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I KNOW it’s been a long time since I updated my blog and I apologize profusely. I’m going to make it up to you with a lengthy post in the journal section. And when I’m feeling particularly brave, I will try and upload some of the videos I’ve been taking over the last few months.
Anyway, welcome back to all of you - it’s nice to chat after a prolonged silence.
I am extremely excited and honoured to tell you that the magical, awesome Beth Tweddle - Great Britain’s recently crowned World Champion gymnast - is currently reading Secrets. Not just in her spare time, mind. She was reading it in the preparation room just before she took to the floor to win a couple of weeks ago. She recommends reading as a way to focus and prepare and to block out the sound of the crowd. I am thrilled, flattered and humbled, Beth, and I know that all my readers will want to congratulate and thank you for your fantastic achievement (all the more awesome when you consider she is just a month off an op on her ankle). We are very proud of you! Roll on 2012, Ms Tweddle.
666!
nope, not the devil in me… but a very very lucky number for us.
Secrets was published 6 weeks ago
Secrets has spent 6 weeks in the national Top 10
Secrets is number 6 in this week’s chart!
I’m just back from a week in Spain - and top of my to-do list is to update you with all my news, photos and videos…
In the meantime, follow this link… It’ll take you to my first short story written for radio, which BBC Radio 4 commissioned. Many of you will know that I famously HATE writing short stories - give me 140,000 words to play with, any day!
For ‘Fish And Chips‘, I was allowed 2,000 words…and I was told “No sex and no swearing, Ms North”
Listen and enjoy…and please let me know what you think!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00ktbf2/Afternoon_Reading_More_Love_in_the_Afternoon_Fish_and_Chips/
stop press!
You’ve done it again, you lot!
Your support and enthusiasm has seen Secrets climb the Top Ten to a fabulous no.5 this week - just 40 copies off the no.4 spot! Thank you so very much.
I’m just back from a jam-packed but fun and fantastic trip to promote the book - and I’ll be blogging AT LENGTH in the next day or so. For the time being, sending you my gratitude, I wish you all a great weekend. Freya x
Thank you Thank you Thank you!
I’m delighted (over-excited) to be able to tell you that… after only 3 days sales, Secrets has gone straight into the national Top 10!
I’m absolutely cockahoop and want to thank you, one and all, for your incredible support….
That’s all for now - I need to run around the garden like a mad thing… x
Well, what better way to spend a glorious sunny Tuesday…than down the local bus depot!
In London, Secrets is being advertised on the sides of 150 double deckers all over the network! I thought it would a giggle - and a bit of a thrill - to put up one of these impressive ads. They’re HUGE!
First, you have to stick the visual on a board - and it’s a massive sheet of sticky back plastic!
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Here I am at the CBS warehouse in Walthamstow with the lovely John Steer and his team
Next it was off to the Arriva bus company’s London North depot, at Enfield, with the wonderful Mick who kept the ladder steady and told me what to do!
off with Nokia! Up with Freya!
There are 150 buses across the London network, emblazoned with Secrets! If you see one - give it a big wave… and let me know!
A hearty thank you to all the great guys at CBS, to everyone at the Arriva depot - and especially to the fab CBS girls - l-r: Catherine, Michelle and Stephanie.
You made my day - you really did!
The Author and Her Assistant
(who tried to charge me 50p)
(we settled on an ice-cream… which turned out to be a damn sight more expensive!)
Well! What an exhausting, exhilarating day! My 10th novel is now, officially, published - and it was an utter thrill for your author to be out and about, nipping into book shops left, right and centre and seeing Secrets on the shelves! For me, the excitement of publication simply has not diminished one jot over the years.
Bizarrely, in Selfridges, the sales assistants refused to let me sign copies of Secrets until they’d had a long (rather stern) look at my author pic in the book to verify I was indeed who I claimed to be!
There are currently signed copies at Selfridges, at Waterstones opposite Selfridges and at Borders, Oxford Street. I’ll be sure to let you know as and when and where I sign more!
Hope you’re enjoying the new video section on the website - and that you’ve found the competition too!
What a day! So many lovely messages from you lot. Where would I be without you? Your seal of approval is more precious, more ‘real’ to me, than a month in the Top 10 (though that’d be rather nice too!)
Look at what I did to the sand at Saltburn on Sunday…
I thought it rather inspired marketing….and it was clearly visible for all on the pier to see! Saltburn Pier has been awarded the Best Pier in Britain for 2009 (Pier of the Year sounds better…). As most of you know, Secrets, my 10th novel (out on 30th April) is set in this wonderful, quirky Victorian seaside town.
Here I am, chasing Felix and Georgia off my handy work!
We were up in the North East because I was invited to give a talk in Whitby. It was excellent and I am so grateful to the staff of the Library (especially Allison) and all the lovely people (hullo Sharon Stone!) who came from far and wide to listen to me blether.
