Finding HOPE...

I've been trying to work out how to respond to recent events in the world and closer to home. I feel I should respond instead of simply being scared, which is how I felt last night. These are my thoughts...

I watched the news last night as MPs voted on Syrian air strikes and, like many people, I felt utterly devastated. Devastated that, once again, violence has been chosen to meet violence; fighting a war we haven't asked for for an unknown length of time with an unknown likelihood of victory. Whatever your views on the legality and rightful place of war against terrorism, it's difficult to watch events unfolding in the news with a great deal of optimism.

The overwhelming feeling I encountered following reactions I saw across social media was powerlessness. We have no power over organisations or individuals who walk into our workplaces, cities, neighbourhoods or social settings intent on taking lives. We have no power over our governments' responses - and certainly, it would seem, no power of influence over their actions. In a world so seemingly full of frightening things beyond our control, what can we do to make any kind of difference?

This is the conclusion I've come to: I am going to pursue HOPE, JOY and LOVE.

I can't change what happened in Paris, or Garissa, or anywhere else terrorists have targeted. But in my life, and in my actions that affect other people's lives, I can do something. I can pursue hope, joy and love. These are the things terrorists seek to target and destroy with fear. But the only way I can not allow them to win is to actively go after all the things they don't want me to have. So I intend to encourage and help people, celebrate life, choose positive words over negative, choose to be optimistic and most of all, do everything I can to not be scared of what might happen in this uncertain world.

It's a tiny personal stand from one life among a countless many. But I think it's the only way I'll feel I'm doing something to fight back in situations where I feel powerless. Peace lies in finding joy in terrifying times. I'd rather be doing something than just being scared. That's all.

Life Begins at 22...

When I was 22, I was full of dreams with absolutely no idea how to make them happen.

I had just left university with a good degree and came back home to the joys of endless job applications. It seemed I had the double-whammy of being over-qualified and under-experienced for every job I applied for. I'd gone to university with my dreams of being an actress firmly in place, but after one audition where the casting director said, 'No. Next!' before I'd even spoken and another where I was the only candidate and still didn't get the job, my confidence hit rock bottom and I quickly shelved my career ambitions.

I wasn't writing then. Or at least, I didn't think I was writing - although my diaries I faithfully kept during that time would disagree. I'd been laughed at for writing when I was 18 years old and didn't try to write fiction again for ten years. I wish I'd had the confidence to tell that person to get lost and carry on with what I loved doing.

When I was 22, I'd also just met someone. I was amazed and overwhelmed that anyone would want to be with me and so when he proposed I accepted straight away. I started to have doubts about it throughout the year but I convinced myself it was just pre-wedding jitters. I wish I'd had the confidence to listen to my gut. It would have saved me from nearly eight years of unhappiness and fear.

What message would I send to my 22-year-old self? Be confident in who you are. Don't worry that you don't have all the answers yet: you're not meant to! Fight for what is important to you - whether anyone else thinks it's important or not. And trust your gut reaction. If something feels wrong, it is. And lastly, even the really awful mistakes (that you make in good faith but wish in time you hadn't) can help you to become stronger, more determined to succeed and a fierce celebrator of life.

LIFE BEGINS AT 22 is a blorgy of sharing to celebrate the launch of BROOKLYN GIRLS by Gemma Burgess. Find out more about the book here and read more LIFE BEGINS AT 22 entries here.

Miranda Writes 3 - Your Questions Answered!

All this year I will be documenting the writing, editing and publishing of my fifth novel, giving you a unique, behind-the-scenes look at my life as a writer. This week, I'm well into writing the new first draft of Book 5 and have started to ask for your help...

Last time I told you I was going to invite you to get involved with the new Book 5 - and this week I asked my first question:

What is the name of the San Francisco cabbie in the story?

I had fifty awesome suggestions on Twitter - so thank you so much if you sent one! I announce the winner in this week's vlog below, so fingers crossed and enjoy! There will be more chances to get involved - watch out for the #getinvolved hashtag on my twitter profile and special requests on my facebook page. And if I use your suggestion, you will get a thank you in the acknowledgements of Book 5!

Enjoy!

p.s. This week's YouTube-nominated freeze-frame is entitled, 'La-Laaaaaaaah!'
p.p.s. I also mention some fantastic writing retreats - find out about BookCamp here

The end of an era...

