It's Christmas Eve

There's an apple and cinnamon cake baking in the kitchen, the tree lights are twinkling and in a couple of hours the shops will all be shut and THAT WILL BE IT! Christmas again! I've loved the run up to Christmas this year and having a full week off work beforehand has been brilliant too. I hope you have a lovely Christmas and that there'll be a little magic in the air for you! As promised, the answers to my little festive teaser can be found on this page. How many did you find???

Merry Christmas!

Jo X

Track Santa!

Only 3 more sleeps till Christmas! Last year, around this time, I discovered http://www.noradsanta.org/ an highly unlikely by-product of the North American defence programme. Every year since the 1950s this organisation use their highly advanced missile satellite tracking technology for a much nicer purpose - tracking Santa's journey from his home in the North Pole as he delivers presents all around the world. The site is fascinating, even before Christmas Eve, as it gives away some very hi-tec secrets and insights into how the amazing man in red manages such an astounding undertaking every year. On Christmas Eve itself there are 20 minute updates on his progress from take off at 4am Eastern Time to landing 24 hours later, and sometimes video clips as he passes well-known landmarks. Hours of fun to keep overexcited children under some control! (that includes children over 30...) And then check out the wikipedia page for norad santa as well - you couldn't make it up!!

The photo is Leeds, 2 weeks ago. I suspect that is an escaping elf, not a child in the foreground...

Ho ho ho!

Jo x

Time for a wee whigmalerie?

The print copies I ordered have arrived and so I've launched 'Whigmalerie' onto lulu this morning. Copies can be downloaded FOR FREE by going to www.lulu.com/joannaduncan and clicking the download button and the previous two stories have made a reappearance there too. They're all free so there's no excuse not to indulge! They're best accompanied by a chunk of stollen or a couple of mince pies. (I'M SO MISSING CAKE!)

And just to make things a bit more interesting... One of my characters has a fondness for stage and screen musicals which, at moments of stress, shows up in his speech. Once you've read the story, can you say how many quotes there are in it from musicals? And can you name the musicals?? I'm warning you now - it's a tough challenge! If anyone gets half marks, I'll be impressed! THE ANSWERS will be here on December 24th...

Merry Christmas! Jo xx

Holidays are coming!

And the new Grouse and Partridge Christmas story - A Wintery Whigmalerie - is coming too! A bit longer than the usual festive offering, it weighs in at 55 pages and is the first G&P story to be written on the new laptop! It was completed in a record breaking 4 days and went to press last night.

It will be available from www.lulu.com/joannaduncan from December 17th - which is the day I break up for Christmas hols - as a TOTALLY AND UTTERLY FREE DOWNLOAD! Alternatively, you may purchase a print copy for £3.00. As usual, a donation will be made to CRISIS - a charity which supports homeless people all year round and especially at Christmas - for every copy downloaded or sold!

This year, I'm adding a little bonus feature in the form of a festive challenge... But no! I've said too much already!!! You're just going to have to wait until the 17th...