I also took videos at the Transporter Bridge, as well as at Saltburn, to provide you with my own tours of the settings of Secrets. I did the same for the settings of Pillow Talk (Stokesley and Great Ayton) and when I’m feeling particularly brave and technical, I’ll do my best to upload them for you!
I have to beaver away this week on a short story for Radio 4’s “Love in the Afternoon” which will be broadcast in June. I HATE writing short stories - it’ll take me longer to write than it takes me to write a couple of chapters. I think it was Browning or Byron or Someone Else Worthy Beginning With B who said “it would have been shorter had I had more time”. Give me 140,000 words over 2,000 words any day. How on earth can I fit a beginning, a middle and an end into THAT? Grrrrr.
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!
Well, let the countdown to publication commence - in 30 days time, my 10th novel, Secrets, will be on the shelves and even though I’m an old hand at this publishing milarky, I assure you I’m still all of a jitter! The anticipation of publication - and the thrill of seeing my book out there in the stores has not diminished one jot over the years. I’m so proud of Secrets - my editor told me she feels it has the ‘most satisfying and complete ending’ she’s read in a long while. I’ll be on tenterhooks to see if you agree! Certainly, while I was writing it, the last third of the book seemed magically to tell itself - somedays, I’d sit working in the library and it was as if the characters were dictating the tale directly to me. As you’ll know from my Advice section, I never plan my novels so it’s as exciting for me to see how they unfold as (I hope) it is for you when you read them.
In our gloomy times, I hope a little love and romance will go a long way for you, gentle reader. And I hope the bright jacket design will sing out. I’m SO into colour at the mo’ - colour was my starting point for the new-look covers (I’ll be letting you have a sneak preview of the re-designed ‘back-list’ very soon). One of my reference points was one of favourite ads, which I think is genius - the iPod Nano ad - that gorgeous ooze of colours with little mention needed for what the machines could actually do! Talking of colour, there are a couple of exciting promos for Secrets - including a sweet-as-you-like scarf if you buy the book at Sainsbury’s and ALL the copies have a discount voucher for gorgeous Ruby and Millie cosmetics as well as a chance to win a Ruby and Millie makeover and goody bags.
It’s been a busy time for me - last week I went off on a slight tangent, speaking at the Best of Britain show in London - my topic was ‘How Popular Culture Influences Tourism’ and I was able to witter on about how important to me location and a sense of place are. Which leads me on to sharing with you a new accolade about which I’m extremely excited and honoured - I’ve been made an official Ambassador for the North East. As you know, the North East really is my spiritual home - despite being born a posh southern totty! I can’t wait to see what the Regional Development Agency for the North East have in store for me. And I’m itching to journey North again from London in a fortnight. I’m doing an event in Whitby on 17th April, and another in York on 13th May. I’ll be posting up a more detailed schedule shortly.
Talking of authors who have a passion for specific locations, I’ll let you into a secret - I blagged my way into University…! At my interview, the professor asked what texts I was doing for my English A level. When I said ‘Tess of the D’Urbervilles’ he asked what I liked about Hardy. For a horrible moment my mind went completely blank. Then I remembered an essay I’d recently written - the title was ‘Landscape is not merely a backdrop in the novels of Thomas Hardy, but a leading character in them. Discuss.’ So, I cleared my throat and gazed pensively out of the window. “Well,” I told the Prof whilst pulling a selection of faces which suggested I was formulating a well-considered answer, “what I find SO fascinating is how, in Hardy’s novels, landscape is not merely a backdrop - but a leading character.” He agreed wholeheartedly. And I won my place.
My new heroine, in Secrets, is called Tess…so there you go, a nicely rounded-off blog…
Many of you have been in touch asking whether I’ve written a short story for the infamous anthology just published, In Bed With….
It’s edited by my great friend, the marvellous Australian author (and so much more) Jessica Adams. I met Jessica whilst involved with the Girls Night In anthologies - she’s a remarkable woman - read her book I’m A Believer - it’s one of my all-time favourite reads!
Anyway, back to the matter in hand, no - I didn’t contribute a story to In Bed With… Partly because I was up to my neck writing Secrets, partly because I’ve always written pretty raunchy scenes (yes alright - downright dirty) in my mainstream novels and thus didn’t feel I needed an outlet in which to do so!
The In Bed With girls have written under larky pseudonyms that combine their first pet’s name/ the road in which they grew up. It’s a bit of fun and an excellent PR/ Sales angle - but I do wonder would they not have been proud to put their own names to their work? And I don’t use the word ‘work’ lightly - I find writing short stories excruciatingly difficult - I could write three or four chapters in the time it takes to write a short story - give me 140,000 words over 2,500 words any day!
The shortest story my poor Dad has read was a mere 21 words long… It was the opening of my first novel Sally… and because the 22nd word was, erm, risque he hasn’t read a single word I’ve written since - and I’m now 10 novels and 12 years down the road!
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