Quite a momentous occasion happened this week - after seven years in my tiny one-bedroomed flat, I finally moved out...

This is where I have written and edited all three of my novels - Fairytale of New York, Welcome to My World and It Started With a Kiss - most of which on the ubiquitous white (or not-so-white) sofa, which came with the flat and has featured in many of my vlogs this year. Is it possible to put a blue plaque on a soon-to-be-retired piece of furniture?


So, for the last three years, this has been my perennial view when I've been writing:

The photo of me and Bob was taken when we first started dating five years ago and it's one of my favourites, and the baby pics are of my beautiful niece Freya (who will be three in January). The sparkly bag is what I take to gigs and it contains a selection of earrings, bracelets and necklaces for blingin' it up when I perform with The Peppermints (the inspiration for The Pinstripes in It Started With a Kiss.)

I did have a desk in the corner of my living room, in what I called my 'Van Gogh Corner':

The cafe picture (The Café Terrace on the Place du Forum, Arles, at Night) is my favourite Van Gogh painting and the portrait of him came free with a newspaper years ago. It's nice to be able to chat to Vince, although he isn't the most encouraging person to look at when I'm in the middle of edits! The desk was from the first office my Dad worked in when he was 16, so is a bit of a family heirloom, but after I had a health scare in the middle of the Fairytale edits I couldn't sit there for long periods of time, so the sofa became my venue of choice for working.


The box of tea you can see on the desk is one of my prized possessions - the fab people at Yorkshire Tea found out that I'd mentioned their excellent tea in Fairytale of New York and made me my very own personalised box of Yorkshire Tea! It will take pride of place on my new desk and will never be opened!


At Christmas, my desk invariably became the place to display my tiny Christmas tree - very festive!


One of the things I will miss the most is the view from my living room window towards the glass foundry on the opposite side of the canal. This time last year, a beautiful haw frost covered everything in white and it was the most amazing sight to gaze out on while I was writing.

While my flat has been an important part of my life - it was my first real home after my divorce and a total God-send to have my own front door and space, scene of quite a few dating memories (and disasters) and the place where I first began work as a published author when my writing dream came true after years of scribbling in secret - it is time to move on. I'm planning my wedding to my lovely Bob next September, have another novel currently being considered by publishers and am making big plans for next year, all of which require more space.


So on Saturday, I said goodbye to Richardson Drive, Wollaston, and moved five miles up the road to a lovely Victorian terraced house which I'm renting from my lovely chum Andi and his wife-to-be Caroline (Andi is one of the inspirations for Jack in It Started With a Kiss). It has two bedrooms so, for the first time in my life, I will have a dedicated writing room! At the moment (after this pic was taken) it is filled with boxes, books and bin bags, but I hope to set it up completely over Christmas. It's going to be a writing room and eventually a small studio where I can work on new songs - I'm so excited to finally have space after tripping over piles of books for the past seven years... (oh, and those curtains? Totally going once I move in!)


It was really odd to see my little flat all empty and ready for the next chapter of its history. And the infamous white sofa, while quite possibly the most uncomfortable piece of furniture ever, was one of the things I found hardest to leave. Needless to say, I sobbed all the way to my new home - but then, isn't that a good thing when a place has been so important in your life? You may have guessed by now that Romily's canalside home in It Started With a Kiss was inspired by my flat - it was my way of paying homage to a place that I have loved for the last seven years of my life.

Onwards and upwards, Dickinson!

And to finish, here's my last glimpse of the unassuming star of my vlogs, site of over three hundred thousand words and the seat where many worlds were created: ladies and gentlemen, I give you - the wonderful Richardson Drive Sofa...

A spot of writerly advice...

I met a young writer at the weekend and we had a fab chat about writing, books and publishing. I always love meeting other writers and hearing about their stories and experiences, so it was great to spend some time nattering and sharing bits of writing life with another scribe. But it made me think about the writing advice I wish I'd had when I was his age...

Me. V-E-E-E-E-RY young and before I discovered eyeliner...

I started writing stories as soon as I could string a sentence together on paper, but it was around my teens and early twenties (from GCSEs to A Levels and on through my degree at university) that I started to approach writing with any level of seriousness. There was one story in particular that I kept returning to, and I think I probably wrote around 30,000 words in total over a period of about three years. I never shared it with anyone - just spent hours typing on the little travel typewriter I had received as a Christmas present when I was fourteen. It was the first time I had found myself lost in a world of my own creation, with characters as real in my mind as any of my friends in real life. But after a couple of years, I discarded it - because I thought it had no value and was merely evidence of a 'daft hobby'. I wish someone had given me advice at the point when I decided writing wasn't something I could legitimately do.

