Margaret Mayo Romance Author

Rafael says thanks to those who chose his new name. He likes Rafe. He’s now waiting for his surname.

I’ve been making damson jam today, religiously stirring it every quarter of an hour or so. Until Rafael held my attention for far too long and it boiled over. Just minutes before a gas engineer was due to arrive for an annual service of our appliances! I managed to clean my cooker with seconds to spare.

He made me smile, though. He said that he was one of six children and when they were young they had to take it in turns to clean their mother’s cooker. He hated it. But it stood him in good stead today because he (yes, the male) cleans their cooker now after every meal.

OK, so you’re all going to shout at me and tell me that your husband cleans your cooker!

This is Rafael here, Margaret’s new hero. At least that’s the name she’s given me. She decided I was going to be Spanish but I’m not, I’m English, and I want an English name. She has written two whole chapters calling me Rafael and I hate it. So I need some help, guys.

I run a global chain of hotels and initially I was Raphael De Souza. But I think she told you that De Souza is already the name of a hotel group. So I not only need a Christian name, I need a surname that will look good and impressive on all of my hotels.

Can you get your thinking caps on for me? I’ll be eternally grateful.

We have a network system for our computers so that either DH or I can print without having to change plugs. This was the last task for DH’s new computer. I’ve always had someone else to do the networking but this morning I DID IT! I was so pleased with myself because I spent ages on it last night without success. It was quite simple in the end, just a case of knowing where to look. And possibly because I’d got a fresh mind. After a day struggling with my hero and heroine, sorting out something like that was the last thing I wanted to do.

So now I’m settling down to my writing again with a smile on my face.

I had a better day on my book today – at least I worked this afternoon. This morning was spent with the technical guys again when I had trouble setting up AOL and McAfee on DH’s computer. Fingers crossed all is now well. Why does he always leave it to me? Don’t tell him but it makes me feel good when he thinks I know these things better than he does.

Changing the subject, I’d given my new hero the surname De Souza – and he owns a chain of hotels world wide. The De Souza chain – I thought it sounded pretty good. Until I did a search on the internet and found there’s just such a group in Goa. Thank goodness for computers, that’s what I say.

My DH’s computer gave up the ghost – at least the mother board did – and it’s only three years old! Hence he has a new computer. And now we’re having problems trying to set up our AOL Broadband on it. It’s very time consuming, so again another day without writing. I’m beginning to feel that this book is doomed.