Welcome to Literary Friction.

I'm Carrie Plitt here as always with my co-host Octavia Bright.

Hi, Octavia. How are you?

Hi, Carrie.

I am good, I think.

I am fighting very hard against the January blues and the relentless demands of my

self-assessment tax spreadsheet. And let me tell you, there's a hard battles to be fighting

simultaneously and to win, but I'm doing my best. And today was actually a really good day because

I dropped by the Canongate offices and saw the first proofs of my book

in a beautiful green pile, which was an extremely surreal and kind of astonishing feeling.

And I'm still writing a little bit high off it.

So today has been a good day in spite of the rain, in spite of the grey.

How about you?

That's so exciting.

And I think there is still something so

powerful about the book as an object, isn't there? I always feel that when my author's books

come in. It's like, wow, this thing that was in your head has become a thing. Tangible.

Yeah, that's a much better word for it. You're the writer. I think it's also just this thing. It's the beginning of the process of letting it go, isn't it? It becomes other from you, and then it's out there, and then it's in the hands of other people, and you have to let go of it, which I feel the beginning of that process coming,

and it's very strange but quite exciting. Yeah, I'm so excited to hold it eventually. Oh, my God.

But yeah, I am also fighting the January blues settling into the month. I punctured my bike tire

on my first day back at work, which was a great start. My house is so cold, Octavia, I can't even tell you. I've been sleeping with a hot water bottle and like five layers of socks. You need an electric blanket, my love. I might get one, actually. Get one. I will send you one if you don't get one by the end of the week, okay? Okay. Okay. Thank you. That's so nice of you.

But yeah, in that spirit, I'm choosing to lean into positive, warm, cozy things, cups of tea,

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