So, what writing advice would I give to my teenage writer self?

1. It's OK to call yourself a writer.
You don't have to be published, sell a million books or win awards to be able to refer to yourself as a writer. If you write, you're a writer. Full stop. Get this into your head now and you stand a good chance of being able to overcome a lot of hang-ups and wasted hours spent agonising over this question. You are a writer. So get on with it!

2. Your words (and worlds) are important.
Even if only to yourself. In fact, most importantly to yourself. Because if you don't write things that entertain you, how on earth do you expect to entertain other people? And even if nobody else ever gets to read what you've written, it should still have the power to make tingles race up and down your spine and that swell of joy to rise within you that steals your breath and makes you feel like you could explode into a million tiny stars right then and there. At the end of the day, that feeling is what every writer lives for (and royalties, of course. But mainly for the thrill...)

3. Write like you've made it already.
Don't be apologetic. Be ready to learn about yourself, your writing and how to move forward - but at the core of it all keep a confidence that you can do this. Even if you later go back and discard what you've written, write with confidence. Stand by your characters, defend your story and champion your plot - no matter how many sneaky, slimy or downright nasty doubts stand in your way. You know what makes a good story. Work hard to realise it on the page and be unshakeable in your resolve to see it through.

4. Ignore the Prophets of Doom...
You know them. The ones who say how hard it is to get published. The nay-sayers, the doom merchants, the people who would much rather jump on your dreams than pursue any of their own. They'll quote the statistics of how many books end up on publishers' slush piles, recount tales of failed writers and convince you that you haven't a hope in the face of such odds. Ignore them. Odds were made to be defied - and they can only tell you what has happened, not what can happen. Be like Emily Dickinson: dwell in possibility. Every year, new writers appear on the world's bookshelves. Nowhere is it written that you won't be one of them. So don't even think about giving up - not now, not ever!

5. Read everything.
Writing is a constant education. You learn from your own experience of actually doing it, but also from the example of others. Don't limit your experience to one genre. Any writing of any kind can teach you something about your own. It could be a story in a newspaper, an email, a tweet, a blog post, a Booker Prize-winning novel, a children's story, a romance or a thriller... Every writer works to find their own way of recreating on paper what is buzzing about between their ears, and you can benefit from their experience by reading what they have written - and how they've written it. When you're not writing, be reading.

And finally...

6. Get ready for the ride of your life...
Writing is a wild, crazy, frustrating, exhilarating, mind-boggling, breath-stealing adventure of epic proportions. If you take the chance to ride it, your life will change irrevocably, regardless of whether you are published or not. It will change because the way in which you see your world will change. Anonymous customers in a coffee shop will become secret agents, murderers, wizards and star-crossed lovers; people around you will unwittingly light the touch-paper of myriad ideas and send them sparkling and fizzing in your mind; and a hundred thousand stories will walk past you in the street every day. Bus queues will become audition candidates, dinner parties will become cast lists, overhead scraps of conversation will be woven into screenplays...

Of course, you can stop right now. You can stop writing at any time. But can you imagine your life without the characters, stories, plots and worlds waiting for you in your mind?

You were created to write. So do it!

It Started With a Kiss week 8: Structural edits, big decisions and writers' block...

All this year, I'm keeping a video diary of everything that goes into writing my third novel, It Started With a Kiss, due to be published on 3rd November. This week, I'm back in the living room (they wouldn't let me stay in Cornwall, boo!) and the hard work of editing begins in earnest.

I'll tell you about one of the major changes that I've already made to the initial draft and also let you in on a bit of a challenge I'm facing with the first chapter. Plus, of course, your amazing questions - thank you so much and keep asking!!

Your fabulous questions this week include overcoming writers' block, how I've changed as a writer and an editor, how long Coffee at Kowalski's - my original novel that became Fairytale of New York - was on Authonomy.com before it was discovered and how I started writing. Big thanks as ever for your questions, especially the very lovely Joanna Cannon, who as JoannaCannon is one of my Twitter tweethearts and quite a brilliant writer to boot - make sure you go to her blogand say hi!

Oh, and hope you like the hat. I couldn't resist it in the January sales and this it its official World Premiere...

