Morton S. Gray's Blog, page 4
April 14, 2025
Having Fun In A Fictional World by Morton S. Gray
I’ve been enjoying myself in a fictional world! I mentioned in a previous blog that I was taking part in a writing challenge run by the RNA (Romantic Novelists’ Association) Cariad group to write 1000 words each day. I have actually surprised myself by rising to this challenge and to consistently meet the target of 1000 words every day since 1 January 2025.

I say surprised myself, as after my fabulous run of seven contemporary books published by Choc Lit, life seemed to go into one of those strange phases when the axis of my daily life changed and I lost my writing mojo for a long time.

For the Cariad challenge I have been writing something very different, a timeslip with contemporary elements and a story in the past based in Elizabethan England. The story was actually inspired by the birthday present of a friend, when she treated me to a visit to Harvington Hall in Worcestershire. The story, which starts with a sponsored priest hide stay, began to download into my head as I walked around the historic rooms.
I’ve no idea if this tale will ever make it to publication, but the story of Josh and Elena in the present day and Saul and Gabriella in the past is now at the stage of needing to be put away for a couple of weeks before I begin to restructure and edit it. It was one of those stories that demanded to be written.

So, will I be carrying on with the 1000 word challenge even though I have got to this stage with this story? Yes indeed, I’m hoping to, as the sequel to the story above, which includes one of the secondary characters, Lorna, has been brewing in the background as I’ve been writing. This time it’s a timeslip with current day elements and a story in my favourite period of English history the Civil War. Wish me luck.
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Christmas at the Little Beach Cafe




Tha nk you for visiting my blog – Morton S. Gray – Author. I hope you enjoyed this post.
You can also find me on Amazon, Facebook, X Twitter and Instagram.
Published by Choc Lit an imprint of Joffe Books
March 31, 2025
My Favourite Possessions by Helena Dixon
This week Helena Dixon returns to my blog to introduce the first book in her new series. The Secret Detective Agency was published on 27 March 2025 and is doing very well in the Amazon charts.
Helena also had the excitement of seeing a huge poster of this book’s cover displayed at the London Book Fair
. I’ve read the first title in the series and will put my review at the end of this post.


Thank you to Morton for inviting me onto her blog. This year is a huge year for me as it sees the launch of seven books. No, it’s not a misprint, I did say seven and I think I must have had a brainstorm when I agreed to write so many! Last year I wrote over 500,000 words – six books. I promise that I’m slowing down for this year. The result of that is that I have four more Miss Underhay books including book 20 in the series which is out in May. I’m also launching a new series of cosy mysteries, The Secret Detective Agency, set in World War Two. The first book came out on March 27th.
I was offered a choice of topics to write about for this blog. One was a favourite recipe. That wouldn’t work since I’m a throw whatever is in the fridge into a pot kind of cook. I have severe dyscalculia and working with weights, cooking times and temperatures is not one of my strengths.
Then it was suggested that I could write about a colour that features most in my life and possibly in the book. Hmm, I have a favourite colour but it’s not in the book and apart from my love of daffodils and yellow roses doesn’t really feature in my life. I don’t have any yellow rooms or objects.
The final choice was a favourite possession. By now I had a sinking feeling. I have things which are meaningful and important to me. I think everyone does, but I have never been attached to objects. When we moved from the Black Country to Devon almost four years ago, I got rid of almost everything. I had to cut things down in order to fit them into the removal van and since I had to empty my mother-in-law’s house too. She moved with us, there wasn’t much space.
Then shortly after we moved our house was severely damaged by three storms that swept in one after the other and removed the gable wall of my house. An event like that makes you focus on what matters. I had no time before we were evacuated to think about what I should take. Once everyone I loved including my dog was safe, I found I had grabbed my handbag and my laptop. That was it. Until the structural engineers and the fire service allowed us back in then everything else was, for that moment in time, gone. Does that mean my laptop is my favourite possession? Or was it just that I knew I needed it to work and to contact my insurers, builders etc.
I continued to think, and my favourite possessions are the ones with me every day. My rings, wedding, engagement, eternity and my dress ring, a present from Mr Nell when we were young and broke. Finally, my most important possession, the one that means the most to me is my crucifix. A present from my parents when I was sixteen when I became a Christian. I never take it off unless I have surgery, and it’s replaced as soon as I am conscious again. It’s my constant reminder that life is about faith, service, kindness, compassion, understanding and generosity but mostly love.

