The Ghostwriter of Christmas Past is out *today*!

Also: I ran...

Firstly, and not particularly importantly: I did it, guys. I RAN. For four days in a row. And, okay, I didn’t run very far, or very fast, but the main thing is that I DID IT. And the other main thing is that I did it even though this was the week that winter officially arrived in our part of Scotland, and I woke up on Monday morning to find the world covered in a thick coating of frost.

Apparently the only part of the UK that didn’t get snow this week

“Well, that’s that,” I thought, pleased. “I can’t be expected to run in these temperatures. It’ll be slippy. I could fall. I almost certainly will fall, knowing me. Probably into the path of Speedy, who will just walk right over the top of my limp body, without breaking stride.”

And, honestly, I think that’s exactly what Speedy would’ve done. He just has that look about him. Luckily for me, though, I did not fall; and, even MORE luckily, the colder weather seemed to keep most of the Usual Suspects inside, which meant I got the route almost to myself, too; just me and The Other Redhead most days — because I guess nothing keeps us gingers down? Or something?

Anyway, I know there’s nothing more boring than someone who’s just started running and wants to talk about it all the time, so let’s move on to this week’s Big News, which is that today — TODAY — is release day for The Ghostwriter of Christmas Past:

I don’t have a huge amount to say about this event because, well, I never really do, to be honest. I always feel like I should be cracking open a bottle of champagne and celebrating in some way, but the fact is, this is my seventh book, and I still feel very much an impostor in this game. But with that said, it’s still all kinds of amazing to see these words that I sweated over as an actual book, and I’m both nervous and excited to see it go out into the world. Mostly nervous, though. I mean, what if everyone hates it? What if everyone rushes to tell me they hated it? What if I’ve written a terrible book, and my career is over, and, actually, I think I maybe will have that champagne after all…

Aaaaand brreeaaaatheee

I can’t remember if I’ve mention this or not, but this book was actually inspired by my Christmas-loving cousin, Bonnie, who has been taunting me for years now over my ‘Grinch’ status. A couple of years ago, she sent me a Christmas elf all the way from her home in Canada (I retaliated by sending her a Grinch; because of course I did…), and then last year? A set of festive tea towels.

It was just after the delivery of the tea towels (Which, as Bonnie likes to start the festivities indecently early, naturally happened in November) that she sent me this screenshot:

“I’m totally writing that,” I said. And so I did. Well … sort of. The plot of Ghostwriter has actually departed quite a bit from that initial little nugget of inspiration, but it does still involve a main character who hates Christmas, but lives in a town that’s obsessed with it, and … well, I guess you’ll have to read it if you want to know the rest. Or at least read the blurb for it, which you’ll find on its Amazon page here.

(This is the bit where I get to be a complete pain by asking that if you do read and enjoy it, that you please take a few minutes to leave me a quick review — or even just a star rating. It doesn’t have to be long or cleverly worded — literally just a couple of lines will do — but if you can spare the time, I would really, really appreciate it, because these reviews can make such a difference to us authors! )

(Obviously if you read it and hate it, you’re welcome to leave a review too, just … please don’t come and tell me about it, I’m begging you. I don’t ever read my reviews¹ because I don’t have the mental fortitude for it, but there’s a growing trend right now for readers to tag authors in negative reviews, or even post them on the author’s pages, and I’ve been quietly living in fear of that happening for a while now…)

It’s currently available in ebook and paperback formats, but the audiobook is currently in production, and we’re hoping to get it out by the start of December (this will depend very much on how quickly Audible approves the finished product, unfortunately), so if you’d rather wait for that, worry not, it should be coming soon.

So it’s been a busy few weeks, really; and the next few weeks are going to be even busier, because as well as all of the Christmas preparations and back-to-back social events we have coming up, this week I also started work on book number 8 — because there’s literally no rest for the wicked authors, folks.

I’m probably not going to set up a pre-order for this one, because December is always so busy that it can be difficult to remain sane get in decent blocks of writing time (Plus there’s the fact that I generally spend the month slowly unravelling with stress, so that I can start the new year a pale, strung-out shadow of my former self…), so I think I’m basically just going to drop it at some point, like Taylor dropping Folklore when no one knew she was even working on it.

(You obviously do know I’m working on this, so it won’t be quite the same, sadly. You’re special, though, because you’re a newsletter subscriber, so I’m letting you know in advance…)

And on that note, I have — checks notes — exactly 2,646 words I have to write today to stay on track, so until next week,

1. Terry does, and he sends me the ones he thinks I’ll like, so if you write something nice I will see it, and probably frame it or something, because that’s how happy it’ll make me…