ow smug am I? Ten days to Christmas and I have posted all my cards, wrapped the presents, put marzipan on the Christmas cake and made the cranberry sauce. I am so well ahead of myself I'm now sitting by the fireplace waiting for Santa. How come I am so absurdly organised? Because I have finished THE BOOK. I finished it on Tuesday November 28th and sent it to my editor by e-mail attachment at 09.27 precisely. A round of applause for the lady, please!

This is the book I have tangled myself up in knots about for the past twelve months. I began planning it this time last year and had written 40,000+ words by April before starting it again. The second attempt was better but I still found the format I had chosen kept leading me to a cul-de-sac so in August I began it again for a third time. Why had this story, twenty books down the line, been so problematic to write? Do you know that joke about the lonely skeleton that had nobody (no body – get it?) to go to the ball with? I think it was like that only in reverse – I had the body but no skeleton to shape the entire story. Once I found the frame – with the encouragement of my super editor (she edited Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials so she knows what she's talking about) and advice from Anne Cassidy (she wrote the breathtaking Looking for JJ so she also knows what she's talking about!) I was off faster than Cristiano Ronaldo up the wing at Old Trafford.

his is the time of year I usually back off from school visits and appearances but I must mention a couple of things I have done recently. The first was to attend the Oxford heat of the Kids' Lit Quiz in Abingdon. The Kids' Lit Quiz was started in New Zealand by Wayne Mills in 1991. The man himself was there to host the Oxford heat. Dressed in black with a rather imposing fedora hat, Mr Mills bounded with Kiwi zest between the rows and rows of teams shivering in the cold sports hall. He rattled through the questions (in various categories of ten questions each) and chucked pound coins at the teachers on the back row when they got one of his bonus questions right.

I was on the 'guest authors' team and am always rubbish at these things. I was pretty good at the picture round – guessing the authors – but pathetic at everything else. The range of questions was huge and I was impressed with the teams who constantly achieved seven and above in each round. Respect to Oxford Girls' High who won the heat and came third in the overall regional contest for the UK. Congratulations and good luck also to Aylesbury High School who go to the finals in China. We need more book events like this!

I also thoroughly enjoyed working with BBC Radio Lincolnshire on their Bedtime Stories project in November. I was invited along to the BBC bus to give advice and tips to adults who wanted to write a bedtime story for their children/grandchildren. This was great fun and a great idea. It was very intense – the aim was to write the story from scratch then record it on to CD in a day, which is a tall order, but everyone who came was a star and several lucky children are going to have a unique present to open on Christmas Day.

haven't read as much as I should lately but I did enjoy 'Christophe's Story' by Nicki Cornwell, published by Frances Lincoln. It's Nicki's first book and tells the story of an eight-year old boy coming to England from Rwanda and starting a new school in London. One day while he is playing football Christophe falls over and one of his classmates sees a scar on his tummy. They ask what it is and Christophe tells them it's from where a bullet hit him. Gradually, the sad and frightening things that have happened to Christophe in his short life emerge. What I liked about this story was how simply told it was, making it both easy to read and yet so moving and thought- provoking without being mawkish or trying to manipulate the reader's emotions. It's a perfect class read for eight-to ten year olds. Find out more by visiting Nicki's website on www.nickicornwell.com.

As I wait here, chucking another log on the fire, it occurs to me I have already had one Christmas present. My friend Stephen Elboz dedicated his new book published on November 2nd, 'The Prisoner's Apprentice', to me. How brilliant is that? The dedication reads: 'For Helena Pielichaty, fellow writer, partner in crime, and freelance heckler.' I couldn't believe it when I opened the book. Talk about chuffed (though I have no idea what he means by freelance heckler. As if I would heckle. Oh, who am I kidding? … the man knows me well.)

What's more, the book is excellent. It's about an orphan called Yanis (all the best characters are orphans, aren't they?) brought up in an orphanage by Mrs Pafnutkin somewhere in a country that could be Russia around 1917. Yanis, with his role of the orphanage's champion laundry sorter was, if not exactly happy, quite resigned to his lot until along came the strange looking Dr Gomarus. Dr Gomarus in his huge coat and pink tinted spectacles is seeking an assistant to help him in his studies of the criminal mind and takes Yanis with him to the prison in Osva which houses some of the country's most wanted criminals and revolutionaries. If you like fast paced adventure stories, get this book down on your list for Christmas. It is, as Philip Ardagh says on the cover 'a gem.'

Well, all that is left is for me to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. I'll just stay here, sitting by the fireside, warming my toes, waiting for Santa...