..and it's summer and harvest, and ...

...various things come together.  At the weekend, I took my final exams after five years of study, with a sense of a project completed, an era coming to and end. It will feel strange not having a specific essay or piece of work always hovering somewhere in the mind. I have been studying on buses and on railway journeys, rarely going anywhere without a book and study guide and notes...

Then a great parcel arrived, and was opened with considerable excitement because it came from my publisher and marked the completion of another project, namely

AUNTIE'S NEW BOOKS

representing the past several months of work. Unusually, I have THREE books published this year. And here they all are, shiny and new and just arrived from Gracewing Publishing.

They are:

A BOOK OF SAINTS AND HEROES FOR BOYS

A BOOK OF SAINTS AND HEROIINES FOR GIRLS

and

COURAGE AND CONVICTION: The story of Brigettine nuns and Jews in wartime Rome.

An author, as part of a standard contract, receives six copies of each book on publication.  I sat holding my books for a satisfying few moments.  Then  I spent a happy half-an-hour wrapping and posting some copies to various people (godchildren, people who have helped w. the books, etc). And now I am on my way to visit an elderly relative, with a book for her tucked my luggage.