Heide: Hello! Welcome to our Christmas newsletter (video version also available...)

Iain: Christmas? It’s September.

Heide: Well, yes, but we’re launching a new service on Facebook called Ask the Grotto.

Iain: Ah, this is our new Christmassy agony aunt slot?

Heide: Exactly! You can send us your Christmas quandaries — embarrassing, funny, awkward — and we’ll do our best to solve them, grotto-style.

Iain: All part of the festive fun around our trilogy The Festive and the Furious.

Heide: That’s right — all three books are now out: The Festive and the Furious, Runaway Santa, and Rise of the Elves. Available as ebooks, paperbacks, and — for the first time — audiobooks, all released at the same time.

Iain: Narrated wonderfully by Matthew Lloyd Davies.

Heide: This year we’ve also been building up our own shop: goodyandgrant.com.

Iain: You can buy the books there, plus pick up some freebies. We’ve got a gorgeous printable Christmas Planner created by the brilliant Sharn Hutton — thank you, Sharn! — and you can also download our prequel novella Christmas Rush for FREE.

Heide: And of course… merch! We couldn’t resist.

Iain: My favourite is the “Santa / Sleigh” T-shirt — apparently the young people assure me that’s cool.

Heide: I love the “Rage, Rage Against the Hanging of the Lights” one. Perfect for anyone who dreads Christmas decorations.

Iain: Plus there’s a new free novella Top of the Tree coming soon, leading into projects for next year.

Heide: In the meantime, we’ve been out in the real world too: events at the Pen Museum in Birmingham (a gem of a museum — go visit!), library groups, WIs, and we’ll even be at a craft fair.

Iain: We’re going to be busy, aren’t we?

Heide: In all that busy stuff we’ve got between now and Christmas, when do you intend to put up your Christmas tree?

Iain: In our house it has to wait until after my youngest’s birthday in early December.

Heide: My daughter got married in late November specifically so she could declare Christmas open the very next day.

Iain: In the meantime, enjoy the books and let us know when do you put your Christmas tree up? 

Heide: Have you had your first mince pie yet?