It's That Time of Year Again...

Yes, Christmas approaches...

There's financial crisis in Europe as well as the UK, and no doubt there are a lot of writers who are watching their pennies this Christmas.

A lot of shops are offering discounts to tempt buyers, and if you have any store loyalty cards you can build up points throughout the year, that you can use for buying Christmas presents- and treating yourself.

What might be good presents for writers?

Here are a few practical suggestions:

• memory sticks
• packs of paper for printing
• notebooks
• pens
• a supply of chocolate- okay, a large bar is always appreciated any time of the year...:-)

If you want something different then there are some fun gift items for writers at The Literary Gift Company and I really like their mugs- there's even one that says 'Go Away I'm Tweeting'...

It was my birthday recently so I think I'm going to get myself the t-shirt with 'Careful or you'll end up in my novel' on the front.

An ideal gift for horror writers is surely their Edgar Allen Poe mini journal with a suitably eerie cover.

You can find a great selection of writer gifts at CafePress -my particular favourite is the small mug with 'do not interrupt inner dialogue in progress'.

About 7 to 8 years ago I used to do articles for an online magazine (sadly no longer in existence, as the editor went in a different direction and eventually closed the magazine) and at this time of year, I used to produce a gift buying guide for readers, with a variety of gifts from under £5 to over £20.

It was hard work but great fun finding a variety of gifts suitable for all ages...

So have you ever been given a gift specifically because you're a writer?

It's Monday and...

Usually by Sunday night I know what I'm going to talk about on my Monday blog post, but nothing came to me yesterday...

Now I have to admit there's a good reason for that. My cold of the past few days became a nasty chest infection and yesterday morning I was so ill I ended up with the one man ambulance car coming out to me to check my chest pains weren't a serious problem.

Everything was fine and I just needed to see the emergency doctor for antibiotics.

I'm now on my second day of medicine and I'm feeling much more human. But it did cross my mind yesterday, that if I'd lived in earlier centuries, the outcome of my chest infection would have been very different- and eventually fatal...

Which brings me to mentioning Rosemary Gemmell's, Romancing History blog, where today's subject is Garrow's Law and The Old Bailey. If you haven't seen it before, it's worth watching.