And the Winner is ...

... P3 at Linlithgow Bridge Primary School!

They're the winners of the Victorian Christmas Quiz (aka The December Challenge) and a certificate announcing that they are all now members of the Slightly Jones Detective Team will be coming their way any day now. Not to mention -


- a signed copy of Slightly's new adventure, The Case of the Glasgow Ghoul! It's officially out on 1 February, so soon - really soon! I'm very excited!

Congratulations, P3 and I hope you enjoy the book - and many thanks to every one else who entered the Slightly Jones competitions over the past 6 months.

Cheers, Joan.

P.S. Visit my Jan. blog on An Awfully Big Blog Adventure, titled High Confidence and the Leaks - though it has been suggested that a better name might have been The Vegetables of the Soul ...

Fungus Near Perth

Fog Near Rannoch

The Jessie Kesson Fellowship

Looks gorgeous, doesn't it? And see the cottage on the left? That's going to be mine, for March 2011, to write in!

As a Jessie Kesson Fellow at Moniack Mohr, I'll be spending one day a week doing workshops in local schools as well as an adult workshop on one of the centre's Partnership days and a reading at a ceilidh. And the rest of the time - peace and quiet and the company of a wood-burning stove ... So much of Jessie Kesson's writing is set in this beautiful area of Scotland and I will have the same astonishing landscape to inspire me.

I can't wait!

Of course, if you wanted an accurate image for my time there, you'd probably need to cover up all the green in the picture with several feet of snow ... So, pack my thesaurus, the Work(s) In Progress and several layers of long underwear, and I'm set.

Happy New Year! Joan.