Happily Ever After

Life in The Rural Retreat with a beautiful wife, three cats, garden wildlife, a camera, a computer – and increasing amounts about running

Earlier posts can be found on Adventures of a Lone Bass Player, where this blog began life. Recent entries can be found here.

Remembering Rosehaugh

by Russell Turner - 20:23 on 27 September 2016

Marathon Matchgirl wisely gave herself two weeks’ holiday to follow her athletic exertions at the weekend. She no longer walks like Frankenstein’s monster but groans, gasps and moans can still be heard at regular intervals inside The Rural Retreat.

I, on the other hand, am hard at work on the next title to be published by Bassman Books – an updated and redesigned edition of Rosehaugh, A House of its Time which first saw the light of day twenty years ago and has long been out of print. The original was an A5 paperback but its authors fancied something more stylish for the anniversary reissue.

Cats, as usual, are no help. Maia mooches around the office, demanding food, while Willow either walks all over the Mac’s keyboard or tries to settle on my lap, none of which is conducive to meeting a self-imposed deadline of Sunday for completion of a draft internal layout for presentation to the authors. The cover will come later.

Time is of the essence as we already have a print date of October 24 agreed with Tigger at Big Sky. Pre-Christmas publication is desired by the book’s writing team. So far, all is going well.

The original cover – I'll aim for something
a little more eye-catching.

Rosehaugh was a stately home outside Avoch, demolished in the 1950s. Just the grounds, a few foundations, and the buildings formerly occupied by underlings remain.

Meanwhile, an invitation has arrived to a posh dinner (black tie and medals) at the Institute of Directors in London on October 25 where the winners of the Maritime Media Awards will be revealed. Memories of a Ben Line Man is among the contenders.

Although I’ve no desire to spend around £300 on travel, accommodation and dinner, author Stuart may attend. I suspect that something hardback and scholarly will win the literary category but I’ll keep my fingers crossed for Stuart. You never know.

Add your comment

Your Name


Your Email (only if you are happy to have it on the site)


Your Comment - no HTML or weblinks


Enter this number in the box below and click Send - why?Unfortunately we have to do this to prevent the system being swamped by automated spam