I left work in mid-April for a well-deserved break. During this ‘break’, I redecorated the lounge, did the garden (my weeds are coming on a treat!), and developed a rather grating chest infection.

As time for my return to work neared, the infection worsened. I did go in, you’ll be pleased to hear, but was sent back home again at lunch time. Several courses of anti-biotics didn’t help, and finally the doc said I had pneumonia. Now there’s a turn up for the books!

I’ve known other people stricken with pneumonia, and they were really ill, on a drip, stuck in bed, debilitated. This didn’t happen to me though. Apart from the obvious symptoms, I was able to remain perfectly mobile, and felt well except for an intense cough that saw me pass out once or twice. I had the dizzy spells, and constantly felt weak, drained of energy (still do).

While I couldn’t go into work, I’ve managed to keep myself occupied doing little bits on the computer every now and then.

Those little bits include writing another Eddie Collins short story entitled The Note, and re-vamping the book covers. I’ve had a blast with Corel Paintshop – it’s a good game seeing how many times you can get it to crash over a ten minute period, usually the ten most productive minutes. Anyway, most of them are done, although I reserve the right to tweak them again in future. Just need to fettle Sword of Damocles.

And then there’s the book, Ledston Luck. I’m sorry to say I haven’t made much progress with that in so far as word count is concerned. I have however, made progress with it inside my head: I now know how the story pans out. And let me tell you, providing I can morph those scenes in my head into the written word, the book will be great.

Want to see the new covers? Okay, here they are, in comparison to the old. Some have changed completely, others not so much. But either way, I’d love to hear what you think of them. Don’t be shy.