I have just finished my first edit and disentangled a few loose threads. It is inevitable that there will be the odd occasion when continuity goes awry; for example where someone travels by car to a location then travels back by bike. However, strangely, in this book it seems that DS Nina Featherstone is getting quite forgetful and I have had to remove occasions when she has repeated herself, picked up an item belonging to the victim but never mentioned it again or had to rush off to see...

I was delighted that this village bookshop is stocking my Yorkshire Dales Mystery Series. The Stripey Badger is a family business owned by Linda Furniss and her son James Firth, while his aunt owns the Stripey Badger Coffee Shop and Kitchen next door. Customers can wander between the two, indulging in coffee and cake while perusing the shelves. There is a fantastic selection of books and I was able to pick up Milkman by Anna Burns and Circe by Madeline Miller [both shortlisted for the...

Under the Act funding is provided by Central Government and payments are made to eligible authors in accordance with how often their books are lent out from a selected sample of UK public libraries. The UK Public Lending Right office is part of the British Library. The British Library receives funding for PLR from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. For the current spending review period PLR funding amounts to £6.6 million per year. To qualify for payment authors must apply...

  For the last 200 years gamekeepers have burnt long narrow strips of mature heather on a rotation. By creating a patchwork of different aged heathers a gamekeeper knows he will always have some young heather for grouse to feed on that is nutritionally richer and more digestible. There has been considerable research on the effects of such activities and the impact that poorly controlled fires can have on the peat substrate. However, my interest in the photograph is because I am...

Ravenseat is a 2,000 acre hill farm at the top of my dale where Amanda Owen, ‘Yorkshire Shepherdess’, lives with her husband and nine children.  You may have seen her on the telly in programmes hosted by Ade Edmondson and Ben Fogle. In November and December, Ravenseat was back on the box in four fascinating episodes covering the changing seasons on the farm. It painted a very realistic picture of what hard work it is to manage the isolated farm at the top of the dale,...