Hello, my dear friends and readers!
It’s been a long, long while since I posted here because, after the release of In God’s Hands, little happened with my writing, but plenty happened in my personal life.
The children are both now officially adults, with Lil Princess taking her A-Level exams and (not so) Lil Man starting a new job soon after completing his apprenticeship.
The cats are lording it over the house as usual. Sonu Singh is now 12 years old, and Minnie Kaur is a very mischievous 2-year-old.
The day job continues, and Nursery teaching is not as easy as one gets older, and joints start to ache, because, hey, I hit 50 last year, and boy do I feel it some days!
We’ve welcomed new faces into the family and suffered some losses, both of which have impacted everyone.
All this, put together, means that writing was low on my priority list, though books have been with me throughout, as I read to stay sane. If you follow my blog, But I Smile Anyway, you will have seen my monthly updates about what I have read, so you’ll know there was no slacking there!
Amongst all this, my lovely publishers closed down, which was a real shock. It was a decision they didn’t take lightly, but as a result, my three books, Marriage Unarranged, Straight As a Jalebi, and In God’s Hands, were unavailable to buy, as the rights were reverted back to me.
This gave me a chance to do something I had been thinking about for a while: give the three books a makeover.
Not so much the content (though, as I formatted, I found a few corkers of spelling mistakes that were somehow missed, so they are now corrected), but please don’t shoot me if there are any others, they are real blighters to spot!) But the covers…
I loved my original ones, but I felt that there wasn’t enough cohesion between the three as a series. As a result, a dear friend of mine, who has read the books, volunteered her husband to help me redesign them. This is not his day job, so when you see them, I am sure you will agree that he has done a brilliant job!
Slide to see the new covers!
I am so pleased with them! And he has already created some templates for two more books in the series, which I hope to write one day, too. (They are ideas right now, but I will 100% be writing them one day, soon!)
I hope you like them, too 🙂
They are on pre-order on Amazon, to be released as e-books on Friday, 22nd May, which also happens to be my dear Pops’ 80th birthday, and the paperbacks should follow the week after.
If you would like to order, here is a link to the three books.
https://mybook.to/RishtaySeries
And, in other writerly news, I will be at the MeetCute Festival on July 4th, speaking on a panel about my books, as well as attending the Romantic Novelist’s Association conference in August, which I am really looking forward to!
What is next for Ritu?
I am in the middle (more late beginning) of a totally different book, still in my Chickpea Curry Lit style, so keep your eyes peeled for any news on that one.
Thank you all for your support over the years, and I look forward to bringing you more stories soon!
Ritu Bhathal 