Thursday 31 December 2009

Happy New Year to All in Blogland!!!!


No, I still don't believe it - I know I keep saying this, but it can't be the end of 2009, let alone the end of the "noughties", can it? It doesn't seem five minutes ago that we were doing the New Millennium stuff - remember having to stock the cupboards with enough food to last a lifetime and waiting for your computer to crash forever because civilization as we knew it was going to come to an end at midnight on New Year's Eve 1999? How can that be 10 years ago???

But it was, and here we are, somehow just about to go into Twenty-Ten. I hope it's happy and peaceful and brings you everything you need/want/hope for. I'm not big on resolutions (never manage to keep them, then always feel guilty and even more of a failure), but I do always feel sort of energised at this time of the year. I've got my new (Jersey) calendar ready to put on the wall in front of the desk and my new diary (really pretty - pink with hippie flowers) poised by the keyboard, and a list of writing projects in my pristine Pukka Pad to tackle once Midnight Feast - er, The Way To A Woman's Heart - is finished, waiting beside the computer. Today I'm itching to get on with writing again, and can only hope the itch lasts longer than my erstwhile resolutions...

2009, against all the odds, has been a lovely year for me. After a dire and dreadful 2008 I held out no hopes at all, but what with Elle and The Doctor's wonderful wedding (and subsequent blissfully happy marriage), and The Toyboy Trucker's exam successes and promotion (I still miss the jeans and T-shirt and boots and heady whiff of diesel though...) and the fun of making the Writers Bureau telly advert, and getting a new two-book deal with Piatkus, and my books selling so well in Germany and therefore giving me a regular income, and none of the cats dying - what more could I ask for? We're happy and healthy. We've got a cosy, comfortable home, enough food to eat, loads of great friends, no real worries, and an okay future. I know I'm lucky. Very. If 2010 is half as good I'll be delighted.

So, no resolutions - but a real intention to write, write, write in 2010 - and keep writing. Because I'm lucky there, too. I'm published. It was my hopeless dream for so long that I'll never, ever take it for granted.

Enough of the sentimental waffling then - just want to say a huge thank you to all my blogland friends for being brilliant - and again, whatever you want in 2010 I hope you achieve it with bells and whistles and fireworks and fanfares of celestial trumpets. I'll raise a glass of fizz to you all at midnight as me and The Toyboy Trucker scamper around the terrace with Shaz and Dave, Nikki and Memphis, Vee and the kids, Wilf, Maudie and Jerome, and Nancy - and wish you everything that you wish yourselves.

Oh, yes - and there's just one more little selfish wish - MOONSHINE is published three weeks today and I really, really hope that people buy it and read it, and more importantly, like it - because I do...

Happy New Year - and THANK YOU!!!!

21 comments:

Jayne said...

Awww what a lovely post, Chris. All the best to you, TBT, Elle and the Dr and everyone else too....I can't wait for Moonshine either!!! :) xx

Christina Jones said...

Jayne - thank you - for all of it. And please believe in your 2010 dreams. They will come true - I know they will. C x

Jayne said...

Thanks Chris, that means a LOT xx

Christina Jones said...

Jayne - been there - 17 years ago. Almost identical circs. Be brave. xxx

Jilly said...

Happy New Year Christina

Christina Jones said...

Jilly - thank you for absolutely everything in 2009. Hope you have a wonderful 2010. C xxx

Deborah Carr (Debs) said...

Hoping your dreams continue coming true through the next decade. x

Jayne said...

Thanks again, Chris x (((HUGS)))

Colette McCormick said...

Here's to a wonderful 2010 for you and yours, me and mine and basically everyone in the world.

Pat Posner said...

Happy New Year to you and yours, Chris.
I'm so looking forward to reading Moonshine!

xxPat

alzamina said...

Awwwww - Happy New Year to you all. May we all get what we need to make us happy and at peace within ourselves in 2010.

Oh and I can't wait for the new books!!!!

Christina Jones said...

Debs - thank you so much - and yours, too.

Christina Jones said...

Jayne - X!!!

Christina Jones said...

Colette - brilliant! I'll second that one!

Christina Jones said...

Pat - thank you - and hope 2010 is wonderful for you (sorry about the snow!!!).

Christina Jones said...

alzamina - echoed with bells on! Thanks again for all your help. And I really, really hope you'll like the new books if/when they emerge...

Lesley Cookman said...

Great positive post, Chris. Lots of love to you, TBT (or TTT)Elle and the Doctor and the cats. And how could Moonshine NOT be bought? I can't wait for it.

Love from me, Philly and Lou (and the cats) xxx

Chris Stovell said...

A belated, but very happy New Year to you too, Chris. Can't wait for Moonshine (that cover is gorgeous). So pleased you are getting the regular sales (and more) that you SO deserve, here's wishing you more of the good things in 2010.
(I loved that bit about the days when being published was a hopeless dream; I'm still pinching myself).

Karen said...

Looking forward to reading Moonshine :o) Here's to a happy and productive 2010!

Kath McGurl said...

Happy New Year to you too, and may 2010 be at least as good a year as 2009 was! Looking forward to the publication of Moonshine.

Christina Jones said...

Lesley - thank you so much - and a very happy and prosperous 2010 to you, Philly and Lou and cats!!! Here's to another year of being published!!!!!

ChrisH - thank you! And of course you KNOW that 2010 will be a magical year for you! So happy for you. Can't wait to read it!

Karen - thanks so much - and the same to you!!!

Womag - thank you. Happy 2010 to you too - and another huge THANK YOU for all your hard work, help and advice in 2009 - you've made such a difference to me.