Enjoy!

p.s. This week's YouTube generated freeze frame is entitled: "(slightly scary) Easter Bunny"...

Writer Spotlight: Tom Cox

On Coffee and Roses I like to bring you news of exciting authors who are either waiting to be published or published and worth checking out.

So this week, the Coffee and Roses Writer Spotlight falls upon the brilliant (and very lovely)
TOM COX.

When did you first decide that you wanted to write?
As a very young child I would always nag my parents to read to me before bed and I remember when I was about seven I had three ideal jobs: writer, librarian or inventor. Somehow, things all went awry in my adolescence and I decided I wanted to be a pro golfer, and essentially didn't read a thing between the age of ten and eighteen. I then got back on my original track when I decided I wanted to be a music journalist, but I was always a stage ahead of myself: as soon as I got my dream job writing for the NME, I was yearning to write about other subjects other than music; as soon as I'd started broadening my journalistic canvas, I started yearning to stop doing journalism altogether and write books.

What interests you as a writer?
Finding the humour in the mundane has become a bit of a theme, recently. I also love writing about weird parts of British life. More and more, I like the actual detail of writing - fiddling with sentences until they're nice and clean. For several years I beat myself up for not having written a "serious" book. I've started (fairly humourless) works of fiction twice, got up to around 30,000 words, and scrapped them. I'd love to write a ghost story or a horror story or a historical novel but I don't think it's where my real talent lies, or at least not if I approach it in the style I was approaching it before. I'm now thankfully over the idea that a very funny book can't be serious as well. My favourite writers - Richard Russo, John Irving, David Sedaris, Kate Atkinson - prove this pretty comprehensively. When I think about what really makes me happy as a writer, it's conveying something funny or absurd that's happened to me or people I know in the most economical and pithy way, or discovering a new turn of phrase, or that moment when you actually learn something as you're writing it. Plot is not something I've found myself hugely interested in yet - I like to have as little idea as possible where a book is going when I start - but that might change. I'd still love to write fiction one day, but I don't want to be the person in that Peter Cook anecdote who's always "working on a novel" ("Oh, really? Neither am I.").

Do you have a typical writing day? If not, when is the best time to write for you?
I remember Salman Rushdie saying that there's a specific writing energy first thing in the morning that has to be bottled before it escapes. The belief in that might just be the only thing Salman Rushdie and I have in common as writers. My ideal day would involve working from about six am until one pm, with cocktail gherkin and cold Malteser treats as incentives for finishing paragraphs, then spending the afternoon lazing about in cafes people-watching and reading, but it never quite works out that way (apart from the cocktail gherkins and Maltesers). My life is a fairly comprehensive lesson in how not to time manage at the moment: I spend far too much time socialising to be a Proper Writer, find it hard to not see another human being for more than 24 hours, and get too caught up in the stuff surrounding writing (Twitter/chasing for money/convincing myself I can't write a decent sentence before I've vacuumed my floor), but I keep hoping I'll be a better-behaved crafter of prose. One thing I've learned, as a slightly reformed workaholic, is the importance of battery-recharging time.

What made you decide to write 'Under the Paw'?

I think there were originally seventeen references to my cats in my previous book, Bring Me The Head Of Sergio Garcia. Even the most ardent cat lover - and certainly the cat-disdaining editor of the book, who quite understandably asked me to remove several of them - would probably agree that that's too many cats for a book about golf. This kind of thing had been happening for years, though: my cats bullying their way into totally inappropriate areas of my writing. I thought I'd relent and give them centre stage - especially as they treat my house like a hotel, and it was about time they started pulling their weight financially. One thing that probably stopped me writing the book earlier was the inevitability of being known as "The Cat Man" but maybe I'm more comfortable being weird, as I get older, even though "Cat Man" is only one of many weird shelves of the weird cupboard that is my brain. Publishers are going to want to use that gimmick in the marketing of a book like Under The Paw, and I accept it. But I'd like to be known as a humour writer more than someone who writes about cats, or golf (or - especially - music, which I don't think I've ever written really well about), and I think that's one of the challenges I face with future books. I'm hoping I've started meeting the challenge with Talk To The Tail which, though a form of sequel to Under The Paw, is only 50% about cats, with other animals "getting the floor'" for the other half of the book. Some of the non-cat essays in the book are my favourites. But I feel sure I'll be writing again about cats in the future.

