Updates on books, general gabbery, Happy Christmas etc.

Why, hello there. I've been massively neglectful, I know. It's very much time for an update. Where to begin. Well, the latest news is that Naked Thighs and Cotton Frocks and Other Short Stories is essentially not going to be available in time for Christmas. It might well be back from the printers in the next couple of days, but basically we'll have missed the last post by then. It's a little bit vexing, but printers are busy people in December so we knew it was bound to be a bit iffy. Never mind. BUT, nonetheless, and I'm vaguely sorry to shout at you there, the exciting news is that you'll be able to buy it very soon indeed and have it tumble through your doorway some small number of days after the conclusion of the festivities, which'll be cheering because it's lovely book full of smashing orangery stories and there's a bottom on the front cover. Good. Ceci's just put a nice PayPal button on the website, here, so you can order it from there any time you like and we'll send it to you as soon as we possibly can. Or you can send us a cheque and a letter or an email if that's the sort of thing you prefer. It'll cost £9.99 (p&p £1 per copy).

The other anthology-in-progress is Imagine Coal and More Micro-Fiction, which is currently at the collating and editing stage and will probably go to print some time in January. So that's jovial. You might also be wondering rather frantically about the whereabouts and whenabouts of the Humour Competition, you know, if you've got a particularly empty sort of a life. Or if you're addicted to all things Leaf. We're fine with that. Well, it's all in hand and actually we've done a fair bit of the judging, but we're holding off finalising the final selection (I'm fairly sure there are better words I could be using here) until January when we can devote the necessary amount of time to it. So remain for the moment on tenterhooks. We'll release you in the weeks to come.

We've been all sorts of kinds of busy these past few months, primarily making competition anthologies for ourselves and compiling work for lovely other people via our Root Creations service (send us text and have it magically transformed into a novel or a collection and possibly a bit of a website on the side - that sort of thing). That's been keeping us tremendously occupied. We've also been working through various iterations of the Mostly Life website with a view to making it generally spiffy (there's quite a test-ish sort of a version up at the moment, but the next 'un's very much in the offing), and all-in-all being website designers and humour writings and contemplating penning a sitcom. Basically what happens is that Ceci sees something on the telly that gives her a magnificent idea, and the next day it's been added to our lengthening CV. It's very exciting. Tomorrow we might be plumbers.

The websites are very nice indeed though. You can see them all through the Mostly Websites page, which is kind of our headquarters. It's a jolly page that makes you go 'What the dickens?' quite a lot, which always amuses us. The first dot's the one you're after. It links to a page called 'What?'.

I can't think offhand what else I need to tell you. Ceci has two new kittens and I have a peculiar itch just behind my right ear. I don't think there's any sort of a connection. So mostly I should just cease to blither now and wish you a happy Christmas and general adaptable seasonal greetings, and we'll be back in January with new books and websites and possibly we'll be designing bridges by then as well. We'll take some photos. It'll be splendid.

Sam.