Spring was dominated by the publication of Secrets in May. Leading up to a book’s launch, the author commits to all manner of publicity and marketing. This can range from writing articles commissioned by mags and papers in return for a plug (of the book, not of the bath…), to interviews across the media (tv, radio and press) to events up and down the country, plus signings in book shops and finally, undertaking daft things to secure any publicity going. In fact, all authors become a little shameless in giving their new books a leg-up! As you may remember from my blog, the leg-up for me came in the form of a ladder propped against a bus. It was fantastic to don a hi-viz jacket and physically fix one of the amazing posters to the side of a London double-decker!
The shenanigans that take place around publication can be as exhausting as they are fun - and the rewards are always well worth it. You must remember, we authors spend most our year in utter silence in the company of people who don’t actually exist - so I for one find it a real thrill to be out and about, meeting the people who really matter (you lot who buy my books, the staff who ensure the shelves are well stocked, the journalists who take shorthand while I gabble nineteen to the dozen, the producers who let me witter on and on, on radio and tv….)
March-June were packed with commitments ranging from writing my first short story for radio (entitled Fish & Chips, for BBC Radio 4 - I’ll see if I can post it up here, in due course), to appearing on the Matthew Wright show on TV. I also turned the airwaves blue-ish with Claudia Winkleman, but then I turned the airwaves silent on the Robert Elms show when I promptly lost my voice! I signed books up and down the country - me and my trusty felt pen (a Pilot Liquid Ink Sign Pen - in either pink, mauve or blue, since you ask…) and spoke at length to journalists from the nationals as well as regional papers. I also did a number events in the North East - which is of course where Secrets is set. How much fun it is to return ‘for work’ to a place so close to my heart. I even managed to organize at ‘working lunch’ with a journalist…at one of my favourite eateries in Saltburn, Virgo’s!
There were fantastic evening events in Whitby, York and Middlesbrough too - it was great to meet so many readers, old and new. I must make mention of one lady, Colette, who has been writing to me for years and years. It was such a thrill to finally meet her when she journeyed from Leeds to York for the talk there (tork in york? talk in yalk?). At the event in Whitby, a certain Sharon Stone was in the audience (yes indeed. No, not that one). Well, a few weeks later, she took a day off work and decided to drive north for an hour to read Secrets on the beach at Saltburn… and she was strolling along the vast sands at pretty much the same time as I was being frowned at for not having a copy of my book on me for a local photo call (doh!). Sharon to the rescue… Perhaps the event I enjoyed most was the final one on my schedule. Middlesbrough was organized by my great friend Jennifer Garton who has a cameo in Pillow Talk. The evening was a sell-out. Raucous, spirited a fantastic giggle…with a great curry afterwards in Stokesley and a fantastic night’s sleep at Crathorne Hall, my favourite hotel ever.
All in all, I enjoyed every exhausting minute - I know Secrets is my 10th novel, but the thrill of seeing my book in the shops, in the pages of a magazine or in the hands of a reader is as much a thrill now as it was way back in 1996 when Sally was first published. Secrets enjoyed two months in the UK Top Ten and is my fastest selling and biggest selling novel to date. A massive thank you to all who have supported me. It’s been emotional!
Whitby Library 17th April 7 pm
Haringey Library (Crouch End) 29th April 7 pm
York Library 13th May 7 pm
Haringey Library (Alexandra Park) 26th May 7 pm
more dates soon…will keep you posted!
I can’t believe we’re a quarter way through the year. Gawd, what an old person’s thing to say that was! Needless to say, time has flown with my life peppered with highs and lows. Secrets was published in early February as a special edition for the UK airports - some of you loyal readers even made the trip to an airport just to grab a copy. I thank you from my heart.
I’m a perfectionist control-freak when it comes to my novels - some authors are quite content for editing work to be done on their behalf. I throw a hissy fit if anyone dares tinker with even a comma! Although I have done 10 novels in 12 years - an output many people marvel at - I do not ‘churn them out’. Each novel is carefully considered with in-depth research undertaken and by the time I submit it to my publisher, it’s in third draft. To arrive at those 130,000 words of original fiction, many thousands more words are written in the process! Then, after editing and copy-editing (which is to double check if the character’s eyes are blue in one chapter, they’re not suddenly brown in another!) the 5th and final draft of the novel is typeset and two rounds of proof-reading commence. Typesetting is bewildering. Somehow, entire sentences disappear! Elsewhere, paragraphs suddenly appear in italics. Invariably, words are split at the end of a line and look bad for it. Finally the work is ready to be sent to the printers - and I await my final copies.