About Helena Dixon
Helena Dixon is a Black Country wench living in Devon. Married to the same man for forty years she has three daughters, two grandsons, a cactus called Spike, and a crazy cockapoo. She was winner of The Romance Prize in 2007 and Love Story of the Year 2010 as Nell Dixon. She now writes historical 1930’s and 40’s set cozy crime
Helena enjoys hearing from readers and you can read her news and contact her via her website at https://www.nelldixon.com visit her blog at https://www.nelldixonrw.blogspot.com find her on Twitter/X @NellDixon and friend her on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/pages/Nell-Dixon/228642037151856 Or look for her on Instagram and Threads.
About The Secret Detective Agency

The Secret Detective Agency is a cozy mystery set against the backdrop of World War 2.
Meet Miss Jane Treen – the coffee-drinking cat lover dressed head to toe in tweed, who just happens to be a secret super sleuth!
London, 1941: Miss Jane Treen is at her desk, strong black coffee in hand and fluffy ginger cat by her side, when her top-secret government work is interrupted by an urgent call to Devon. A woman has been found dead in a lake in a place where she shouldn’t have been. Jane needs to gather the clues and find the killer before someone else from the agency gets hurt…
Shy and handsome code-breaker Arthur Cilento is bewildered by the arrival of the efficient Miss Treen and her cat Marmaduke. She bursts into his life unexpectedly, forcing him out of his comfort zone. The reluctant colleagues huddle near the warmth of a crackling fire in Arthur’s country home, working to piece together the murderous puzzle at hand.
In the sleepy Devon village, someone is hiding something: but is it the busybody vicar and his sister, the dutiful housekeeper and her secretive son, the stern librarian, or someone else altogether? And who were the people with the woman in the lake on the day she died?
No sooner have Arthur and Jane have drawn up a list of suspects, than a parcel reveals a clue that sends them in hot pursuit of a coded diary stashed in a village church. But as the heavy wooden door slams behind them and a key turns in the lock, one thing is sure: they need to unravel the truth and crack this code before the killer decides their number is up…
But if they can catch the culprit in time, might this unusual pair become the finest crime-solving partnership since Holmes and Watson hung up their hats…
You can get a copy in ebook, paperback or audio https://geni.us/B0DQLTGRGFauthor
Book Two The Seaside Murders is published on 30 April 2025.


Morton’s Review of Book One The Secret Detective Agency
The start of a new series for Helena Dixon and I look forward to many more adventures with Jane, Arthur and Benson.
A glimpse into wartime Britain with its bombing raids, blackout and rationing. It made me think about my grandparents lives in the war, as my grandfather was a fire warden at this time in Birmingham.
Jane takes her war work very seriously, but comes to value Arthur’s logical mind.
As someone who has cat allergies and chest problems, I may have told Jane to live in a hotel with her cigarettes and cat rather than to move into my home, but Arthur seems too polite.
A great start to what I think will be a very popular series.


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Christmas at the Little Beach Cafe




Tha nk you for visiting my blog – Morton S. Gray – Author. I hope you enjoyed this post.
You can also find me on Amazon, Facebook, X Twitter and Instagram.
Published by Choc Lit an imprint of Joffe Books
March 24, 2025
The Colour of My Life by Morton S. Gray
Which colour features most in your life? is one of the questions I’m asking my guest blog authors at the moment. For me, I love lots of colour in my life and not necessarily the same one. I like my house and garden to be colourful, I crochet colourful blankets and I wear lots of different colours too.