What are the best things (so far) about being a writer?
1) Ability to choose your own hours.
2) The strange assumptions people make about what The Writing Life might be comprised of.
3) The fact that my whole house can become an office.
4) Snacks.

And the worst?
1) Ability to choose your own hours.
2) The strange assumptions people make about what The Writing Life might be comprised of.
3) The fact that my whole house can become my office.
4) Snacks.

Tell me about your new book, 'Talk to the Tail'.

At the moment, I'm feeling very pleased with it. I want to remember this feeling - that I've done my very best with it - because (and I think this happens to everyone who has a book published at some point, no matter how successful) there'll inevitably be a time when a bad review or a comment here or there makes me question myself. I think it's a (deliberately) messier book than Under The Paw, which doesn't run in chronological order, and a more profane one (mainly due to my dad's greater presence in the book, and my cat Shipley's increasing bad language), but I hope a slightly more strongly felt and funnier one. I was late delivering - mainly for the reason that during its inception, in spring 2009, my relationship broke up. It's ultimately supposed to be a fun read, so I didn't have to write about the break-up in great detail, and wouldn't have felt that was fair on my ex, but because that relationship was a fairly sizeable element of Under The Paw, it would have been an insult to my readers not to write about it at all. I needed time to get the distance to write about it the way I wanted to.

You've written about pop music, golf, growing up and cats. What's next?
More growing up - in the form of a book about being from the Midlands, or a "A Middle Person". I wrote about the golf stage of my adolescence in Nice Jumper, but I feel there are still a lot of odd stories from my childhood and early twenties that are untold: stuff that I've only now realised is genuinely odd. For example: living in a small town where every boy except you gets his hair cut for 50p in exactly the same style by a man called "Mad George", or imbibing no beverage but Special Brew for your first two years as a consumer of alcohol. I used to think that was run-of-the-mill stuff. The Midlands is an odd place and I'd like to try to capture it. I'm also working on a "very Norfolk" project, in a similar vein. So, all in all: more light, inconsequential stories about provincial British life that might hopefully make a train or plane ride go a little bit more quickly.

Anything else you'd like to say?
Thank you for having me!


You can see all of Tom's books here. Read more about Tom's feline residents at his Under The Paw blog. Also, check out parts one, two and three of the Marathon Diaries that Tom wrote about his dad (which may appear in his next book). Big thanks to Tom for giving this interview! I'm reading Under The Paw at the moment and loving it - it's a brilliantly written, hilarious and very real account of the various moggies Tom has shared his life with. I can thoroughly recommend it!

If you would like to feature in a future Coffee and Roses Writer Spotlight, drop me a line at coffeeandroses@gmail.com and I'll see what I can do!

Short Story Special

Every now and again on Coffee and Roses, I want to bring you bits of writing I've done in the past that you might not have seen - just for fun!

In 2008, before I was published, I decided to start a short story blog. The main reason for this was just to have an outlet for my writing (in the vain hope that it might be read by someone other than me!). The result was September's - a series of short stories set in a small Shropshire cafe. Unfortunately, because the blog is - well - a blog, it means that the first story is hidden beneath all the others. It kind of sets the scene for the rest as it introduces Nessa, who manages the cafe.

I think you might like it... Read Open for Business - Meet Nessa and let me know what you think!

Forget the Budget and the World Cup...

What with Mr Osborne's doom-laden budget and England's - um - mixed fortunes at the World Cup, it would be easy to feel depressed this week...

But all is not lost. Ever the optimist, I would like to present a truly positive story to bring a much-needed smile back to your face.

Click here to watch Smudge - the biker dog!

(I dare you to watch it and not smile!)

Feeling better? All part of the service, ladies and gents!

Fairytale auf Deutsch!

Just thought you might like to see this...





It's the cover for the German edition of Fairytale of New York! Der Wunderbare Welt der Rosie Duncan will be released by Heyne (part of Random House) in December this year and I'm so excited about it! I was interviewed by the lovely people at Heyne for their site - you can read it here.

I love the design and I'm hoping that the German readers love it too. Let me know what you think!

Lots of exciting stuff coming soon - including my very exclusive sparkly newsletter! Keep visiting Coffee and Roses for updates...

Simple pleasures

Every now and again it's good to just enjoy something simple that makes you smile...

This is a brilliant video I first saw on the fabulous Mr Neil Gaiman's blog and it's bloomin' excellent - just watch and feel your inner kid jump up and down in sheer delight...



