Now that winter is well and truly here, the dog has been tucking himself underneath his bed in the mornings before he settles down for his after-breakfast sleep – a definite sign that the weather is colder.
For my own part, I’ve been out to buy a fresh batch of fluffy socks and have dug out the fleecy cardigan that I bought last winter, but rather than falling asleep once I’m wrapped up (very much the dog’s preferred option), I sit down and switch the laptop on. I’m deep in the throes of submitting my last book to agents at the moment, and it can be a thankless task – logging into my emails just so that I can hurl submissions out into the void, and then watching rejections trickle back in – but at least while the weather’s chilly outside it feels cosy at home, which, along with the occasional biscuit or hot chocolate, takes the edge off the process. And hopefully I’ll soon get an idea for the next book I’m going to write too, and that will definitely distract me from refreshing my emails.
So until the weather starts to perk up and the chances of having to scrape frost off the car windows in the mornings fades away, I’ll keep on doing what I’m doing. And you never know, maybe the dog will give me an idea for a new story … when he eventually comes out from underneath his covers, that is.
Catherine Rosevear 