Welcome to Literary Friction. I'm Octavia Bright here with Carrie Plit, who's joining me down the line from Oxford.

Hi, Carrie. How you doing? Hi, Octavia. I'm in Oxford. That's where you are. Yeah, and it is mid-August when we're recording this and things are pretty

quiet at work in particular, which hasn't happened for the last two years and I am loving it.

So, so that's good. And I'm going on holiday soon. So I'm in a good mood. How about you?

That is a good thing. Holidays are always good. I'm good.

I'm really enjoying life out of the tunnel. I've been working on a bunch of different stuff,

all small projects that I can finish easily, which is like a real treat after the book. And I'm,

I'm enjoying having a break from my own words before I go back and tear it apart with my green pen in a few weeks for the next round of edits.

And I'm getting ready to go up to Edinburgh for the festival where I'm chairing some great events with some really fantastic writers.

So that's exciting.

And I've just been reading and reading.

And yeah, it's been good.

And also I had this realisation, which I'm going to say here because a few listeners

have been in touch in the last year to say that they have also lost parents and stuff.

And I just wanted to check in about that because I realized that I've started to feel excited

properly again. And it means that the grief is moving into a different phase.

And I think that that's really hopeful for anyone who's maybe in the thick of it,

because it's not that it goes away, but it just recedes.

And sometimes other things can then take its place. And it just has a different rhythm to it.

And I've been able to feel connected to Dad through the good feelings

rather than just through the sadness of him not being around. And that's been able to feel connected to dad through the good feelings rather than just through

the sadness of him not being around. And that's like quite a powerful experience. I'm really

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