Naughty Pirates & Better Behaved Graduate

My son wrote this 'story' for me when he was very little and I recently came across it again. Reading this story about pirates and what they can do to you(!) it's hard to imagine that little boy - who was, by the way, the naughtiest child I've ever had to deal with - is now 21 and will be graduating this week with a 2:1 in Politics & International Relations. Who'd have thought it? *whispers* 'Not me!'

I'm incredibly proud and my outfit is hanging up ready for our flight to the mainland. Sister, daughter and mother have been given instructions on: How to work the toaster; when and how much to feed Divadog; to look out for the postman because Divadog particularly hates his bicycle; and a million other concerns. As if any of them have no idea what to do when I'm away? Which they do, but they just let me waffle and probably take no notice at all. I'm only away for a few hours for pity's sake! I thinks I'm probably just a little over-excited.

Daydreams & Edits

I'm in the shed editing.

I'm sure my days are a little like Groundhog Day for my poor family. I'm either in the shed writing/editing, or sitting in the conservatory/outside reading books to review for Novelicious. So, if I'm not at work, you can pretty much know where to find me.

Physically, that is. I'm always somewhere else in my head. Then again, my school reports often said, '...Deborah spends far too much time daydreaming/staring out of windows/in a world of her own.'

Finally I've found something that makes the most of my tendancy to drift away into my own world. One of these days *crosses fingers and thinks positively* I'll see the result of all these daydreams/edits in book/e-book form.

Well, you've got to dream, haven't you?

Voting, HNS Conference & Award

The voting has started for the Novelicious Undiscovered 2012. If you haven't cast your vote yet, please pop over, read the entries and vote, for your favourite. More details on the fantastic prizes. Voting ends on June 20th.

I've just booked to attend the Historical Novel Society Conference in September and I can't wait. Do let me know if you'll be going too, I'd love to meet up with online friends.



Thanks to Rebecca Leith for nominating me for the Sunshine Award. Mama J kindly nominated me for this too a couple of weeks ago, so I'll link to that post here. I always enjoy Rebecca's interesting and fun blog posts. If you haven't already discovered them, you're in for a treat.

My Dream of You Online Launch Party

I'm so excited to be taking part in my lovely writer friend Denyse Kirkby's online launch party for her novel, My Dream of You. I haven't had the chance to read My Dream of You yet, but I do have my copy and loved her debut novel Without Alice and memoir From Zaftig to Aspie, so I know I'll enjoy this book too.

Crime of passion or cruel twist of fate?

One summer’s day Betty let love carry her a step too far. That exquisite sun dappled afternoon became one of her best memories but also the catalyst for the worst experience of her life. Now elderly, Betty has been running from her past since she was a teenager, and it’s about to catch up with her. Will the experience be as awful as she fears or wonderful beyond imagining?

Praise for My Dream of You:

“D.J. Kirkby writes with compassion and energy, creating characters you can really care about.” Sarah Salway (Canterbury Poet Laureate)

"Evocatively written, My Dream of You is an absorbing read filled with interesting characters, plot twists, and emotion." Talli Roland, bestselling author of Build a Man

“A tale of motherhood, of hope and of love. Truly touching” Caroline Smailes, author of 99 Reasons Why

My Dream of You is published today (5 June) by Punked Books as an e-book and is available on Amazon UK for £1.53 and Amazon US for $2.40.

Everyone who leaves a ‘pick me’ comment on the My Dream of You online launch party blog post, and/or shares the post from Denyse's Facebook Author Page, and/or Tweets using the #MDOY hashtag making sure to copy @djkirkby in gets their name entered into a draw for some wonderful prizes.

Names can only be entered until midnight on June 5th and the winner will be announced on Denyse's blog on Sunday June 11th.

Quarterly newsletter sign up page: http://djkirkby.co.uk/newsletter/

Meeting The Queen... (not me, my grandparents)

My grandparents, George and Mary, were lucky enough to meet the Queen a couple of times.

Here are a few pictures from my grandmother's album filled with photos, invitations and menus, etc from those occasions. This is when they met the Queen at, I believe, Government House in 1957.

They were lucky enough to be invited to a Dinner in 1957 and this is their invitation. Many others were also invited of course, but my grandmother was always so proud to have attended.

Here they are dressed in all their finery before leaving home to go onboard the Royal Yacht Britannia when The Queen visited in 1957.


Below is a photo of the menu from the Luncheon where The Princess Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh were Guests of Honour in 1949.

The long white glove was the one she wore to shake hands with The Queen in 1957. Naturally, I've tried it on...

I saw the Queen once, when she visited Jersey about twenty years ago. I was with my grandmother then and other family members, but on this occasion we sat on a low granite wall by the road and waited for her car to drive past. The Queen waved and we were all delighted.

Summer and Whirlwind Tours

It's been a hectic week, which began with me having to get up at 5am on Monday to catch the red-eye to London for the day. I usually get up at 6am, so you'd think that one hour earlier wouldn't make much difference, but I was a little bleary-eyed when I arrived home at 8.35pm and not impressed when my son phoned 'for a chat' at 11.15pm. Bless him.

Today I took three colleagues for a whirlwind tour of the beaches on the western side of the island and also showed them some of places where I take the dog for walks. They seemed to enjoy their brief tour and took many photos of the small bays and the larger beaches overlooking the other islands.

This tree fern is in Val de la Mare, a resevoir down the road from my home and somewhere where joggers like to run and where I occasionally walk Divadog. It's so peaceful and very beautiful.

Can you tell I'm in a chirpy mood? It's all down to the glorious weather and I'm hoping that now we've seen a little bit of sunshine summer is on its way. It's amazing how much happier people seem to be when the sun is shining. Especially me!

Liberation Day

It's Liberation Day here in Jersey. Yesterday it was Guernsey's day to celebrate, tomorrow it'll be Sarks and on 16th Alderley. Liberation Day means different things to the different generations. For the children, or those not connected to the past of the island it's a day off school or work, but for those who have been brought up here listening to the stories from the occupation it means something far more personal.

For my father's generation it means remembering the years of austerity, fear at the hands of the German army and lack of food, but never a lack of hope. It meant fighting back in their own inimitable way. You can still see the 'V' signs embedded in granite around the island. The Royal Square is one place you'll find this sign of resistance. People still remember those that helped and those that 'talked' and some remember the horrible retaliation against 'Jerry-bags', the women who fraternised with the Germans.

My father was very small when they had to pack up and leave on one of the last boats out of the island. He was taken by his mother, with his older brother and cousin to live, firstly in London from where he was evacuated twice and in various other places in England. He returned to the island soon after the occupation with a different accent and had to learn to fit in once again. When I asked recently why my grandmother never kept any photos from before the war, he reminded me that when you're evacuated you can only take a few, vital belongings, you don't have much time to think and maybe her photos were not the most important things for her to take when she had three boys to contend with.

For my generation, it's remembering teachers, Mrs Du Feu was one much loved teacher, telling us how her mother was frightened one day when she was baking bread in her kitchen and a German officer walked in. It's hearing older locals telling us about their memories and the ever-present reminder of the fortification dotted all around our island on the coast and in fields and some gardens.

Every year we celebrate by hoisting flags, holding a commemorative service and a ceremony in Liberation Square as well as enjoying parties, but however we remember this date we are aware of the importance of it and know that those years of occupation can never be forgotten, nor should they be.