…but this one made me laugh: http://www.aroundmd.com/whitechristmas/
There are celebrations at Downie Towers tonight as one of the editors has just OK’d the final changes to Book 3 and it won’t return here until next year, when the copy editors have spotted all the things the rest of us missed.
Tonight’s festivities will take the form of a glass of chilled white wine, followed by an assault on the mountain of ironing that we have been moving from room to room for the last three weeks in the vain hope of losing it.
Ruth Downie 
Ms. Downing,
I hope you and your familly had a blessed Christmas and that you all have a happy New Year. Glad to hear that your new book is working its way toward publication. Looking forward to it.
Phil Hall
Oregon, USA
Thanks, Phil!
Now the festivities and the rush are over I’m enjoying some down time watching lots of TV, doing the ‘end of year’ quiz in the newspaper and realising I must have slept through most of 2008. Back to work in the New Year, tho’ – hard to believe, but I really need to get cracking on book 4.
Best wishes for 2009!
Ms. Downing:
I just finished your second book. As with the first I really enjoyed it and am looking forward to the next one. Enjoy your down time.
Happy New Year.
Maggie Dumais
Topsham, Maine
Hi Maggie,
It’s kind of you to get in touch and I’m really pleased to hear you enjoyed the second book! All being well the next one will be out in July.
I didn’t know where the US Topsham was (ours is in Devon) so have just Googled it and enjoyed spotting all those other good old West Country names. Like going home, only with everything moved around…
All good wishes for the New Year,
Ruth
Hi Ruth,
Congratulations on another publishing milestone. I saw one of your earlier postings about the difficulty of actually sitting down and getting the words to flow and read a recent blog posting by Cory Doctorow on his recipe for writing. http://www.locusmag.com/Features/2009/01/cory-doctorow-writing-in-age-of.html
Keep up the good work!
Mark
Thanks, Mark – and the Cory Doctorow piece is excellent! (Mind you, I did then spend some time exploring his other posts, his website… what was that about distractions?)