Words. Words. Words.

In one of my favourite novels of all time, there is a character who's wardrobe is painted with the legend 'Distrust all enterprises that require new clothes.'*

I'm beginning to think my bookshelves should be daubed with the slogan, 'Distrust all enterprises which require new books.' Or actually, old books.

Not valuable old books, you understand. Just books no one else would want but which fill a valuable gap in my knowledge. (There are NO gaps in my bookcases!) Books which are so NOT valuable, that the postage and packaging comes to so much more than they are worth!

The 'new enterprise' is firmly under wraps and I'm keeping it that way for a good long while, but the parcels are flying fast and furious between Abebooks and my house, and I'm giving myself up to the intense pleasure which is pre-writing research!! The more I find out, the more I need to know and the more excited I become as parcel after parcel falls through the letterbox! And then I sit and trawl the internet for hours and find the most amazing things to download. And the knowledge gaps get smaller and smaller. And the house gets messier and messier...

Sheer heaven!

(* This is 'A Room with a View' by E.M. Forster. Just in case you didn't recognise it!)

Snow on snow...snow on, snow!

This was my front garden on New Year's Day. Ever so pretty. It was fantastic to have a white Christmas and New Year, so good that if Irving hadn't pipped me to the post, I might even have written a song about it. It should always snow at Christmas - it is right and proper.

However, I'm posting this image to try and conteract the increasingly negative feelings I have had about snow since Monday morning! It's one thing when you're on holiday and can nip out, take a couple of atmospheric snaps with your mobile phone and then retreat back to the relative warmth and comfort of the window seat to watch it drift silently down from the grey-pink clouds while you sip a Hotel Chocolat Cinnamon Cocoa (Santa was really listening this year... ) It's quite another when you are setting off at silly o'clock, trudging up to your ears in the stuff to get to work and feeling rather 'Ernest Shackleton' about the whole thing! (Have I ever mentioned the Shackleton fascination before? No? Ah well...)

I'm also feeling miserable as the decorations went away today and the tree came down. The house looks empty and drab and in need of a good dusting and I didn't feel I'd had enough of Christmas at all! This may be because I'm fighting a series of weather-induced migranes which started on Saturday (just in time for the return to work!) or may be just because I hate January with a passion!

Still, there are lots of good things on the horizon to look forward to in 2010. Once we get this wretched snow out of the way. Now, where did I leave those huskies...?

New year, new start...

The wintery sun is setting on the last day of my Christmas holidays but there are still 3 days till 12th Night to enjoy the tree, the lights and festive hot chocolate. (Santa got the hint about the Dark Cherry Syrup...!)

This is my fireplace, bedecked with twigs from my garden and tartan baubles. I've spent a lot of time just staring into it over the past two weeks while listening to seasonal music from Christian Forshaw and Sting - very wintery and perfect, given the amount of snow that's fallen here for the past two weeks. I recommend both if you are feeling soulful.

Don't want to go back to work, of course, especially with the weather how it is. However, I promised myself a 'new beginning' and I wrote the first 2000 words of something totally original and unconnected with Grouse and Partridge... It's the first little footstep in the snow. I'm hoping it'll lead somewhere interesting. If it does, you'll be the first to know. Happy New Year!

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...