If you think of writing as a quiet, solitary, slow process, think again.   The actual business of putting pen to paper might be all those things but once you’re a published author you can’t really stand still.   You have to be up and doing, to coin a phrase.

I’m still waiting to see if my publishers are happy with the manuscript of the third D.I. Costello novel but in the meantime I’m getting on with number four and yesterday I got down to a bit of research.

Now, if that conjures up an image of me getting a pain in the neck as I trawl through the internet looking for information, or developing a nasty cough  as I pore over a pile of dusty tomes, not to mention writer’s cramp from the pages of notes I’ve made, well  – you’re mistaken about that as well.

My research for the next novel in the series involved me spending a very pleasant couple of hours at the Chelsea Flower Show yesterday.   This was my first trip and I hope it won’t be my last.   I went expecting to be dazzled and I was.   The spectacle of the gardens was just amazing.   Up one avenue and down another, surrounded by beautiful flowers and plants, I just couldn’t take it all in.   To cap it all the sun obliged with a very impressive display of its own.

As for how this event features in a future D.I. Costello novel . . . well, you’ll have to wait and see.