Well, I’m here.

The move went well, despite waking up that morning to a couple of inches of fresh snow. It might have been a bit dicey on the roads, and we did traipse slush into the carpets, but the tree-lined lane and the sweeping landscape around the new place was dressed-to-the-nines in elegant white.

My mum and dad helped me lug all my stuff from there to here (six carloads, gulp) and then to put everything away – a big hurray for mums and dads, but especially mine.

Fatty and Silver will be moving in on Boxing Day, and I can’t wait. I’m already wondering where they’ll choose for their favourite spots, and whether I’ll be disciplined enough to keep them out of the bedroom (probably not). I think they’ll love it here – it’s open fields for miles around.

So here I am.

I’ve just finished a beautifully written book by Barbara Feldon called ‘Living Alone and Loving It’ (I learn everything from books, so why not this?) and it’s full of diamond quotes. This one is my favourite so far, and it heads a chapter about loneliness:

We believe there is something essential we don’t have that’s obtainable. What we long for doesn’t exist, not anywhere. The ache is in the belief.

The ache is in the belief. Life is perfect just as it is. Sometimes it is more challenging to find the perfection, but perfect it is. The ache is in the belief.

Thank you all for all your lovely and supportive messages. I hope you all have wonderful Christmases, and extremely Happy New Years. I’ll see you in 2010.

The very lovely Caroline Smailes (who writes top notch novels) has interviewed me on her blog. Here it is.

You can win another free hardback of Thaw if you leave a comment on the blog before 3pm tomorrow – go!

Right – on with the busy-ness… but this post is looking a bit short, so here’s one of my favourite wintery poems.

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A Winter Morning

A farmhouse window far back from the highway
speaks to the darkness in a small, sure voice.
Against this stillness, only a kettle’s whisper,
and against the starry cold, one small blue ring of flame.

Ted Kooser

Oh dear. I was meant to draw this competition (to win a hardback of Thaw) at the end of November, but life has got in the way…

I’ll let you know what’s been going on in a week or two, but as a sorry I’ll be giving away 10 hardbacks instead of 3.

I’ve already emailed you if you’re a winner – Diane, James, Sharon, Kathleen, Kat, Ruth, Mary Jo, Rob, Courtnea, and Nicole.

Thanks to everyone else who entered – remember you can pre-order at The Book Depository now for £5.99 (or $9.76 if you’re in the US etc – change the currency at the top right).

Right – I’m going to screw my head back on.

PS Thank you Courtnea for reminding me!

PPS a strange thing seems to be happening – people are buying my books! I know because I check my ranking on Amazon every so often… ; ) … I imagine it’s because as I sell more books on Amazon, my books are being recommended to more people, and that there might be a kind of snowball effect. It’s a very tiny snowball so far, but maybe it’s started rolling…

A hiatus hiatus to tell you about something cool.

Kayla from Sexy Women Read has written a little button for Thaw.

You can see the button on the right hand side just under ‘About Planting Words’.

It’s the cover photo, and if you click on it you’re taken to more information about the book.

Underneath the photo is the html for you to copy and paste into one of your gadgets to make your own button.

Simples!

Thank you Kayla. Let me know if you add the Thaw button to your blog.

End of hiatus hiatus (for now).

Hiatus: a break or interruption in the continuity of a work, series, action, etc.

Things are going to be pretty busy around here for one reason and another. I shall be taking a little hiatus from PW – I might pop in now and again to say hello, or I might be back in January.

In the meantime I hope you all have wonderful Christmasses and New Years – it’s been great to spend the year with you. Here’s to 2010.

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Before I go, here’s a wee interview with me at The Man Who Painted Agnieszka’s Shoes, and here’s Juxtabook’s list of recommended Christmas-present-books. Recognise anyone? ; )

Any awkward-to-buy-for friends or family members this Christmas?

How about sending them a novel signed personally to them by the author?

This author isn’t very well known at the moment, but she will be shooting to stardom over the next couple of years, and so this will be a present that not only gives your recipient a good read but it will rocket in value ; )

I have some hardback and paperbacks of The Letters, and some hardbacks of Thaw.

The Letters would suit anyone who loves the sea, mothers of sons, people who like a bit of a mystery and a bit of a love story, workaholics, jazz lovers or anyone interested in mother and baby homes.

Thaw is edgier and would suit younger people, people who are interested in photography or art, cat lovers, or anyone who wants to find out more about the meaning of life.

Read more about The Letters or Thaw by clickety clicking.

If you’re in the UK, you can have the signed paperback of The Letters for £6 including p&p or a signed hardback of either book for £11 including p&p. A bargain.

If you’re in the US I could send some over but I’d have to charge an extra £5 per book – the cost of postage is a killer – and I’m not sure it’d arrive in time for Xmas… you could buy yourself a present instead though.

To reserve your copy/copies, email me at fiona@fionarobyn.com and let me know what you’d like, who you’d like it signed to, and the address I should send it to. My Paypal account is fiona@fionarobyn.com, or we could arrange paying by cheque if you’d rather.

First come first served!

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I was quoted in this article by Shanta Everington about writers suffering from stage fright at the view from here magazine – it’s a good read.

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And here’s a novel idea (he he) – Book Drum has ‘a new site for book lovers’ where they have ‘pioneered a groundbreaking approach to reading. We’re bringing the books we love to life with images, music, maps, video, and all the other riches of the Internet.’ Go check ‘em out.

It occured to me yesterday that this blog is meant to be about me being a writer.

What does it mean to be a writer?

Selima Hill, an English poet who writes marvellous and crazy poems, once said to me that poems are simply a by-product of being a poet.

I love that image. They are like glittering sloughed-off skins, they are a result of a particular way of living in the world.

In a similar way, my novels are the by-product of the characters that turn up in my head and ask to be written about. I don’t know what I’m writing about when I start. I don’t know exactly what I’ve written about when I finish. But I know that my characters are as real as I am, and that they have their own stories.

Most of the time being a writer is about looking out at the frosted grass, and sipping earl grey, and not writing. Some of the time it’s about tapping away at my keyboard. Some of the time it’s about trying to set my books free into the wild, and hoping that someone will buy a few and love my characters as much as I do.

But maybe being a writer, underneath it all, is a commitment to being in the world in a certain way. I am here to look and see. I am here to document. I am here to try and share something important.

Happy weekends x

I’m reading Siri Hustvedt’s novel, The Sorrows of an American, at the moment, and much enjoying it. The narrator is a psychotherapist. I pulled this quote from it this morning: