These pumpkins are a little late, but I didn’t quite manage to hit the Hallowe’en deadline for this update. [Image: Depositphotos, standard licence]

November has rolled around again and usually I would be doing NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) which I first did in 2012 and apart from that year had ‘won’ ever since, either completing at least 50,000 words or, when being a ‘rebel’ and editing an existing draft instead, putting in 50 hours or more of that. But towards the end of last No...