Firstly, can I say in true ‘bah humbug’ style how much I appreciate the genius that is Amazon’s next day delivery service? It means I can still shop at the last minute (in good old time honoured tradition), click away merrily, blanch at the total, avoid all the crowds and have a nice chap from Royal Mail drop the lot off for me the following morning. All for under a tenner in postage. Bargain!

Today is all hands on deck cleaning and tidying. The spaniel has hidden and the cat is watching us suspiciously, daring anyone to move her on from her comfy perch on the back of the sofa. The Christmas tree is about to go up for an autistic 24 hours of “No tree! No tree!” and pressies are going to miraculously wrap themselves so that I can hit the sherry before Santa.

So, there’s a Christmas card for you - thank you for making the world a brighter place. Hope you all have a wonderful day tomorrow.

With one of my manuscripts under serious consideration at the moment, I’m almost chewing my fingers off - the nails have long gone and I’m almost down to the knuckles. So, it was lovely to see a comment about it from Helena Pielichaty on her blog.

"Lunch with a David Tennant fanatic and a-soon-to-be-published head of English. Great kids. Great staff. Great stuff."

At this stage, I can only hope. The book’s a good one; I just need a bit more patience before I wear a hole through the rug with all the pacing! Helena has more faith in me than I do!

Helena is fab, by the way. If you haven’t read any of her books, you really should. I picked up Never Ever a while ago, mostly because I was writing a dual narrative and was looking at how a few writers did it. I was hooked. It’s actually rare for authors to nail teenagers so well, but I was reading along, smiling and nodding, thinking ‘Yes, I teach him,’ or ‘I remember having one just like her a couple of years ago.’ Accidental Friends was also a wonderful read. Full of warmth, a clever structure, and real characters that you can’t help but empathise with.

So, once today’s training for the Olympic team’s pacing event is completed, I’ll write a bit more of my demon and then get the Christmas tree up so we can have a happy Neurotypical Christmas, albeit with a few more trains around the manger than is strictly necessary for a Nativity scene and a spot of Weetabix for Christmas lunch for the Autistic contingent. Have a good one!

I’m still in full flow with my NaNoWriMo novel, but the jobs are stacking up to be done. I haven’t started my Christmas shopping yet, not to mention the tons of Christmas cards that I need to finish making, write out and get into the post. We’re going to try and tackle a Christmas tree this year, hopefully without too many Autistic melt-downs, so that needs to be bought and put up, and Little Nutter is cheerfully making everyone Christmas stockings at Fun Club. If you think of Mickey Mouse reproducing all those brooms in Fantasia, you’ll get the general idea of the chaos at the moment.

The house is a mess - there’s a pile of laundry the size of Everest to do before I can pack the Chatterboxes suitcase for their trek to Grandma and Grandpa’s on Thursday. Once they’ve gone, it’s time to excavate their rooms into some semblance of normality before they’re back. Little Nutter’s room needs stripping out and repainting as well in preparation for his new SafeSpace arriving hopefully early in the New Year.

Not to mention all the end of year testing and exam scripts that need to be marked, recorded and targets set for 2009. But what’s that between friends?

In a word - ARGH!

I finished the NaNo experience on a little over 61,000 words which, given the mad pressures elsewhere in my life at the moment, is something I’m really proud of. The story is in full swing at the end of Day 4 (out of 7 planned days), with two more full days to write, as Day 7 is pretty much only for wrapping up the story. I’m anticipating the draft weighing in in the 80-90,000 word range, which is far too long for what I’m writing, so I’ll start the pruning and editing after I start the Christmas break from work.

So, although Nano is officially finished, I daren’t stop yet. I’m chipping away at the rest of the story and hoping it’ll all be finished in draft by 21st December. It’s flowing well at the moment and it’s getting pretty addictive to write. I want to see what happens next, and that’s always a good sign!

And it’s December. I’m not entirely sure where 2008 has gone - I seem to have blinked and missed it. Lots of work to be done and three more weeks at school to do what feels like millions of assessments in preparation for next term. Little Madam and Tiny Flirt break up next week and I haven’t even made a start on my Christmas cards, or even my Christmas shopping yet! It feels chaotic. It is chaotic. But I’ll have the carols on and be baking mince-pies before I know it. I’ve just got to finish this novel first