Winter is Coming by Claire Fayers

I'll be the first to say it: summer is over.

The last, sad tomatoes are dropping from my plants. The sunflowers are withering. The sweet peas gave up the ghost weeks ago. Yesterday, we almost put the central heating on. 

Winter is coming. Winter, with its dark, cold mornings; its rain and its gloom. 

Winter, when you can read under a blanket without feeling guilty. When you can write in bed in the afternoon with the cats curled around you. When you can wear your dressing gown all day like Arthur Dent. 

Winter, when we live on casserole and pudding, and we’ve all put on weight in lockdown anyway so who cares about the calories? There might be crisp winter mornings with frost underfoot. Candles in the evening. Hot chocolate in front of the fire.

Winter is a wonderful season for creating. There will be recipes to try, pumpkins to carve, trees to festoon. November is Nanowrimo month if you fancy writing a novel in 30 days. And even if you don't, the long, dark evenings are a perfect time for some writing sprints. In summer we had to go out so as not to waste the weather. In winter, we can curl up and dream.

And then there’ll be Christmas when we can stock up on books like this one. 

Or this one. 

Or this one.

Winter means the Scattered Authors Folly Farm retreat. Last year's had to be cancelled and I am so much looking forward to January 2022.

Winter means little things. Like closing the curtains at night to make the house instantly cosy. A hot shower after a cold walk. Watching for the robin in the garden. Hoping for snow.

Winter is coming - hurrah!

I love to watch the fine mist of the night come on,

The windows and the stars illumined, one by one,

The rivers of dark smoke pour upward lazily,

And the moon rise and turn them silver. I shall see

The Springs, the Summers, and the Autumns slowly pass;

And when old Winter puts his blank face to the glass,

I shall close all my shutters, pull the curtains tight,

And build me stately palaces by candlelight.

Charles Baudelaire

Claire Fayers writes fantasy adventures and fairy tales, and can't wait to don her dressing gown. 

www.clairefayers.com