Woo-hoo!

Snow, Birthdays and Book 2...

After all the excitement of the past few weeks, it's time to get back to work...

Stourbridge was quite badly hit with the snow, so I ended up working from home for most of last week, only making it into the office on Friday. Having said that, it was actually a lot of fun - not least because of the 'bulldog spirit' that the freezing weather seemed to inspire in my neighbours. I found it fascinating to chat with people I don't normally see that much of during the week - and, in true British style, talking about the weather was the ice-breaker (sorry for the pun) that everyone needed to start talking.

Now, it seems to be melting and -1oC yesterday felt positively tropical by comparison to the scary temperatures we've had recently! Mind you, while I know I should be happy that the snow is going, I can't help but feel a small pang of childish disappointment because I love watching snow falling so much... :o(

So, back to writing the first draft of Welcome to My World - my second novel. It's all going well and I'm planning to post some juicy details here and on my website in the coming weeks and months - so keep watching for those! Just like it happened when I was writing Fairytale of New York, all kinds of weird and wonderful characters are turning up - like Harri's ginger and white tabby cat, Ron Howard, who is kind of like a feline equivalent of a Greek Chorus at pertinent moments! More to follow soon...

I'm always amazed at all the stuff in the media about January being the most depressing month of the year. It's never been like that for me because my birthday's in January! Like every year, I'm ridiculously excited about the day and slightly bemused about the age I'll be (what do you mean I'm not 25?!?!) So, next Monday (18th) I will mostly be jumping around like a kid on Haribo overload and completely forgetting how old I actually am :o)

If the old adage is true and you're really only as old as you feel, then I'm a giggling 5-year-old!

Here it is! Woooooooo-hoooooo!

So here it is: my very first novel – all wintry-looking and sparkly and truly amazing!

Fairytale of New York is now, after so many years of just being a big Word document on my computer, a real tangible thing.

Like any writer, I dreamed about the day I would receive the first, printed copy of my novel. Being the completely hopeless romantic that I am, the image I always had was something like the scene in Little Women where Jo receives a gorgeous, gold-embossed leather edition of her work… Of course, it didn’t happen like that: in my case it was an innocuous-looking envelope handed to me by a rather gruff FedEx guy, who, when I told him excitedly that it was the very first copy of my debut novel, responded with a non-plussed, ‘Oh, right,’ before beating a hasty retreat… It’s going to sound odd, but I honestly couldn’t open the package for about five minutes… I just sat on my sofa, staring at it. I think I’d always pictured myself ripping open the envelope and screaming, crying, running round the room and generally looking like a completely deranged individual. But when it actually happened, it was a really quiet, beautiful moment. I took this photo as I was opening the package: the whole thing felt so surreal that I wanted to preserve the ‘first-look’ for a time when I was less overawed by it all. For a long time, I just stared at my book – my book – turning it over and over in my hands. The thing that struck me the most straight away was the wonderful ‘new book’ smell – something so familiar to a bookaholic like me, yet so completely strange to be accompanying my words…

That’s another thing: not only does it have my name on it, but it also has my words inside it! Again, a totally obvious thing to say, but it’s a very odd feeling to hold a book in your hands where you know exactly what’s written on every single page. Even when I’ve bought new editions of books I’ve read before, I haven’t been able to say that I know every line of it.

It’s taken me a few days to get my head around it – I finally did the whole jiggly victory dance thing yesterday, actually! I know that when I walk into my favourite bookshop in less than two weeks’ time and see Fairytale on the shelves, that’s when I’m likely to do the whole screaming, jumping up and down, girly crying thing (perhaps someone should warn Waterstones in New Street, Birmingham that a crazy writer is due to descend on them on November 12th!) Bob’s going to come with me (he’s taken the day off work, bless him!), so at least he can smile ruefully at the startled staff and customers and say, ‘It’s OK – she’s just a writer,’ to allay their fears…

A couple of days ago, I started getting emails from friends who had preordered their copies on Amazon, to say that their books had arrived, which was a bit of a shock as I’d assumed all books would be sent out on P-Day, but incredibly exciting nevertheless. The whole prospect of people reading my book fills me with a heady mixture of intense curiosity about what they’ll think of it and complete dread at the thought of my friends and family finally getting to read something that was ‘my little chick-lit story’ for so many years.