As I was writing this, I remembered that my father was colour blind. Apparently 1 in 12 men are colour blind as compared to 1 in 200 women. How I would like to travel back in time and ask dad more about how he saw the world. I know that his parents were bemused by a picture he painted at school which they thought was a field and he said it was actually a beach. My mother always put out his shirt and tie each morning, as I guess she had to make sure he didn’t choose clashing colours.




In answering the question about which colour features most in my life – I would have to say all of them! So why when I am writing my books, do I have to remind myself to use colour? It doesn’t seem to make sense to me and yet I often have to go through my first drafts for the specific purpose of adding more colour. I have come to the conclusion that I see my story in my head in colour and therefore when I am rushing to get the story down onto the screen or notebook, I don’t focus on the colours because they are just there in my mind.
Thankfully my books have been published with colourful covers too 

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Christmas at the Little Beach Cafe




Tha nk you for visiting my blog – Morton S. Gray – Author. I hope you enjoyed this post.
You can also find me on Amazon, Facebook, X Twitter and Instagram.
Published by Choc Lit an imprint of Joffe Books
March 17, 2025
A Recipe For Love by Amelia Berry
This week I’m joined by Amelia Berry. Her new romcom A Recipe for Love was published on 13 March 2025. This is the start of a new series – The Highland Cookery School Book 1 – described as an uplifting rags-to-riches romcom set in the Scottish Highlands. Amelia is sharing a yummy recipe with my blog readers that had me licking my lips as I was preparing this post.


A Recipe for Love is a romance set around a cookery school in the Scottish Highlands. Our heroine, Bella, starts the cookery school in a bid to turn around the fortunes of her fiance’s failing Highland estate. This is the recipe she uses as her showstopper ending to her very first cookery class. And this is how Bella describes it…
***
Bella had saved what she knew would be everyone’s favourite activity of the day for the next session. The idea was that they’d do something really fun before lunch so everyone would be hyped up and enthusiastic about coming back after the break. It was time for chocolate cake.
As she’d anticipated, mixing together the rich chocolate batter seemed to be balm for every soul in the room. She’d toyed with the idea of using a basic sponge mix, but decided in the end to go for something a little more elevated, so this batter included cocoa but also melted chocolate and generous spoons full of soured cream which gave an unctuous moisture to the finished cake and cut through the richness enough to allow you to go back for a second slice. The final little fancy addition to the mix was to separate the eggs, incorporate the yolks first and then whip up the whites before folding in the soft fluffy clouds to create the perfect balance of richness and lightness in the final cake.
Bella loved this recipe. She’d created this final version herself as an amalgam of different recipes she’d found over the years. It was, in her eyes, the ultimate chocolate cake, and sharing it with her little group was actually making her feel quite emotional. It took her back to cooking with her grandma and seeing her nan’s pride when Bella completed a task. She realised now that pride had come not only from Bella’s achievement, but from the joy of sharing her own knowledge and love of food with someone eager to learn.
***
In actual fact I came up with this recipe in much the way Bella describes, tweaking the amount and type of sugar and playing with icing options until I found what is, in my mind perfection. You can thank me later.
The Ultimate Chocolate Cake
There are lots of steps and lots of ingredients in this cake so I strongly recommend making like a TV chef and weighing everything out into cute little bowls in advance. It will massively reduce the chances of you forgetting something crucial.
For the cake
140g dark chocolate
100ml milk
2tbsp cocoa powder
140g butter
140g light brown sugar
3 eggs
4 tbsp soured cream
200g plain flour
1tsp bicarbonate of soda
For the ganache icing
250g dark chocolate (or for a lighter ganache mix 50:50 dark and milk chocolate)
250ml double cream
Method
1. Grease two 20cm baking tins.(If you only have one you can either bake the batter in two goes, or make a single deeper cake and slice it after it’s cooled. For that you’ll just need to bake it a bit longer).
2. Melt the chocolate together with the milk and the cocoa powder. You can do this over a pan of hot water or in short bursts on low heat in a microwave, stirring between each round of heating.
3. In a whole other bowl beat the sugar and butter together. If the butter’s rock hard a quick burst on low heat in the microwave might be helpful first.
4. Then separate your eggs and put the whites to one side for now.
5. Add the egg yolks to your butter and sugar and mix in, then the soured cream (the soured cream is a the magic ingredient in this recipe – it makes the finished cake really rich and moist), and then the melted chocolate mixture. Mix all of that together.
6. Now mix in the flour and bicarb. I’ve been told you don’t really need to sieve modern flour but I still always do. Your cake, your rules though.
7. Now beat your egg whites as if you were aiming for meringue – we’re looking for the whole ‘stiff peak’ stage. And then fold the egg white carefully into the cake batter. You want to keep as much of the air as you can in there. That’s what’s going to stop the cake feeling too dense and stodgy.
8. Split the batter evenly between your two tins and bake! About 35 minutes at 160 fan should do the job.
9. Once the cakes are fully cooled it’s time to stick them together with ganache. Melt the chocolate into the cream – low heat, nobody wants boiled chocolate – and stir until it’s smooth. Ganache is runny when warm but more fudgy when cool, so wait for it to cool a little and you should get a consistency that you can spread over your cake.If it still feels too runny melt in more chocolate and then cool again. If it’s too solid warm the mixture again and stir in a little more cream.
10. Whack half the ganache on your bottom layer, stick the second cake on top, and whack the rest of the ganache on top. If you’re feeling fancy you can spread the ganache down the sides or you can decorate the top with sweeties or raspberries or anything else that sounds yummy. Ta-da!
About Amelia Berry

