In order to get the conversation right, I need to think about what will come out of the dinner party. Bull Runn has a vested interest in more houses in Oakhaven but Mrs Boniface is concerned about the 'quality' of the newcomers, so while she is taken with Bull's Southern charm, his attitude to more people is disturbing. There is also the question of where he will put up this Garden centre and she will have strong ideas about it spoiling the village ambiance and its reputation as a place of great natural beauty
. The new colonel will ask some searching questions but in the end congratulate the sergeant and his wife and recommend they become permanent. The doctor will become more supportive and involved with the idea of the family rehab centre. There will be some discussion about the old ruin and Elaine's ideas about it's renovation. A full agenda as there is also the young ones working in the background with Spook's wife. Bull will find a friend in the poacher.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Colonels-Ducks-Oakhaven-Best-Plans-ebook/dp/B00XPHOMAE/ref=sr_1_6?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1452518897&sr=1-6

Southern Charm

As they are organising the dinner party, Bull Runn arrives to talk about starting a garden centre with crafts and using the manor house gardens to grow seedlings for the garden centre. He comes because Miss Kirkwood at Cairndhu told him about the place and Pippa, her niece, doing crafts. Miss Boniface is put off Bull - his is American after all but then he uses his Southern Charm and wants to call her Miss ? She must have a first name after all and she must have met some Americans during the war. Is there a dark secret there maybe?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Welcome-Oakhaven-Mrs-Jackson-Settles-ebook/dp/B00LUNMD24/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1406736695&sr=1-1&keywords=sullatober+dalton

Oakhaven sequel - At the dinner party, no, even before, Mrs Boniface will want to meet this new colonel. Discovering he served in Germany, she will naturally tell about visiting Herr Mann's schloss. It will have grown from her first report to her friends from nothing more than a house to a fairy tale castle. Mrs Boniface will become rather uncomfortable when it turns out that the new colonel knows Germany rather well, including the area where Herr Mann has his schloss. I like that.www.sullatoberdalton.com/books/welcome-oakhaven

On the guest list we need to have the people who will become involved in the main incidents in this story. Colonel Cunninghame, he owns the manor house, and of course Elaine Jackson, who will be hi hostess. Mrs Boniface, the visiting colonel will need a partner of sufficient social status and Mrs Boniface will insist on her place. The good doctor will be there and we might have Cassie to stir things up and annoy Mrs Boniface. The vicar will be the chaplain and must bring her husband. Who else do we need? The craft girl but does she need a partner? Her boyfriend was one of the original batch of soldiers who found the unexploded bomb but do we need him? Maybe not. There is the opera girl who was the corporal's girlfriend and was disruptive. Worth thinking about!
www.sullatoberdalton.com/books/welcome-oakhaven

For the dinner party, we can invite a colonel who will come to inspect the idea of using Oakhaven for rest and recuperation for troops. It doesn't have medical facilities or rehab. units but it might work for re-establishing family ties. That will put pressure on the sergeant and his wife. If they can show the idea would work, they might be left in charge. The ladies plan a high class dinner but Colonel Cunninghame intervenes and insist the food is what they would provide for the troops. What they will make is soup, steak pie and rice pudding. Mrs Boniface finds it abhorrent but Cunninghame is adamant.

www.sullatoberdalton.com/books/welcome-oakhaven

One of the main themes in this latest Oakhaven book will be the effect the new people who move in to the newly built houses will have on the community. I've heard it said, by newcomers, that it its they that create the community identity. They come with different outlooks and back grounds and that modifies the village psyche but they must also adapt to living in the village and having Mrs Boniface as one of their leaders encouraging them to intellectual interests. A village is, of course, a living organism, adapting and changing all the time. First, we need a guest list for this dinner party.
Sullatober Dalton
www.sullatoberdalton.com/books/welcome-oakhaven

Oakhaven characters

Oakhaven characters; The dinner party  will lay out the dramatic questions but maybe I can lead in by interviewing each of the main characters. Elaine is in love with Colonel Gordon Cunninghame but finds him annoying at times, especially over the details of their alterations to Bramble House. After all, she sold her cottage to allow the developer to build on the grounds, which saved the manor house from being taken over by the developer. In fact the colonel has no real opinions about the renovation and would rather she involved her son-in-law, Henry, who is, after all, an architect. He finds it tiring to listen to all the possible ways of doing things. All he is concerned about is that she is happy.
Mrs Boniface would very much like to know what Elaine plans as she has some excellent ideas about what could be achieved and is working up to confronting Elaine and reminding her that it is a community asset and she, as the intellectual leader of the community, should be consulted.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Colonels-Ducks-Oakhaven-Best-Plans-ebook/dp/B00XPHOMAE/ref=sr_1_6?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1452518897&sr=1-6

The best place to start the next Oakhaven novel would be with the sergeant and his wife worrying about where he might be sent. They could be preparing a kind of dinner party for the nobs in the village, Mrs Boniface, the doctor, Elaine and Colonel Cunninghame and discussing the future. That would be a reminder of all the plots as they run through the guest list.  Their main concern is of course their children, the girl is near her final exams and they don't want her moved. Maybe they plan to ask if the wife and the children can stay and run the big house while the sergeant is away.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Colonels-Ducks-Oakhaven-Best-Plans-ebook/dp/B00XPHOMAE/ref=sr_1_6?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1452518897&sr=1-6

Where did we leave everyone in Oakhaven? Mrs Boniface was off to Germany to visit Herr Mann's schloss. The sergeant and his wife had settled in to the manor house but would obviously be worried that he would be sent off to keep two rival factions apart in some far country. There are new houses to be built on the ground that Elaine Jackson's cottage stands on and she, while not yet Mrs Cunninghame, has moved into the manor house until they can rehabilitate The Brambles and turn that into a B& B. There is the craft workshop and the children's farm to be properly established, so there is much to be written about. How will Mrs Boniface react to Elaine moving into the manor house?
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Colonels-Ducks-Oakhaven-Best-Plans-ebook/dp/B00XPHOMAE/ref=sr_1_6?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1452518897&sr=1-6

SO the new idea is garden towns. Itr sounds good and it is to be hoped that people accept the world is changing around them and that all newcomers are not bad, just the usual mixture of people, including A Mrs Boniface or two as well as some Elaine Jacksons.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Colonels-Ducks-Oakhaven-Best-Plans-ebook/dp/B00XPHOMAE/ref=sr_1_6?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1452518897&sr=1-6