Thanks, Jeanne. Yes, I'll definitely be back for guest posts. And given how long it takes me to write my books, I might not even wait until I have a new book to peddle :)

Thank you, Mary. And you might be losing one blogger, but you're going to be gaining a new one you'll enjoy just as much, I promise.

Thank you, Donna. How nice to know my books were well liked at your library! My mom worked at our local library in Ontario, too, so I have a soft spot for librarians--and I'll try to keep making you proud to claim me as a fellow Canadian :)

Thank you, Theo. There's never an easy time to make a change like this, but it helps to have the full support of understanding friends.

Thank you so much, Annette. I hope you find your Selectric! There is something very soothing in the sound of the actual tap of the typewriter keys (even if I sometimes get them stuck together, like I used to do back in the day :)

Thank you, Mary, that's very kind of you to say. And yes, as Mary Jo says, I'll most certainly be back with a guest post now and then :-)

I know! It doesn't seem possible, but time really does fly when you're having fun, and it HAS been such fun being here.

Thank you, Sue. I really hate to leave, as well, but I'll still be lurking around, catching up on the posts and the comments :-)

Quantum, I do definitely tend to get emotionally connected to my characters! My family members know when they come home and find me sitting in front of my computer with tears on my face, they'll have to cook their own suppers that night, because I'm putting a character through something terrible and I'll be of no use to anyone for a while :)

Sue, I know. I don't even want to go watch the new Little Women movie in public at the theatre, because I know I'll be a sobbing mess at that part. I DO get a giggle out of the way they played on this in the sitcom Friends, though, when Joey and Rachel swapped their favourite books, and Joey gave Rachel Stephen King's The Shining to read, and Rachel gave Joey Little Women. In case you've never seen it, here's a video clip (Joey had a habit of putting books in the freezer when he came to a part he found too scary to read): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sgNjdg8-Wyc

Mary Jo, the spiders were the size of my fist, I kid you not. My landlord's advice was, and I quote, "Just pick them up by the leg and throw them out the window." I opted to whack them with my shoe, instead. Which made me feel guilty, but truly, I saw no alternative. Google "Giant house spider UK", and you'll see what they look like. As for killing a beloved character because the plot demands it, I definitely feel your pain.

You're all making me very glad I've never read the Inspector Lynley books :) I did consider starting them once, but that was just before she did The Thing, and then I decided I probably wouldn't...

Oh, yes. Breaks my heart, as well. I was glad they did it as well as they did in the film, and that Théoden's relationship with Éowyn was so wonderfully drawn.

"The right sort of tears" is a good way to put it, Margaret (although I've never quite recovered from Walter's passing, I have to admit... And, like you, I tend to just stop reading a series when a beloved character is killed. The only person who ever pulled this off to my satisfaction was Evelyn Anthony, in her Davina Graham series, because I really liked the way that one ended up, and I forgave her for killing the person she killed, and because it was only a limited series to begin with (it's a quartet, so while each book stands alone, if you read them in sequence there's an entire story that builds and closes in a beautiful, perfect and satisfying arc over the four books)I think it probably didn't irritate me so much because I didn't have time to get as attached to the person who died (and the guy Davina ended up with was there from the beginning, so I DID get attached to him, as well).

See now, I used to disappear into books all the time when I was young, but these days, my relaxation comes from watching films. They only take a couple of hours, so I don't feel too terribly guilty about taking time away from my writing (because, like Christina, I'm not very good at putting books DOWN once I've started them, and I tend to go all day with a book once I've opened the cover), and films flood my senses and hold my attention, whereas my mind sometimes still wanders away while I'm reading, distracted by thoughts of my own book and characters. So if I desperately need to relax, I go sit in the cinema. (My grandfather was a film projectionist, so I blame him entirely for this).

Well, yes, there is that, too! I vividly remember the night I picked up Kelley Armstrong's Bitten before going to bed, having never read anything of hers before, and I kept saying, "Just ONE more chapter..." until I found myself still lying there awake with the sky growing light and the children waking up and me knowing I'd have to get up and drive them to school... (It was worth it, though--brilliant book).

Sue, I agree with Anne, in that the George Felse mysteries were set in contemporary times (at the time they were written), from the 1950s through the 1970s, so the "voice" of the character would be a modern one in tune with that time period, whereas the Cadfael books (which Ellis Peters actually wrote after the Felse mysteries) were set in the 12th century, so the voice she used for those stories would likely have been deliberately adapted to suit the time through which those characters were moving. I do a similar thing (although probably not with as much skill as Ellis Peters) when I write my dual time novels--if there's a first-person, modern day thread, the voice is slightly different from the third person voice of the historical thread, to let readers know whether they're in the past or the present. But that would be my guess as to why you're noticing a difference in the voice between the Felse books and the Cadfael ones.

Misti, you're making it Very Difficult for me to wait to read The Kraken King! (I have to wait until May!) I think Heart of Steel has been my favourite up to now, so if this one is better than THAT one, I'm in for a treat.

They are clever, those Last Chance Christmas Ball wenches :-) And I agree with you about the joys of tucking into Christmas novels and novellas. In fact, you'll want to check back mid-December for our Ask-A-Wench post...