Amelia grew up on the North Yorkshire coast and now lives in Worcestershire. She has been writing professionally since 2013, and is also published as Ally Sinclair, Alison May and, in collaboration, as Juliet Bell. She is also a freelance editor and writing mentor, and, when she’s not writing, is a volunteer tour guide for the National Trust and acts as Programme Co-ordinator for the Romance Writing Festival in Bournemouth.
You can find out more about Amelia (and Alison) by signing up for her newsletter at www.alison.may.co.uk or following her on
Instagram www.instagram.com/msalisonmay/ or
Facebook www.facebook.com/AlisonMayAuthor
About A Recipe for Love

Cinderella meets Bake-Off in this contemporary rags-to-riches romcom
From the moment they meet, Bella and Adam know this is no ordinary holiday romance.
This is the real deal.
But when they find out Adam’s father has died and he has inherited the penniless Lowbridge Loch estate, their lives are changed in an instant.
Bella suddenly finds herself dealing with crumbling castles, battling baronesses and a tiny community of eccentric characters. Rising to the challenge, Bella has an idea to save Lowbridge Loch. She will create The Highland Cookery School.
But will her plans sink like a souffle when her skills are put to the test?
And can Bella and Adam’s love survive the pressure of saving the estate?
An irresistible, feel-good romance perfect for fans of Jessica Redland, Holly Martin and Heidi Swain
Buying Link:
You can order A Recipe for Love in paperback and ebook here :
https://www.herabooks.com/books/a-recipe-for-love-amelia-berry/


Please let me know if you make the yummy recipe above
. Mx
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Christmas at the Little Beach Cafe




Tha nk you for visiting my blog – Morton S. Gray – Author. I hope you enjoyed this post.
You can also find me on Amazon, Facebook, X Twitter and Instagram.
Published by Choc Lit an imprint of Joffe Books
March 10, 2025
Afternoon Tea with Maisie Bloom and Friends by Jessie Cahalin
This week Jessie Cahalin who has just (4 March 2025) released her novel A Gift for Maisie Bloom shares details of her book and an afternoon tea …


