TWAS THE WEEK THAT CHRISTMAS CAME EARLY.

What a December it's been so far ..... Father Christmas must have known that rather than being naughty I'd been nice.

• I always feel its such an honour to be asked to read and review a book so you can imagine how honoured and delighted I was when author Michael Mullin for whom I reviewed TALESPINS emailed me to say that he was publishing a comic book version of 8: The Untold Story next year and he wanted to include a quote from my review on the back cover. Talk about excited.

• My thanks to my blogger buddy Barbara over at MARCH HOUSE BOOKS from whom I was honoured to receive this ....

in exchange for my answering the following .....

A favourite Christmas song? Hmm, that really does depend on what kind of mood I'm in. I do however have a soft spot for Roy Orbison singing Pretty Paper which always brings a tear to the eye. 

And then there's that song with no lyrics that I like so much. Yeah that's the one, In Dulci Jubilo by Mike Oldfield (I can't believe that I put 'That Christmas song with no lyrics' into a search engine.)

What or who inspired you to start writing your blog? Husband dearest had been nagging encouraging me for a while (he'd actually set up a blog for me about a year before I first did my first post) and then we met some of his blogger buddies who convinced me to give it a go.

Do you remember the first book you ever read? No. But I do remember the first book I ever bought. You can read about The Pebbles Go To Town by Michael Cooper HERE.

Do you prefer physical books or e-books? I don't even have to think about this one, its proper books every time.

Do you have a favourite Christmas movie? If so what is it? I do like A Muppets Christmas Carol. Then there's 'National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation', and, of course, 'Bad Santa' and the Finnish film 'Rare Exports' which are both something of a guilty pleasure of mine.

Do you have a favourite series of books? Relatively recent favourites have been The Sookie Stackhouse/True Blood books by Charlaine Harris (I am however glad they are finished) and I've also been enjoying Philippa Gregory's The Cousin's War series and, how could I fail to mention, CJ Sansom's Matthew Shardlake books which are simply divine.

How often do you blog? It all depends. It was every day but at the moment its 3 to 4 times a week.

Do you blog about books or a mix of topics? Its mainly books but I do post about a variety of things including my Media Monday posts in which I take a look at the previous weeks newspapers hi-lighting the articles that stood out for me.

Do you have a favourite author? I have several. For historical fiction I love the afore mentioned Phillipa Gregory and CJ Samnsom. For crime I like Kathy Reichs and Faye Kellerman. And then of course there's all of the up and coming authors whose debut novels I've read who I'm sure will become favourites. 

If you won the lottery what would be the first thing you did? Buy a house with a library with seats in the bay windows, an open fire (one that as if by magic cleaned and lit itself) and one of those ladders that slides across the shelves - ok, so with my mobility problems this is hardly of any use but I can dream.

A couple of random facts about myself?

Err, given the time of year, how about ......

1. As a child/teenager it was a family tradition that on Christmas morning we'd eat tinned hotdogs in a bun at my grandparents home
2. I love Christmas crackers. Every year Hd buys a box just for me and just like a excited child I eagerly await Christmas Eve to pull the first one
3. Want to hear a Christmas joke? 'I live in an Advent calendar, it’s freezing come December 24th because all the windows are open'
4. I'm really no good at deciding who to pass these awards onto sooooo as its the season of good will and all that how about I give you all an early Christmas present and give you and you, and, yes, you this award with my fondest wishes.

And as if all this isn't enough I've received some real goodies in the post which given how busy he is delivering Christmas cards and parcels our postman must be cursing me.

• THE BOOK LOVERS' COMPANION: WHAT TO READ NEXT by various authors.

• ON THE RAILS by Suzan Collins (Thanks to JB @ BROOK COTTAGE BOOKS for this and The Book Lovers' Companion both of which were Blogoversary wins).

• BEYOND MY CONTROL also by Suzan Collins who having discovered I reviewed books asked me to review this her latest book. (See my review HERE. 

• Kirsty over at THE LOVE OF BOOKS who shared her prize of this gorgeous keyring and bookmark by sending me the keyring. How kind was that?

• CHRISTMASTIME 1940 by Agnes Irene (See my review HERE) who along with the book kindly sent a Christmas card and magnet. (A GoodReads win).

• CHRISTMAS AT CARRINGTON'S #2 by Alexandra Brown. (Another GoodReads win, didn't I do well?).

• A PLACE CALLED PERFECT along with a bookmark and poster from author Helena Duggan. (My thaks to Lindsay @ THE LITTLE READER LIBRARY for this).

• TAKE A LOOK AT ME NOW by Miranda Dickinson. (An Avon Books UK win).

Copyright: Tracy Terry @ Pen and Paper. All original content on http://pettywitter.blogspot.co.uk/ is created by the website owner, including but not limited to text, design, code, images, photographs and videos are considered to be the Intellectual Property of the website owner, whether copyrighted or not, and are protected by DMCA Protection Services using the Digital Millennium Copyright Act Title 17 Chapter 512 (c)(3). Reproduction or re-publication of this content is prohibited without permission. In addition I would also urge that if you are reading this on any other page you contact the original blog owner/reviewer.