Now that is out of the way, and I am back firing on all cylinders, it is onwards and upwards, as Dell Boy would have said. Which brings me to London and the London Book Fair. This kicks off on Monday 14 April through to Wednesday 16 April and I will be there with my Marine Mysteries on Stand J205 ( near the entrance and the Ladies loo - very useful). Before that, this coming week, I am running a novel writing course at the Sinah Warren hotel complex (Bourne Leisure group) on Hayling Island, as one of their experience breaks. This is being held on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday mornings and is followed by me giving a talk and book signing to any of the guests who care to come from Sinah Warren and the nearby Lakeside holiday complex. If it's raining, you never know, I might get packed out! It should be an interesting week and I'm looking forward to it. ...

A member of the Hayling Island Forum posted me a comment this morning to tell me that I had made the letters page in The Sunday Times and I missed it! A week ago last Sunday I was roused enough to leave a comment on the Sunday Times web site and lo and behold a slightly truncated version appeared in the newspaper on Sunday. What spurred me on to put fingers to keyboard was the sheer hypocrisy of this environmental debate. The Sunday Times Magazine carried a big spread on the environment and our doomed planet and what we can do to save it, whilst in the business section there was an article on the expansion of Heathrow airport. Here is an extract of my comments, which appeared in the newspaper: " What is the point of stopping shops from giving out plastic bags, switching off our lights, turning down the heating, changing lightbulbs and so on when 240,000 more planes will be in the skies by the end of the next decade?" So there you go! What are your thoughts?

I've not quite got over my bout of guilt from flying to the Frankfurt Book Fair, but I'm recovering slowly, and glad to be back on sunny Hayling Island. By the way, that's not my boat in the picture of the Hayling pontoon at Langstone Harbour. Now that my brain is settling back into normal mode (whatever that is) I thought I'd share with you the wonders of the Frankfurt International Book Fair. This was my fourth visit to Frankfurt and for a time (three days for me, five for the poor suckers who had to stick it out to the bitter end) normal life was suspended. You are cocooned in this crazy, giant city of hurrying people, (except for the Italians, see below) along with hundreds of thousands of books, and teams of security guards scouring your handbags, briefcases and suitcases for the lost ark of the covenant It never ceases to amaze me just how many people across the world work within the publishing industry, and what worries me is how such an industry with an exceptio...

Yes, I let the side down. Blog action day for the environment and I was full of good intentions, but apart from registering my blog on their site, I did nothing. Worse still, I had to fly to Frankfurt for the Frankfurt Book Fair where I launched Deadly Waters on an unsuspecting international audience. I was going to travel to Frankfurt by train then Flybe decided to put on flights from Southampton airport, and as that is only a twenty-five minute journey from my home it seemed too good an opportunity to miss. I loathe airports though and flying, and seeing all those aeroplanes made me think that changing the light bulbs in your house, or turning off your computer or television instead of leaving them on standby was just p*****g in the wind when it comes to fighting the environmental battle. We might just as well not bother. So I am definitely giving up flying. But that's only little me and with so many people travelling abroad on business and holidays, it won't stop. Can the ai...

Deadly Waters is now published and out there in the big wide World, although it's not officially published in the USA until January 2008. I've had a couple of readers e mail me who enjoyed it, which is always nice to know. I think my next DI Andy Horton novel is going to be published in March 2008, along with the paperback of Deadly Waters. I am now working on the fourth DI Horton crime novel and then it might be a thriller. I've got ideas for that already. Just regsitered for Blog Action Day on the environment - great idea http://www.blogactionday.org/ My thriller, In Cold Daylight, focuses on an environmental issue, but saying how and what might give the plot away! Going to give some thought to my stance for Blog Action Day, got several ideas...

Me in action, being interviewed on Legal TV, talking about my forthcoming marine mystery - published in UK 27 Sept. and in the USA in Jan 08.

