The UK jacket

I'm delighted to be able to reveal the jacket for Before I Go to Sleep in the UK!

I absolutely love it - what do you think?

Text catalogue and a smelly night out

I just thought I'd share this - it's the new Text catalogue that I received in the post the other day. Text are publishing Before I Go to Sleep in Australia, and here you can see that I've been honoured with a double page spread - very exciting!

Also - I went to a really good event last night. It was called Scratch and Sniff and hosted by Odette Toilette. The theme was Scent and the Pen, and I didn't know what to expect but we were introduced to lots of very interesting scents/perfumes and encouraged to discuss them. (One in particular stood out - the perfumer wanted to create the smell of (and I'm paraphrasing) "a matador who has deflowered a virgin and taken the bloodied sheet into the bullring where he kills the bull"). There were also some interesting speakers who talked, amongst other things, about the difficulty of describing smell, beyond nice/nasty or sweet/sour, then we all had a go at describing the contents of five anonymous bottles before attempting a scent inspire Haiku. All very good fun - and a very different night out.

What's been happening lately

Time for a bit of a catch up I think....

So the bound proofs are in, and are going out again. I was given a few when I was at Transworld on Tuesday, and most of those went to my ex-coursemates when I went out for a drink with them on Friday. It was good timing - I wanted them to be amongst the first to actually get one of the final versions of the book. Without them the book would have been very different, and to say that their input into the early stages of the book was invaluable would be an understatement. Their help was sometimes very practical ('Why don't you try....?') and sometimes less tangible, though no less important ('Come on, of course you can make it work!', often conveyed non-verbally) but it was all absolutely vital and utterly profound.

As the three of us who were there are all at different stage in a new book we talked a lot about the importance of having someone in your life who you can show work to but who will be honest with you. All of the advice says not to show your work to your family, loved ones or someone you're sleeping with as their judgement will always be tempered with a desire to spare your feelings and possible create an easier life for themselves ('It's wonderful, darling' will always lead to a less fractious exchange than 'Well, it's OK but I think you can do better'). I realised (again, I've never really forgotten), how lucky I am to have N, whose judgement is never less than honest, who never lets me get away with anything less than my best, and who will risk an entire evening of me sulking like a child denied his favourite toy in order to help me to improve my work. Thank you N.

What else? I've read an absolutely brilliant book in manuscript. It's coming out next year (certainly in Australia, I'm not sure where else) and is written by Alice LaPlante. It's called Turn of Mind and is definitely one to watch I think. Oh, and I've also given a copy of Before I Go to Sleep to my brother-in-law - we're hoping to work on a very exciting (to me at least!) project together, but more on that when something's definite.

There, I think that's probably it for now...

The bound proofs

Well, I am ridiculously excited once more. Yesterday I had a meeting with my UK publisher, (Transworld - the book is coming out on their 'Doubleday' imprint) and saw, for the first time a bound proof of the UK edition of Before I Go to Sleep.

For those that don't know (and I didn't, until very recently) this is a copy of the book that looks and feels like a 'proper' paperback book - the only difference is that the text inside is not (quite) the final text (it's the copy-edited-but-not-proofread version) and the jacket doesn't (quite) have the same picture on it (though the picture it does have follows the same design concept* as the real, actually-available-in-the-shops book will have next April).

It looks lovely, and feels lovely, and it's absolutely bizarre to open it and see the words that started off somewhere in my head last year actually there, in black and white, on a page. The book exists now, in the world, and it's a weird feeling. Once again it almost feels as though it doesn't have anything to do with me, which is kind of nice in a way. Now I just have to wait to see what the people who these proofs are being sent to will think of the book. Fingers crossed!

*I'd love to share the cover, but I can't, yet.

The American Jacket

I am very, very happy to finally be able to reveal that in the US Before I Go to Sleep will look like this. The lower two thirds is a slip cover that comes off to reveal more of the haunting picture glimpsed at the top, and on the back is another beautiful picture that unfortunately I don't have electronically. This jacket was designed by Richard Ljoenes at HarperCollins (with art director Archie Ferguson).