A Gift for Maisie Bloom is a romance with a twist of cosy mystery. Maisie inherits Tanglewood cottage in the idyllic Yorkshire Dales village of Heatherbridge. She is expected to fill her late aunt’s shoes in the community, and that involves hosting afternoon tea for neighbours Camellia and Nora.
Inspiration for Maisie’s cottageThe afternoon tea event in A Gift for Maisie Bloom was inspired by a tradition started by my mother to celebrate birthdays. Mum organised the sandwiches and homemade pork pie and pickles. My grandmother provided cakes. I was expected to present tray bakes and fairy cakes and involve my younger brother. Dad and everyone else simply ate the food and told a few jokes. It was a fun way to bring the extended family together to ensure we had our favourite treats.
My grandmother passed on her battered folder of recipes to me, and over time I have adapted some of the old favourites. I still love inviting friends for afternoon tea and use my gran’s vintage tea set, and I am sure she would have giggled at my re-imagining of chocolate cake and Victoria sponge.
Afternoon tea with Jessie’s friendsMaisie’s aunt has left a folder of old recipes, so she bakes a gin and tonic drizzle cake and it’s a great hit. But why did Aunt Ada leave ingredients out of the recipe and add copious amounts of brandy to the teapot? And why do Nora and Camellia ask so many questions about her aunt?
You’ll need to read the story to find out what is going on …
If you fancy a recipe for Ada’s famous gin and tonic drizzle cake, then follow the link below:
https://www.janespatisserie.com/2018/01/08/gin-tonic-drizzle-cake/
About Jessie:

Jessie is a northern writer who has lived in Wales for over half of her life. She writes romance books with an enthralling mystery to hook the reader.
From an early age, Jessie spun elaborate stories to explain why her father wore cowboy boots and owned many rusty cars. Writing has always been her perfect escape destination, and she was thrilled to encourage her pupils to love the power of words and follow their dreams.
More about A Gift for Maisie Bloom

You’re not supposed to fall in love when investigating your aunt’s disappearance.
When Maisie Bloom inherits her aunt’s cottage in Yorkshire, life is perfect, including her two love interests. But when mysterious mail and blog posts arrive, she discovers Aunt Ada was investigating the disappearance of a prolific author in Paris.
Was it murder? Soon Maisie is hot on the trail.
But can you sleuth in Paris without falling in love?
Early reviews of A Gift for Maisie Bloom:
‘Readers are going to fall in love with Maisie.’
‘This wonderful mystery is a gift for readers who enjoy cozy crime, intrigue and romance.’
‘Refreshingly different! Laugh-out-loud humour laced with whimsy, eccentric characters and delightful glimpses of the Yorkshire countryside and romantic Paris.’
‘I defy you not to laugh out loud at the antics of the nosy neighbours.’
‘A curl up on the settee and read the winter blues away novel.’
It’s a gorgeous cosy mystery mashed up with romance and is all about books, love and family, starting in a Yorkshire village and then whisking you off to Paris.’
‘Enjoyable read … great cast of characters.’
Jessie’s books are available to buy here:
Amazon Kobo Google Play Apple Barnes and Noble / Nook

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Christmas at the Little Beach Cafe




Tha nk you for visiting my blog – Morton S. Gray – Author. I hope you enjoyed this post.
You can also find me on Amazon, Facebook, X Twitter and Instagram.
Published by Choc Lit an imprint of Joffe Books
March 6, 2025
World Book Day
It’s World Book Day today – 6 March 2025 and I guess a lot of mothers were stressed this morning as the children like to go to school dressed up as their favourite book characters.
I was asked if I had anything my grandson could wear and managed to produce a staggering number of outfits that my two boys have worn over the years. Below one used by my youngest son many years ago – guess the book series?