Me in action, being interviewed on Legal TV www.legaltv.com by the lovely Raychel Harvey Jones. Talking about my forthcoming marine mystery, Deadly Waters, the second in the DI Andy Horton series.

I have chosen a title for the third Andy Horton novel but not sure if I will stick with it. At the moment it's called The Suffocating Sea , or perhaps The Killing Sea , mmm. Still mulling it over. Titles are really hard to come up with, and they do make a difference. I once met a crime reader when I was signing in Waterstone's who told me that she only bought crime novels with the word, 'death' or 'murder' in the title. Fortunately Tide of Death met her criteria so a sale. Not sure she has bought the other two though: In Cold Daylight and In for the Kill! I have started mapping out Andy Horton number four and am quite excited about it as I always am when starting a new creative process and a new book.

Had an e mail from Juliet Doyle. http://www.julietdoyle.com/about.php Thank you Juliet for the kind comments you made about my blog and I hope you enjoy my novels. Juliet gave me an idea, why not put up some pictures of where I live on beautiful Hayling Island, and where some of my crime and thriller novels are set. So here they are. I live just 400 yards from a stunning nature reserve and coastal path with lots of rare flowers and birds. So here's Hayling looking on to Langstone Harbour, the setting for my new Andy Horton detective novel due out in hardback on 27 September 2007, published by Severn House. In the centre of the picture you can just make out the mulberry where the body of a woman is discovered. The photo below has been taken by the Hayling Ferry, which ploughs i ts way between Hayling South and the south eastern most tip of Portsmouth. It is a small ferry, that only takes passengers and cyclists. You board it from a pontoon to the right of this photograph. http:/...

Just finished the third revision of the third DI Andy Horton marine mystery novel (as yet untitled) and it's coming along a treat. I think I've finally got all the plot strands sewn up, but sometimes it's difficult to see because you are so close to it. Now I've started the fourth revision, and I hope the last before it whizzes it's way to my editor.

My latest thriller, In For The Kill , is featured amongst the great and the good, Ian Rankin and Lee Child, in Bertram's Summer Reading Catalogue on Page 9. You can pick up a copy in your local independent bookshop and there are some great 3 for 2 offers.

Read an interesting article in The Bookseller magazine this week, about a blog dedicated to shedworking so thought I'd take a look. Interesting blog with some lovely pics of sheds, or rather outside offices. It is something I've always longed to have but at the moment I work from a bedroom in the house, although we do have a summer house (pictured here) and I sometimes work in there, so maybe that counts. Take a look at http://www.shedworking.co.uk/ if you want to see some interesting and unsual sheds!!

The Solent area is on the map in Indonesia with the publication in Indonesian of my marine mystery thrillers, In Cold Daylight and In For The Kill . Dioma Publishing, one of the largest publishers in Indonesia, bought the translation rights to In Cold Daylight and In For The Kill at the Frankfurt Book Fair last October. Just received my gratis copies and they are fantastic, even though I don’t understand a word the covers look good! Dioma has kept the titles and my name in English. It is really exciting to see my books translated into another language and to think that readers in Indonesia will be reading all about my heroes exploits in the Solent area.

The Richard and Judy Book Club it might not be but I was delighted to be asked to appear on a brand new programme on Legal TV http://www.legaltv.co.uk/ featuring Crime Writers. Yesterday was filming day and my husband and I travelled to Birmingham. We had decided to go by train, but couldn't park the car anywhere within five miles of the train station, so found ourselves driving the 320 mile round trip. It might not sound much to anyone reading from America, but on Britain's congested roads habituated by homicidal maniacs who think they are competing at Silverstone, and juggernauts the size of small buildings determined to overtake on a hill, it is a nightmare. But we got there and met the delightful and talented young producer, Nina, and the effervescent and beautiful presenter and journalist, Raychel Harvey-Jones, a girl from the welsh valleys destined to go far, you mark my words! http://www.raychelharvey-jones.com/ It was raining bucket loads when we arrived and the temper...