Hallowe'en passed without much celebration here. I just put spooky books in the window i.e. tarot cards, werewolf stories, Frazer's Golden Bough, Edgar Allan Poe, Buffy novels and so on. They did very well and I shifted books that have been hanging around a while, so that was all good. It brought me in some interesting conversations whatismore. A fairly regular customer, one I like, started talking about folklore and finished by telling me about her own totally fascinating experience of living in a haunted house in Ireland.

It's very much the place I am in at the moment as I retell the tale of the witch Isabel Goudie and chase around the other local books on the shelves and on the internet looking for North of Scotland folklore. It's rather like an archaeological dig, the further down I get the more complex things become and the more interesting only I'm afraid I'll disappear forever in some archive or the other and never be seen again.

At least it's keeping me from panicking about the future moves, which is a good thing. Poor Chloë decided to go down the honest route and notify the Moray Council of her proposed change of usage. Bad idea. They will charge her for the new signage - she could hardly continue to call it 'The Forres Bookshop' after all - and were going to charge for the change of colour so she has decided to keep the colours as they are! There are other things they'll charge for which I have forgotten because they're so stupidly insignificant but all in all it will cost at least £300 just to clear the red tape, and this is the council that claims to be helping small businesses!! Bah!

I keep thinking I'll write A Letter to the local papers, signed Disgusted of Forres, but I've been down that route in the past and it only leads to tugging in the gut where no doubt ulcers are thinking of forming. Best just stay above it all.