Well, my last post generated a lively response - thanks to all of you who gave a little time and shared your thoughts.  Authors, readers, publishers, agents - even a QC - joined in the debate both on my website, on my facebook page and also the blog I wrote for thebookseller.com.  Anyway, the upshot was… apparently I should be a nice, quiet lady-like author who doesn’t take to her soap-box…  Read into that what you will!!
Slapped wrists aside, a lovely consequence of all the hoo-ha was other sites linking to this one.  As you know, I’m new to blogging and at first all this blinkin’ linkin’ flummoxed me.  However, I rather like it now - it makes the world a smaller place, a friendlier place and it makes cyber-space not such a scary place for yours truly.  Following one such link, I discovered a really lovely website that champions women’s commercial fiction and has lots of interesting pages.  And I’m loving the name: trashionista.com!
I’ve come across plenty of weirdy/ snidey/ fairly venomous blogspots which simply go out of their way to belitte and even attack the genre I write - so it was really great to discover such support out there.  A hearty THANK YOU.
At some point soon, I will scramble back onto my high horse/ climb aboard my soapbox and have a good ol’ sound-off about those who denigrate (yeah yeah, author’s fancy word for ’slag off’) my type of fiction… but in the light of my last blog, I think I ought to keep this post nice and anodyne…
Tomorrow I’m off for a long weekend to Spain (if the snow holds off) as it’s half term.  This trip, I’m perhaps more excited about the airport, than the destination - as it will be my first first chance to see Secrets in the airport bookshops.  I want to tell you that for me, the thrill of seeing copies of my books is as strong now as it was for my very first novel, Sally.  So - if there are any staff reading this who work at Luton - keep your eyes open for the mad woman craftily repositioning books… she may even approach you, all flushed and a bit hyper, squealing ‘I wrote it!  Please can I sign it!’

A website I frequently visit to keep up to date with the latest publications is lovereading because it’s so much more than a standard online bookstore.  I am taking with me Revolutionary Road (Richard Yates) and Mister Pip (Lloyd Jones) - two books I’ve long wanted to read.
I hasten to add that I will also be taking my copy of Grazia (a sacred weekly institution for me) - which I bought on Tuesday and have managed to not open since!  Saving it for the plane, I am - the kids will no doubt run amock, up and down the aisle, while Mummy buries her nose in that glorious publication but hey, it’s only a two and a half hour flight to Malaga….and Monarch air-hostesses are famously fab.
One final thing:  I was a question yesterday on the Weakest Link…but apparently, the silly chap’s answer was WRONG!

Tags | Blog, Sally, Secrets