It seems rather cosmic that I should be laid low by a ghastly flu just as First Light is launched -- I'll think of it as a great shifting of energies, rather than a nasty lurgy, and that will be better medicine than any Lemsip. And I'm energized enormously by the great support we've already got for this exciting project: a real sign of the passion people feel for Alan Garner's work.
As I've said before, I came late to that work -- I'd never read it, growing up in the United States as I did. But sometimes I find myself thinking of my discovery of Alan's writing was one of the reasons I moved to Britain in the first place; as if something were waiting for me. His are books you press into people's hands, if they've never encountered it; and if they have, you discover you have a friend immediately, someone who sees the world the way you do. That's a gift.
More from me soon. I do need that Lemsip, as it turns out....