Back Home!

Finally back from my amazing adventures. I wrote NOTHING whilst I was away, but I've had loads of advice, help and support from some amazing people in Singapore.

The first picture is Marian Mariano. She was my sister-in-law, Nicola Harayda's (pictured with Marian in the photo below) helper. She lived and worked with the family in Singapore for many years, becoming a close friend.
 
Marian's help with the fourth book has been so valuable and I'm very grateful to her for everything she has given me. She is a kind, warm, generous person, full of life and I hope that she will stay in touch even now she is off on her own new life adventure which has taken her away from Singapore. 

Nicola has always been supportive and encouraging of my writing and without her help this fourth book would not have come to life. The idea stemmed from a trip to Singapore two years ago and I've been playing around with it ever since. Nicola is one of the very few who has read the book in its' current draft. I was quite nervous of her opinion, but thankfully she loved it.

Nicola also told me all about HOME, an organisation in Singapore that helps migrant workers. Through HOME (Humanitarian Organisation for Migration Economics) I met Karien Van Ditzhuijzen (pictured left below). Karien used to manage HOME and is an author. She read the story and has given me some excellent advice to improve the book and make it more authentic. I'm very grateful to her. 

I visited the HOME office and met with Desiree Leong (pictured below to the right). She is a Legal Consultant at HOME and helped me with some of the details of the book.

The trip was still a holiday, I saw and experienced all kinds of amazing things in the three countries I visited, but I wanted to share how useful it was too in terms of making the new book as good as it can be. For me the research was interesting, fun and amazingly useful, even if I've left the rewriting until I got home. You know what I will be doing over the next few weeks. Watch this space!