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Sunday, May 21, 2023

SHOPPING IN BAHAMAS POST COVID


It’s so difficult these days (post Covid) to find many of the products we’ve been used to buying locally. I’d been searching everywhere for moisturizing face cream. Both Lowes Pharmacy branches that I tried were out of the one I usually buy. I could have gone down town to try and find something, but parking there is difficult and expensive.

As we passed the MAC cosmetic store in Baha Mar today, I said to Erskine, let me check there. And sure enough, they had a choice of two face creams. I bought one for $36.30. Not too bad for hotel prices. 

However, roll on our summer vacation to Florida. I have started my shopping list!

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Sunday, May 14, 2023

A MOTHER'S DAY TRIBUTE


My mother when I took her by car from Devon to Buckingham for her 80th birthday


My dear mum, the late Mrs. Josephine (“Jo”) Johanson, was born in Scotland, but lived for thirty-seven years in Devon. I would visit her every year in the summer and she visited us in the winter. She died in March, 2007 at the ripe old age of 88, after a short illness.

Every year, while she was alive, I would call her to wish her Happy Mother’s Day in March, as that was when they celebrate Mother’s Day in the U.K.! Of course, there were few Mother’s Day cards in our shops at that time, because we celebrate Mother’s Day here in May!

Trained as a Comptometer Operator (the comptometer was the forerunner of the modern day computer), she served in the Women’s Royal Air Force during World War II as a Radio Telephony Operator, giving pilots on active duty bearings for home. During the war she met and married my father, Australian Royal Air Force instrument repairman, the late William Johanson. She and Dad, a watchmaker jeweller, once owned a jewellery business in Buckingham.

Mum worked as Head Receptionist at the Royal Clarence Hotel, Exeter, for several years, and as her hotel career progressed, she became Manager of the White Sands Hotel, Bermuda. During her lifetime, she also lived in Australia and Canada.

Mum enjoyed painting watercolours and had written two delightful, but unfortunately not published, children’s picture books. I still hope one day to try and get them published in her memory.


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A VIEW TO DIE FOR!

 


Co-conspirators in my novel “Dangerous Devotion” had a similar view as this as they plotted during a lunchtime break to work against Violet and steal what they could:

“The restaurant overlooked private yachts and commercial boats in the marina. Two nearby bridges permitted traffic and pedestrians to go back and forwards between the mainland and Paradise Island, where the Atlantis resort loomed like a large pink castle.”

"DANGEROUS DEVOTION"


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Friday, May 12, 2023

THE EDUCULTURE JUNKANOO MUSEUM IN NASSAU, BAHAMAS


The Educulture Junkanoo Museum is a fun place in Nassau for tourists or Bahamian residents to visit! We only caught a glimpse of it on West Street as we were driving by, but it looks very appealing.

I feature a Junkanoo character in my short story collection “Moonbeams from The Soul: A Collection of Fourteen Provocative Short Stories”, and also touch on Junkanoo in my novel “Dangerous Devotion” (The Buchanan Mystery Romance Series Book 1). 

EDUCULTURE JUNKANOO MUSEUM


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Sunday, May 7, 2023

PANDEMIC AND WRITER'S BLOCK!


Original Manuscript for novel "Dangerous Devotion"
(Book One in the Buchanan Mystery Romance Series)

In the past I’ve completed a novel in record time, but for some reason the past couple of years have been difficult for me with my writing. Perhaps the pandemic had something to do with it, although many writers say they’ve been very productive during lockdowns!

Writing is not all about writing though! There’s the time-consuming marketing that has to be done to keep my books “out there”. Also, I’ve been busy with a huge family project.

Of course, nothing has ever stopped me from writing before. When I was a fulltime secretary, I always squeezed my writing in before work, on lunch hours, in the evenings between household chores and on the weekends. And all while bringing our sons up.

Anyway, I’ve finished a final intense edit of Book 3 in my Buchanan Mystery Romance Series, and am just reading the novel again, to make sure I haven’t missed anything. Then a good author friend will read it for me and give me his comments.

So, look out! It won’t be too long now before Book 3 will be released! Follow this blog to be notified of the release date (click “Follow” beneath my profile on the left-hand side of the blog)!

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