According to news reports reading is supposed to be less popular, but I honestly can’t remember a time when I didn’t have a book on the go. I read whenever I can and my house is full of books. My husband is also a voracious reader but of totally different genres to me.
Books have been part of my life as long as I can remember and we used to have a family outing to the library every Saturday. I wrote my first novel at fourteen but wasn’t published myself until I was in my late fifties.
Enjoy world book day and your reading.
Here are a few of the author’s books you can look forward to being featured on this blog in the next few weeks …



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Christmas at the Little Beach Cafe




Tha nk you for visiting my blog – Morton S. Gray – Author. I hope you enjoyed this post.
You can also find me on Amazon, Facebook, X Twitter and Instagram.
Published by Choc Lit an imprint of Joffe Books
February 24, 2025
Morton Gray’s Signature Recipe
I’m embarking on a series of blog posts to cover my responses to the themes I’m challenging my guest authors to write about in the first part of 2025. One of these themes is to talk about their signature recipe.
I thought long and hard about this and I eventually decided to share my cheat day recipe, the dish I cook when I’ve run out of ideas and frankly can’t be bothered to make much effort, but still my family enjoy it.
So I am sharing my recipe for “Clean out the fridge pasta” as we call it in our household. Here goes …
Ingredients for two portions:
120 grams any sort of cooked pasta
Cooked frozen or fresh vegetables
Any cooked meat or fish – e.g. cooked chicken, bacon, sausage, ham tuna or salmon
Grated cheese
Mayonnaise
Mustard
Salt and pepper
Method
Cook pasta, veg and meat or fish (if not using leftovers or ready cooked ham or tuna). I often use bacon or left over sausages and I steam frozen peas, sweetcorn and edamame beans.
When the pasta and veg are cooked strain any water off and put the ingredients together in the pasta pan, stir in your choice of meat or fish, add mayonnaise, grated cheese, mustard, salt and pepper, mix all together and serve.
You can also add chopped fresh tomatoes for a slightly different taste.
A satisfying meal prepared in less than fifteen minutes. Enjoy 

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About The Secrets of Borteen Bay Series




Christmas at the Little Beach Cafe




Tha nk you for visiting my blog – Morton S. Gray – Author. I hope you enjoyed this post.
You can also find me on Amazon, Facebook, X Twitter and Instagram.
Published by Choc Lit an imprint of Joffe Books
February 17, 2025
I Had A Break
I haven’t blogged for a while. I don’t suppose anyone noticed, but I decided to have a little break as I had a gap in guest authors booked in for my blog and I seem to have had a lot going on.

One of the main things I’ve been up to is taking part in a writing challenge with the wonderful Romantic Novelists’ Association Cariad group to write 1000 words a day during January and February 2025. So far I’ve managed to keep up and have the bulk of a new novel virtually drafted with my work in progress standing at 54,000 words already.
Another thing I’ve been doing is something I’ve spoken about on the blog before – my legacy project. I’ve been typing up and ordering some of my many family history files. It’s been great fun and I’ve made new discoveries along the way too.
I’ve also been experimenting with a new daily writing journal with prompts from one of my favourite poets, Donna Ashworth. I’ve put a copy of the cover below. I bought the journal as a birthday present for a friend too so we are both working on it!

Hoping to have lots of guest authors on my blog again this year, so I’ve been thinking up new themes to give a focus for their posts.
For the first part of this year, I shall be asking guest authors to provide an extract of their latest novel or to talk about one of the following:- The colour that features most in their life and whether it features in their book too, or to talk about their favourite possession, or their signature recipe. If you are an author with a book out this year and fancy a go at these themes then contact me for a date.
I think it only fair to have a go at the themes myself, so that is what I’m aiming to do over the next few weeks with blog posts giving my own answers to these ideas.
It’s nice to be back and I’m looking forward to featuring lots of lovely guest authors in 2025. Don’t forget to subscribe using the details below, so that you don’t miss anything.