The thrill of seeing my novels in book form has not diminished over the years. It’s the highlight of so much hard work, hope and energy. Imagine, therefore, how distressing it is when mistakes are made utterly beyond your control…. (more…)
Oops. Sorry to keep you waiting… The rest of the year galloped by and I’ve only just caught my breath. I assure you I wasn’t so much neglecting my website…as simply prioritizing my 10th novel, which I finally finished in late August. Now that my website-wizard (James Beechinor Collins Esq.) has taught me how to do my own updates, my intention is to do precisely that! I hope you’ve been enjoying the new-look website and my blog but I intend to keep the Journal section going too because it gives me the opportunity to blether on at length. JBC is very strict about keeping blogs pithy and short - but I’m having the final say on Journal length! So…here am I, in cold-snap January, thinking back on the last twelve months. Over the months, the Romantic Novel of the Year Award followed me like a dancing butterfly - with so many people continuing to congratulate me, even now! Each time someone says ‘well done’, I re-live the thrill all over again!
The Spring and Summer I devoted to Secrets. Do you like the title? I know it doesn’t have my usual quirkiness, but I think it’ll be a hard-working title. And it does what it says on the packet…because both hero (Joe the bridge-builder) and heroine (Tess the runaway) have more than a few secrets between them and the book charts their journey on whether to conceal…or reveal…! I hasten to add, it all ends happily ever after. Would you ever speak to me again if it didn’t?
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Well, the last thing I won was probably a gymkhana when I was eight – so to be awarded the Romantic Novel of the Year 2008 for Pillow Talk was an awesome moment in my life. It was going to be a lovely day, whatever the outcome, as it was Georgia’s 5 th birthday and also publication day for the paperback edition of Pillow Talk. I was still in my slummy-mummy uniform of old jeans and jumper half an hour before the taxi arrived but as my lovely friend Jeanette always says: “you do scrub up well, love.”! It was such a thrill being short-listed in January – the first time it has happened for me. I shared the short-list with fellow authors Jojo Moyes, Adele Parks, Catrin Collier, Catherine King and Maureen Lee.
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Well, I hope you like the sneak preview of the Pillow Talk jacket on my Home Page…what doesn’t come across is the wonderful vivid blue – just wait until you see it. I wanted a colour as close as possible to tanzanite – the precious gem stone that is a key theme in the book. Before I was a published writer, to help make ends meet, I worked as a picture researcher for a number of publishing companies, using my background in art to help source images and designs for book jackets – and what a fusspot it made me! I’m a perfectionist (though I’m sure the art dept would call me a pain in the proverbial…). For example, we tried out almost twenty different shades of cream before I gave the nod for the background colour of Love Rules, Home Truths and Pillow Talk. We use an artist from New York to do the illustrations – but then the designer and I spend hours tweaking the length of eyelashes, the redness of lips, the creases in clothing… So you can imagine how many blues I squinted over in search of The One. Think I’ve found it, though…
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It’s blowing a gale outside – a tree was uprooted right outside our house this lunchtime so Georgia and I went to ogle the twelve lovely firemen from three fire engines which hared down our street in two seconds flat. The tree had fallen right across the road, smashing a couple of cars in its wake. No one hurt. There’s something so sad about a fallen tree – all those decades, perhaps centuries, of standing so lofty and proud, ending with such an undignified disposal via chainsaw and council wood-chipper. Freya says: Go hug a tree!
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This time of year is usually Launch Party time – but this year, I just didn’t feel like having one. I’m ever so proud of Home Truths but it was written at a time when shitty things were happening and it felt inappropriate to have an unabashed knees-up. 2005 had it’s ups and downs for me. I lost two people very special to me, to cancer. My father-in-law, David Sutcliffe, died in May and my beautiful friend Liz Berney died on Christmas Eve. They both loved coming to my launch parties – Liz in particular had a very entertaining knack of upstaging me on my big night. I just don’t feel like partying at the mo’.
Liz was perhaps the most sociable – and widely loved – person I’ve ever met. She made friends with such ease and people gravitated to her because she was such fun, so energetic and daffy and sensitive and kind. She was a member of a reading group – though she was usually far too busy and scatty to ever actually read the book in discussion! One time, she picked my 5th book, Fen, as her choice for the group. Sure enough, an hour or so before the group was due to gather, Liz phoned me for the low-down on the plot, the characters…and the ending! (more…)
2004/2005
Blimey, a year’s worth of news to update you with… how on earth can I do this in less than the length of a novel? Well, I suppose I’m lucky that, because I’m now just a boring old frumpy mum, I have relatively little scandal and skulduggery to recount. Rather than give you a month by month breakdown, perhaps I’ll tell you about the key people in my life.
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Well, it was a long, hot summer but I made sure I did a couple of cool things (other than allow Felix to drench me with the hosepipe). Andy turned 40 and we had a fabulous weekend in Stockholm. We went to see the Rolling Stones and were privileged to partake of the whole VIP/ backstage experience. Though I don’t do name-dropping, suffice it to say, we met some lovely people and enjoyed a spectacular concert, strutting our funky stuff alongside a great Swedish audience. What a gorgeous city. We hope to return in the winter to experience a very different side of it - dog-sleds and all.
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