Well!  Would you look at this:

It was a very great honour to be asked to open the fanatastic, revamped main library in York… but I had no idea there’d be a plaque to mark the occasion and must admit to shedding a tear or two!  Anyway, last week, I went to see the plaque in situ.

What a thrill!  Truly on a par with winning the RNA award for Pillow Talk in 2008 and being chosen as ‘Listed Londoner’ on the Robert Elms Show on BBC London…
How’s your summer been?  Mine has been active, to say the least… There’s been a certain amount of gadding about – from fab events in St Albans, Leeds, York and Saltburn, to holidays in Spain and Wiltshire.  And of course, beavering away on my new novel Rumours which will be finished by Christmas and with you next Spring.
I’ve held some fun competitions over on my facebook page - and shortly, I will post up here on the website the results of ‘Heroes and Actors’ and also ‘Heroines and Actresses’ – where my facebook fans suggested actors for my characters.  Some very inspired proposals!  Of all my characters – male and female – one stood out for having at least twice the number of entries than any of the others…  Good ol’ Django McCabe!  Two of the actors suggested were utterly brilliant…  David Essex ….and Bernard Cribbins!
I don’t know what it’s like where you are, but it’s been peee-ing it down, here in Hertfordshire, so I’m going to cheer myself up as I close now, by posting photos of my wildflowers, which were planted from seed at Easter.  Glorious, hey!  Enjoy a wonderful bank holiday weekend – and I’ll be back on here shortly.  Thanking all of you for keeping in touch and for being such a warm and supportive group of readers.  I really am soooo grateful.  Freya x

I love the period around publication – not merely the excitement of finally seeing my book out there, holding its own on the shelves in shops, supermarkets and on-line; at last a real item in readers’ hands, reviewed (favourably, for the most part) in the press, larger-than-life posters in rail stations….
For me, it’s also the time when I have the chance to gad about – and I really love doing that.  Remember, I spend most my working year in silence surrounded by people who don’t actually exist (it pains me to admit it, because my characters seem so real to me…) So it’s a real thrill to go out and about, meeting people and indulging the chatterbox side of my nature (as well as swiping all the fancy smellies from the lovely hotels I’m fortunate to stay in).  I love doing TV and radio and interviews/articles.  But best of all, perhaps, are the events I do where I meet my lovely readers.  This year, for Chances, it’s been quite a scaled down mini-tour (next time, for the new novel Rumours, I hope to criss-cross the UK…and beyond!)  On Tuesday 24th, I’ll be in York and on 17th August, back in my spiritual home of Saltburn-by-the-Sea.
Do pop over to my facebook page – I’m just about to announce the winners of the new competition.  I asked for ideas for which actor would best suit which character – and the suggestions have been inspired.  Interestingly, of all my male characters, it has been Django who’s had the greatest number of responses!  David Essex, anyone?  How about Bernard Cribbins?  Genius!  I’ll be posting a run-down of the results here on the website soon.  And a new competition for the website too – for those of you who find the social-networking thing a little onerous…  (I’m with you on that one… but needs must!)

I am deliriously excited to tell you that CHANCES is no.4 in the UK bestseller charts!
I really have little to add – apart from to thank all of you for going out there and supporting my work.
Right – I’m off to do a victory lap around my garden…
Thank you again, dearest readers, thank YOU.
Freya xx

Warmest congrats to IMOGEN BLYTH who has won the first Chances competition! I’ll post another one up very soon!
I’m having a wonderful – if exhausting – week.  Thanks to you, Chances sold 11,000 copies in just 3 days and rampaged into the charts at number 13. It’s utterly thrilling – and I’m extremely grateful to my lovely readers for supporting me because times are tough out there and your pennies are precious. Thank you.
I had great fun on Channel 5′s the The Wright Stuff yesterday – an hour and three quarters of live TV. I’ve done the show before – Matthew is a wonderful guy, always puts me at my ease and always brandishes a copy of my book for the cameras!  Thanks, mate!  If you missed it, you can watch it again on their website.  I’ve had many compliments about the little cardi I was wearing – it’s my fave and it’s by Nougat London.
Had a wonderful afternoon today – Georgia swam for the first time in our stream, discovering a pool that went up to her chin. On the bank, Felix and Twiggy made friends with…a snake. I hopped up and down shrieking from the other bank – but it turns out it was a grass snake, now a ‘pet’ called April Shy.

This weekend, I’m off to the Parelli Celebration of Natural Horsemanship in Birmingham – a real highlight of my year. Next week, busy busy with radio, a talk in St Albans and more TV – the Vanessa Show, on Channel 5 next Friday 15th. Which just so happens to be my darling Felix’s 10th birthday…

What a weekend!  I’ve been darting from retailer to retailer, mostly incognito, checking on stock and gamely rearranging copies of Chances into dazzling displays.  Then texting all my friends and family, requesting they do the same.  All authors do this…  This covert marketing activity had to fit in and around our school’s Mother’s Day Concert, my son’s kayaking birthday party, to friends on Saturday pm, a day behind the scenes at Brands Hatch on Sunday and then friends to stay Sunday pm…  Somehow we managed to make sure Twig the dog had lovely long walks (we found a muntjac skull – and also the first bluebells of the year down in our woods) but Nathan the horse had sunny days off, mooching around in the paddock.  I think he was delighted.

Today, I went into London to do radio interviews – I love doing these, just me and a mic in a soundproof room, chatting to radio stations up and down the country!  Hullo Gloucester!  Hullo Nottingham!  Hullo Solent!  Remember, I spend most my working life with people who don’t actually exist (however much I love to feel my characters are real…) so around publication time, I love chatting and gadding about.
I’m thrilled to have been invited back by Matthew Wright to his wonderful Channel Five show, The Wright Stuff - and I’ll be appearing as a guest this Wednesday morning.  On my way home, via Kings Cross station, I caught sight of one of our lovely promotional posters for Chances.  So I took a picture.  I think the passers-by assumed I was a tourist thrilled by the sight of Upper Crust…
“Would you like a fab new paperback novel with your egg mayo baguette, madam?”

Tomorrow the whirlwind continues.  For me, though this is my 11th novel, I’m as excited as I was when my first novel, Sally, was published in 1996.  I love my downtime too – and there’s nothing more leveling than sitting at the kitchen table alongside Felix, trying to pretend I know what his maths homework is all about.  Or racing Georgia down to our woods to find that first, beautiful bluebell of the season.