I love it - what do you think?

Leaving New York

Well, it's been an amazing week or so! Last Thursday I flew to New York, a city I have only visited once before, in 2008, but absolutely love. I remember then having the most bizarre sense of homesickness for the city as we sat in the taxi on the way to JFK airport to fly home, so I was looking forward to going back.

I was over there to meet the HarperCollins team, who will be publishing Before I Go to Sleep in the US, but had decided to stretch my visit out so that I could do a bit of sightseeing and shopping. We chose a great hotel in the meatpacking district and from there explored SoHo and the lower east side on foot, taking in The High Line (an incredible 'urban park' which has been created by landscaping and planting grasses and other plants along a disused, raised railway line) and a few favourite cafes, restaurants and shops from last time. I loved New York again - I think partly at least because it's not that different from London yet the contrast is still pronounced enough for the city to feel fresh - and it was great to discover some new places and things (Chelsea Market, french toast with bacon and maple syrup, The Lincoln Centre, Craft) to add to my list of favourites.

On Tuesday, though, I went to the HarperCollins offices. I had an incredible day, kicked off by meeting my publisher at HC, Jonathan Burnham who was great and made me feel very welcome, and Claire Wachtel, my amazing US editor who is warm, generous, funny and wonderfully direct ('Don't turn into an asshole!' was one of the first things she said to me, following which she told me about authors she had known who had done just that). Together we looked at the US bound proof, which is lovely and, even more exciting, a mock up of the cover they intend to use. It looked absolutely incredible and I really love it (though I showed that in an even more understated way than usual as I had had no sleep, so I worry that the designer thinks I hate it but am putting a brave face on it - which is not the case!), and I will share it when I can.

From there I met some lovely people who are going to be working on the book in some capacity, mostly in sales and marketing. We discussed plans for promotion next year - it looks as though I may be seeing a bit more of New York ('Any excuse to come over here is fine by me!' I said) as well as other cities in the US. It all sounds very exciting, and from that meeting we went into a working lunch during which I discussed the book and my writing generally with the people who will be selling it in the real world. I felt nervous but really enjoyed talking about the book and answering their brilliant and very perceptive questions - the tricky thing was not giving away too much of the ending as not everyone had finished it!

Finally, the next day, I went back in to shoot a little video that we can use to explain the inspiration behind the book and talk a little bit about it. Again I was nervous (like many people I'm not that keen on being on video) but I really enjoyed it. Hopefully I'll be able to post the results here (or a link to them at least) before too long. After that it was time for one more lovely dinner with my agent (this time also with another of her authors, Katie Kitamura, whose brilliant book The Long Shot I had read on the way over and who is excellent company!) before it was time to come home. I had a brilliant trip, and I feel terribly guilty that I can spend time with amazing, interesting, enthusiastic people in a city I love and (just about) call it 'work'...

Anyway, here's what the US bound proof will look like...

Front... and back....

Some lovely responses!

What an exciting day! Some authors have read Before I Go to Sleep and told us what they think of it - and I am pretty happy!

Joanne Harris, author of Chocolat and BlueEyedBoy, has said "Thrillers seldom come much better than this."

Sophie Hannah Jones author of Little Face and The Point of Rescue has said, "Oh my God! I loved it! So high-concept, so ambitious and so structurally brilliant. It's so rare to read a thriller that's perfect in every detail, but this one definitely qualifies!"

Lionel Shriver, author of the wonderful We Need to Talk About Kevin, has said the book is "'A deft, perceptive exploration of a fascinating neurological condition, and a cracking good thriller."

Tess Gerritsen, author of the Rizzoli and Isles series as well as a whole heap of bestselling novels, has described the book as "Simply the best debut novel I have ever read."

And now today, Dennis Lehane, amazing author of Shutter Island and Mystic River, has said the book is "An exceptional thriller. It left my nerves jangling for hours after I finished the last page."

Wow. SJ Watson, author of Before I Go to Sleep, says "Blimey!"