A few days ago, I had a wonderful chinwag with Gill Lewis, all about the progress, or not, that we’ve both made since we finished our MAs at Bath Spa University. You can watch it here. We’re both celebrating new books, you see. Hers is a future classic. A Street Dog Named Pup, prepare yourselves for something raw and immersive, but unforgettably good. And mine is Waiting for Murder. We ran it through Zoom onto the Facebook Live account at the Book Nook Hove.

And today, is actually launch day. So, so far I have been to the market, bought some fish and had a coffee in a freezing field outside the farmshop. That was probably the high note. I’ve also spent far too long on twitter and bored everyone with retweets. However, now I’m back at my desk, I’m looking back on my first ever book launch. Oh what a different land that was. It was for SHRUNK –

my first book and it was at the marvellous Mr B’s in Bath. The book shop was tiny, the book was tiny, so I made lots of tiny things for the launch!

Everyone I knew crammed into the space! The colds circulated, we coughed and laughed over each other, it was utterly wonderful! As I say a different planet.

Still. In those 9 years, I’ve had 16 books published – two series in that – and some bestsellers. I’ve written more or less every day, and I’ve met a lot of characters, fleshed out a great many landscapes, ploughed through miles of rewrites. And it’s been a ball. A hard work kind of a ball, but I’m not ready to stop, so if you’ll have me, I’ll go for another nine years – 16 more books? I doubt it, but maybe 9. 9’s a good number…

But for now, Waiting for Murder is available through all bookshops. Just ask. Some even have copies in their hands…

Fx