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You may have noticed but autumn has arrived - in fact at the moment it seems more like winter. It's dark when I wake up, dark when I'm going home and next week the clocks go back. Then there's the wind, rain and hailstone. I've already got my hat and gloves out. I love this time of year, I love Bonfire Night, Hallowe'en and of course - whisper it - Christmas is approaching. All very inspiring for short stories. This morning for example on the drive to work I started thinking about an idea for a children's story. I wanted it to be about a witch and soon I could hear the characters in my head - I know that sounds crazy to non-writers. I'm hoping the story will be suitable for The People's Friend's childrens page but the problem is it's too late to send it in for Hallowe'en - or much too early. Although I suppose I could make it less dependant on the actual event. I've also had a couple of ideas for Christmas stories but again it's too late for this year. You need to submit seasonal stories at least three months in advance according to the advice I've seen. My question to any writers reading this is how do you get round this? Do you write spring stories in Autumn? Summer holiday stories in January? I can't imagine writing about lambs and daffodils in between my Christmas shopping. Or do you hang on to stories? I sent my People's Friend (writers' Forum) competition story off this morning having decided on the title and fixed a typo. I'm also trying to keep a proper record of what I've sent where and when, I thought I had a good track of my story submissions until I couldn't remember where I sent one! Luckily I found a note in the back of one of my many notebooks.