Like so often throughout my big scary adventure in publishing, this stage is completely different to the way I’d always envisaged it – but it’s a good different, not a disappointing different! Fairytale has been such a massive part of my life for so long - especially during this year – so reaching the run-up to P-Day feels like a relief in many ways, but also the start of a whole new chapter (pardon the pun) for me. Once my book hits the shelves, the whole process starts again with Welcome to My World – which means that, finally, I will be able to see myself as a ‘proper author’, instead of a completely wide-eyed newbie (although I think I will always feel like that!)

So now the final push starts to P-Day… I’ve written a travel article for The Sunday Telegraph (strange, but true), which will be out on November 22nd, and have done a couple of interviews for book sites www.chicklitreviews.com and www.chicklitclub.com which should be appearing soon. On Monday, I went down to London to take part in a presentation the fabulous Authonomy team were doing at HarperCollins Towers, which went really well, and I also did a live radio interview from the BBC, weirdly for Radio Shropshire!

People all over the place have started receiving their pre-ordered copies of Fairytale of New York and it's been spotted lurking on the shelves of WHSmith already... eeeek!

One thing's for sure: this crazy publishing trip is only going to get more exciting!

It's at the printers!

Things are getting really close now...

I spoke to my lovely editor Sammia this week and she told me that my book is at the printers right now! That's my actual book being put together at the actual printers... It still doesn't seem real!

Apparently, I'm going to get an exciting box of books when they're done, which is brilliant and you can be sure that I'll be scaring random passers-by on the canal with my jiggly happy dance when it arrives. This won't be the first jiggly happy dance I've done this year, of course: when my page proofs arrived I was dancing around my living-room - which is on the first floor and visible to passers-by on the canal towpath - when I looked out of the window and saw a very surprised bloke on a passing barge staring up at me... Ah well, dignity's never been one of my highest priorities!

I always had a romantic dream about receiving the first copy of my book through the post - but it was more like in Little Women when Jo receives a beautiful, leather-bound volume with her name on it... Crazy, I know, but that's the kind of thing that you think is possible when you're little! That said, I LOVE my cover and it's so irresistibly sparkly and inviting that I just know it will stand out on the bookshelves in four weeks' time. FOUR WEEKS? Eeeeek!

Only in Great Britain...

Only the British would be crazy enough to do this...

Forget the cricket. Forget football. Forget tennis. We Brits officially rule the world in the only sport that matters: Human Mattress Dominoes! The BBC's Blue Peter programme broke the World Record with 100 human mattress dominoes... Revel in the full glory of the achievement below!

Whoa yes. Feel proud to be a Brit!

Is this the weirdest place to sign an autograph?

I've just signed my first autograph... but the location was an odd one!

When you're a writer, you dream of the scenario where someone asks for your autograph... You smile, blush slightly, and pretend with all your might that you haven't been practising your signature for such a time as this, honest...

I wasn't expecting to be asked to sign anything yet - especially as my book isn't published till 12th November. But at least, I thought, when it did happen, it would be in some swanky location with accompanying slow-mo camera, wind machine and string quartet.

As it turned out, this was not to be the case. I was, in fact, in Cubicle 17 of the A&E department at Russell's Hall Hospital, wearing a very fetching backless gown emblazoned with the legend, 'For Hospital Use Only' (I mean, as if you're likely to want to steal it... Take a deep breath, darling, I've a backless gown from A&E and I'm not afraid to use it!), awaiting the visit of a doctor to find out why the whole of the right-hand side of my body had swollen up and my pulse rate had rocketed.

Before the doctor turned up, a very nice student doctor arrived to take some blood (as you do) - in the process of it all she asked me what had happened to me and I explained that I'd been working stupidly for the past two weeks trying to get the edits done on my first novel. Turns out she's a massive fan of women's contemporary fiction and was really excited to hear about my book! So, when she was about to leave, she asked for my autograph and took the details of my novel!

In an ideal world, I would have preferred to be (a) fully clothed; (b) not swollen up and panicking because the nurses outside my cubicle were talking loudly about, "the suspected stroke in Cubicle 17"; and (c) in an altogether more agreeable location - but there you go.

Ah, the glittering world of showbiz, eh?!

SHOCK! Rare footage found of early chart attempt...

Now here's a blast from the past...