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About The Secrets of Borteen Bay Series




Christmas at the Little Beach Cafe




Tha nk you for visiting my blog – Morton S. Gray – Author. I hope you enjoyed this post.
You can also find me on Amazon, Facebook, X Twitter and Instagram.
Published by Choc Lit an imprint of Joffe Books
January 6, 2025
A New Year Begins …
Goodness where did Christmas and New Year go? We seem to spend ages preparing (I saw Christmas things in the shops even in August) and then the holiday is over in an instant. I do hope that you had a happy and peaceful time.


Christmas was lovely this year as my youngest son, who left home for a job in another part of the country in 2024, came back to stay for the holiday and my eldest, with his partner and our grandson came for Christmas lunch. My sister visited with one of her sons in the afternoon too, so it was a nice family time.


Come boxing day, we clear the table and start a jigsaw, and we generally have different jigsaws on the go until we clear the table for the next Christmas. We didn’t do much walking this year as the weather wasn’t particularly good and I am recovering from a foot injury, but we managed to get out and about on most days.


The Christmas trees came down over the weekend and the house looks very bare and less sparkly. I don’t really make new year’s resolutions these days, but I am taking part in a writing challenge during January and February, run by a group I’m a member of. I’m not going to say too much about that right now in case I jinx myself, but it’s going well so far. Wish me luck …
Here’s hoping that 2025 will be kind to us all.
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About The Secrets of Borteen Bay Series




Christmas at the Little Beach Cafe




Tha nk you for visiting my blog – Morton S. Gray – Author. I hope you enjoyed this post.
You can also find me on Amazon, Facebook, X Twitter and Instagram.
Published by Choc Lit an imprint of Joffe Books
December 23, 2024
Merry Christmas and Part 4 of my Author Advent Calendar
Does anyone else find that time speeds up towards the end of December? I’d planned to be all organised for this last advent post
.
I hope that all of my blog readers, readers of my novels and supporters on social media have a fantastic Christmas and I’ll be back in the New Year.
To finish off my Advent Celebration of Authors, I thought that I would feature the authors of my favourite reads of the year. A difficult choice as you can imagine but I’ve limited myself to two authors for each of the last few advent calendar days.
21 December
Hannah Langdon & Vicki Beeby
I loved Christmas with the Knights and particularly Christmas with the Lords by Hannah Langdon!


Think I’ve read all of Vicki Beeby’s books and I’m really enjoying the Bomber Command Girls series, the latest of which is Christmas for the Bomber Girls. Can’t wait for book four!
22 December
Cass Grafton & Jo Bartlett
I enjoyed reading Cass Grafton’s The Little Cornish Cove Series and in particular Escape to Polkerran Point.


Recently I’ve read and loved all four books in Jo Bartlett’s Cornish Country Hospital Series.
23 December
Debbie Viggiano & Faith Hogan
I devoured Debbie Viggiano’s Maggie in the Middle and am now reading Starting Over at Starlight Cottage.


Faith Hogan is another author I buy without even reading the blurb for the book as I have enjoyed all of her titles. The latest read was The Bookshop Ladies.
24 December
L J Ross & Sue Moorcroft
Like many people I am following along with the story of dishy DCI Ryan Maxwell featured in the DCI Ryan Mysteries by L J Ross and have already pre-ordered the newly announced book 23 in the series, Belsay.


Sue Moorcroft is yet another author I follow. I believe I have read all of her published books and indeed she inspired me to write novels seriously in the first place. I’m currently enjoying her Skye Sisters Trilogy series set on the Isle of Skye and eagerly awaiting book three.
So having completed my advent calendar, I would like to wish you and your families the best Christmas and all good wishes for 2025.
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About The Secrets of Borteen Bay Series




Christmas at the Little Beach Cafe




Tha nk you for visiting my blog – Morton S. Gray – Author. I hope you enjoyed this post.
You can also find me on Amazon, Facebook, X Twitter and Instagram.
Published by Choc Lit an imprint of Joffe Books


