I love this time of year. Mistletoe and wine (and port, of course, and brandy and mulled ale if you can), and trying to grab an hour to read beside the Christmas tree. I enjoy the retrospectives that appear in the press, the closing year’s events considered at a pace there’s no time for during the preceding fifty one weeks. That said, it’s tricky for me to be retrospective this particular year, with The Man who Rained published on the 1st January. It’s nerve-wracking, to say the least. I’ve just got back from some last minute Christmas shopping, from weaving through the long queues at the butcher’s door and the cheesemonger’s, and while out I spotted it already on the shelves, which was an experience just as surreal and rewarding as first seeing The Girl with Glass Feet there.
Above are some drawings to accompany those first glimpses of the novel. I drew a lot of black-and-white mountains and smudgy skies while I wrote it, and will post more over the next few weeks. In the meantime I hope you have a marvellous Christmas this year. If you don’t celebrate Christmas, I hope you have a recuperative holiday. Either way, may 2012 bring you magic and gladness.
Thanks to the gift of a Kindle, I’ve spent the last day or so rereading The Girl with Glass Feet and happily sniffled my way through the final pages. Again. I understand why it had to end that way and wouldn’t wish for a different ending, but it’s still bittersweet. I don’t easily cry over books, so this is actually a compliment. 🙂 (I think the last author to do it might have been Philip Pullman. In which case you’re in very good company.) Sorry about the nerve-wrackingness (is that a word? is now) of waiting to see what the response to the new book will be, but for what it’s worth, I’m very much looking forward to it. Hope you had a lovely holiday.