My friend Tash just found this on YouTube... I think it was 1984 when our primary school choir were told we'd been chosen to sing on a charity record with ELO's Kelly Grocutt (RIP) for the RSPCA. Of course, we were beside ourselves with excitement, all thinking we were going to end up on Top of the Pops and doing music videos. When it was time to record the track, we were quite disappointed to find out that we weren't going to a swanky recording studio somewhere but singing in our own school hall instead. Nevertheless, we sang our parts with great gusto, Black Country accents strong for all to hear ('Can we treat the yanimals a little bit koinda') Feast your eyes, then read on below...



Promotion for the single was intense - some of the choir got to go to Stringfellows for the press launch (an interesting choice for a bunch of young kids), whilst me and Paul Hepplewhite went with Kelly to that bastion of radio greatness, Radio WM, to be interviewed. Oh yes, we had arrived. (I remember telling Kelly that my Dad's Talbot Alpine had nicer car seats than his vintage jag because your legs didn't stick to the draylon when you were wearing a skirt like they did to the brown leather interior of his car!) We went on Sky TV (before anyone in the UK could actually receive it) and TV-AM used the resulting video with Mad Lizzie doing some crazy aerobics to it, accompanied by people in animal suits and two kids in our school uniforms that had never set foot outside of London... The best thing, though, was a record signing in Kingswinford Woolworth's (now no more).

Ah, memories...

Still, the thrill that I got from the whole thing started a lifelong love of writing songs. So even though We Love Animals won't be making an appearance on my own album (nearly finished!), it formed a vital foundation for something that's become part of my life.

Here's the cover!

Well, here it is - the cover design for my debut novel!



How fab is that?! Bob and I were in shock when we saw it for the first time... Somehow, it makes the whole thing more real, which is a bit of a daft thing to say, but ever since I first found out that Avon were going to publish my novel I've felt as if I've been in a dream and I've found myself wondering if I'm going to wake up any minute!

The title on the cover is going to be purple foil and the white stars will be silver, too, so it will look wonderful on the shelves - and very Christmassy, too, so perfect for when my novel hits the shops (I am never going to get used to that phrase!) on 12th November.

What do you think? Let me know!

I've just had a Flumps Moment...

It's just possible I have my very own raincloud...

You know, like Perkin did in The Flumps?


Photo courtesy of www.80scartoons.co.uk

I was driving home from work and it started raining BUT only on my front windscreen - the back windscreen was dry. Then I noticed that none of the cars approaching had their windscreen wipers going!

My conclusion? I must have my own personal raincloud following me home!

Maybe it was my odd imagination (made even odder by the amount of time I'm spending in my own head with all the writing I'm doing!); maybe it was the random melancholy of a Wednesday evening; whatever the reason it made me smile all the way home (which was the boost I needed), so it was worth the surreal moment just for that.

And, strangely enough, when I started smiling, the rain stopped... Hmmmmm...

A Kowalski's Fairytale...

Well, the announcement's been made...

...so here it is again: the new title for Coffee At Kowalski's is... Fairytale of New York!

You can read my full blog post for Authonomy here...

It was a huge decision and one I wrestled with for a long, long time. In the end, I have to trust that the team at Avon know their stuff and, having seen the design for my very first book cover (OH. MY. GIDDY. LIFE!), I have to say that the title fits with the design really well. Of course, I was sad to let the Kowalski's title go, but it's only the title; Rosie's florist shop, Kowalski's is absolutely central to the book. What I hope people find is the many stories woven together inside the cover... It's more than just a love story; it's a story of love in all its forms - friendship, true love, fear of love, loss of love, the dream of love, family love and neighbourhood love - through the stories of the customers and staff of the small neighbourhood florist store on the corner of West 68th and Columbus on New York's Upper West Side.

Sex & the City it ain't...

I just hope that people like it... The new title's had a very mixed response on Authonomy, but then I've kept the original manuscript that's posted on the site as Coffee At Kowalski's because that's what it's called in the original draft. The great thing, however, is that even though most people don't like Fairytale as a title, everyone has been tremendously supportive and so kind about it all. What's great for me is that so many people in the Authonomy community consider my novel to be theirs by association - which is great because I don't feel alone in all this. It's nice to share the good stuff with like-minded people and good to feel like part of a community. I've made some cracking friends on the site and it means so much that people support me and my book.

Still waiting for those pesky line edits - but Book 2 is coming along great! Just trying not to think about November, now (too many butterflies for one tummy to deal with!)