Getting back to the blog

It is always difficult to get back into blogging after a holiday, and even more tricky following the death of a good friend and Symi ambassador. To talk about our recent holiday and what else is going on on Symi seems out of place, but it has to be done. So, today, to ease us back into Symi Dream normality, I’ll just mention a few things I noticed when out for an early morning walk yesterday.

I only walked through the village and up the road a while before turning back at Lavinia Studios (the place I first stayed back in 1996). Since returning last Friday and along the way yesterday, I noticed that the new Chinese Clothes shop is now fully open and being used and investigated by interested local customers; we wish the shop well, and I’m looking forward to taking a look around it soon. George the butcher has closed, and his old premises is up for rent. George is joining the priesthood, and one of Zoi’s sons is starting up a new butcher shop in the new buildings opposite the old pharmacy which is itself under repair, albeit slowly. The folklore museum has its sign-up advertising opening hours of 8.30 to 14.30 Tuesday to Sunday.

The ‘American’ supermarket has undergone some changes during the winter and expanded again, offering more ready-made and unusual items along with its traditional offerings and stock, and Sotiris supermarket remains the same as ever, as does the one at Campos. Lefteris was at work yesterday at 6.30 sweeping and preparing his kafeneion in his time-traditional way, and Nikitas was already in his kiosk listening to his radio. So, everything seems to be either starting anew, continuing as usual or opening up (or preparing to) for the summer and that includes ourselves. Neil is starting back at work at the Rainbow Bar on Wednesday afternoon, three to five as usual, and I am, from today, back into my writing routine of at least eight hours per day on one thing or another.

There will be other shots from our recent trip in the days to come as I thought readers might be interested in, for example, what we did and how we travelled from Athens to Symi on the overnight Blue Star. For today, though, I simply found some random shots from the Rhodes part of our trip to whet your appetite.

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Wendy Symi Visitor

I expect many of you will know by now that Wendy, founder and leader of Symi Visitor, died suddenly last weekend. I thought it more appropriate that you should read the information and message from Adriana’s Symi Visitor blog rather than from me and so, today, I’m simply leaving you with a link to her blog so you can read the facts from their official spokesperson.

http://adrianas-symi.blogspot.gr/

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Hello!

Just a quick note to say hello, we are back, but the blog won’t be up today. I’ll be in touch tomorrow. Thanks for staying with us over the last two weeks. There will be holidays snaps and stories and Symi news coming along very soon – just need a little more time to settle back in.

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Symi Saturday Photos

Here is a set of random Symi photos from the last few months. Have a good weekend!

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James Collins Amazon Author Page

We’re reaching the end of our two weeks of self-publicity and ahead of tomorrow’s Symi photos, here’s a link to my author page on Amazon. From there you can click to buy any of the books in Kindle or print format, and they are all free on Kindle Unlimited.

As always, reviews are welcome and much appreciated, especially the good ones. Also, if you’ve enjoyed any of my books, please feel free to share the links with your Facebook friends and anyone you think might be interested. A lot of my ‘traffic’ comes from the blog, but an increasing about comes from Facebook and Twitter sharing. What’s particularly helpful is if someone suggests a book on a group page. That’s something I don’t like to do myself as it doesn’t feel right, but if a third party, a loyal Symi Dreamer, for example (you) recommends a book in a reader’s or writer’s group or anywhere where other group members might benefit, then it helps spread the word.

You will notice that I have two other titles that I’ve not talked about over this past two weeks, Into The Fire and You Wish! It’s not because I don’t think they are any good, it’s mainly because they are my two firsts and perhaps a bit obscure. (They, like a couple of the other older books, could do with some editing and proper proofing – one day.)

Once again, thank you for putting up with the last two weeks of self-blurbing, we will be returning tomorrow with our usual Symi photos and, all being well, I shall be back to blogging next week. As you read this, we should be arriving back on Symi on the morning Blue Star ferry. Between the time of writing this (Monday 12^th March) we should have: spent a couple of nights in Rhodes, had our annual health checks done, flown to Athens for an afternoon and night, seen the new museum, caught a plane to Frankfurt and then another to Split, had a week there with a quick overnight in Dubrovnik, flown to Munich, had a fast scurry to a flight to Athens, indulged in a night at the airport hotel (small mortgage required), trained it to Piraeus and boated it, overnight, to Symi. Now would be a good time to thank everyone who contributed to the honeymoon fund at our wedding last year, and to thank every one of you who has bought one (or all) of my books over the years. Still waiting to be written are ‘Unforgivably’, a Miss P novel and ‘The Eastling’ (working title) the third in the Saddling series.

James Collins author page at Amazon

James Collins author page on Facebook

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