North Sea 16: 17 – 23 December

And here we are, the last blog of 2012. After the storms last night I wasn’t sure we’d make it to post today—it seemed at one point as if our house might slip its moorings and drift down the river out to sea, and the next you’d hear of us we’d be broadcasting from Norway, or Iceland, living on gull eggs and fried Norwegians. But no: we survived.

And we’re past the shortest day! It’s been so dark and grey up here in northeast Scotland I’ve come to realise that Caithness actually defies the laws of physics, so that the sun sets at least an hour before it’s supposed to rise, thus doing away with the need for daylight at all. I’ve set up playlist in my music library consisting of just one song, “In the Bleak Midwinter”, on constant repeat. It seems appropriate, somehow.

I’m finishing the year with another book on Amazon. It’s a collection of fifteen of my short stories, called The Dragon of Stroma and Other Tales. Some are straight fantasy, some are science fiction, some feature my cold war of angels and devils fought out on earth, others are just plain weird. Three or four are inspired by places in Caithness (as you might guess from the title). If nothing else, it will give you a pretty good idea what’s going on inside my head most of the time, as well as a desire to see my medication increased.

It will retail for $1.99, but as a Christmas treat I’m giving readers of this blog a heads-up that it’ll be free through Boxing Day.

In fact two more of my books will be also be free on Christmas Day and Boxing Day, An Inquisition of Demons and The Wraiths of Elfael. (I’m hoping that some lucky recipients of brand new kindles or tablets will be looking for quality free books to get them started.)

By the time we post again I should have finished the back of the gansey, and be well embarked on the front. As I’ve mentioned before, I shall knit the shoulder straps from the front so that the join comes at the back, safely out of sight. (The shoulders will be the same herringbone as the central pattern.) It’s got to the floppy stage, so my knitting technique is starting to resemble Donald O’Connor dancing with the dummy in Singin’ in the Rain.

I’ve got an apology to make, to Martha, who posted a few weeks back to the Suppliers page. In all the Christmas excitement I never got round to replying to her email: she’s looking for a US supplier of British Breeds Guernsey 5-ply yarn. If anyone has any suggestions, please can you post below, or on the suppliers page, please? Many thanks. (And Martha—sorry!)

Gansey Nation will be taking a break over Christmas and the New Year (we’re flying down to stay with my parents in Northampton over Christmas, where there is nary an internet connection to be had). So we’d like to thank everyone for making this blog such a fun place to be over the last year. And thanks to everyone for all your support.

So, as Tiny Tim is fond of saying: God bless us, every one! (I don’t know how Tiny Tim got his nickname, but I did hear him protesting loudly the other day, something to the effect that size wasn’t important…) Anyway that’s good enough for me.

See you in 2013!