PUBLICATION DAY!

It's publication day, in the UK at least! Before I Go to Sleep is available, in the shops! It's an amazing feeling, and really does feel like a dream I've had my whole life has come true. I have a launch party tonight, and I'm very happy...

Very busy, too! Hence it's been a while since I've updated here. By way of a quick round-up, there have been a few reviews and articles in the press over here in the UK, and I've done a couple of radio interviews, too. One will be broadcast tomorrow, at 10pm (GMT) on BBC R2 (The Arts Show). Tune in (or listen on BBC iPlayer, if you're based in the UK). Details here.

We also learned that Before I Go to Sleep has been chosen by Simon Mayo as his book club book of the month for May. Terrifically exciting! Details here.

I also did an interview for BBC Radio WM (West Midlands, where I'm from). Surreal experience, sitting in a small booth just off Oxford Street in London, chatting to a DJ in the West Midlands. Made even more surreal by the fact that I thought it was a prerecord interview so strolled into the booth, sat down, took my coat off, found my phone and switched it off, all in a very leisurely fashion, only to hear a slightly anxious woman in the headphones. I popped them on and said, 'Yeah, hi, I'm just getting settled....' to which she replied, 'We're going live in about 10 seconds...'

A moment later I was on the air, live, chatting to a DJ. In a way I think it worked out for the best - at least I didn't have time to get nervous!

For details of all these things, look at my (brand new!) website, here.

Towards publication, and Rat Girl

Things seem to be coming together. I received the proofs of the (UK) jacket the other day - Transworld have tried a glossy version and also a matt version with 'spot varnishing' on the lettering. Both look gorgeous, and luckily we both agree that the matt is slightly nicer. So that's how the book will look. It could so easily have been different - the book wrapped in a jacket I tolerated, yet didn't love, or worse. As it is I can honestly say I'm very happy with the skin my baby will be wearing out in the world.

Things seem to be gathering pace elsewhere, too. I suppose it was inevitable as the calendar ticked from 2010 to 2011, but we're in the year of publication now so it seems that much nearer, and more real. People are reviewing it, too, on Amazon, and Goodreads, and my friends and family who have received copies are telling me what they think. They're being extra nice, of course, but the general consensus has been positive and very gratifying.

What else? I've just finished reading 'Rat Girl', by Kristin Hersh. In the UK it's been released with it's original title, 'Paradoxical Undressing' (named after a phenomenon in which people close to death from severe hypothermia will mysteriously remove all their clothes). It's a wonderful book, a very powerful memoir, heartbreaking in places but without a shred of self-pity or whining. It tells the story of a pivotal year in Hersh's life, a year when her band Throwing Muses were beginning to find their feet, a year in which she was diagnosed bipolar. Fans of Throwing Muses will love it, of course, but I'd recommend it to anyone. Unlike some memoirs it's superbly written and structured beautifully, and the story it tells is touching, sad, funny and, ultimately, uplifting. It's would be a shame if people who have never heard of (or don't like) her band feel it's not for them.

Next steps

So, with the draft in the hands of my US editor, Claire (yes, there are a lot of people called Claire or Clare in my life at the moment - including a character in Before I Go to Sleep), all is quiet on the book front. Or rather, it is for me, but other people are very busy.

The team at Transworld have had a meeting and come up with a plan. Claire (yes, another one) is working on cover ideas. A copy editor has been secured and hopes to start on it in a couple of weeks with the goal of finishing in early October, then I'll have a week or so to take a look before it's typeset in mid October.

So the plan is to have proofs (two sets!) bound and ready to go pretty soon. And then I'll start to find out what people (i.e. reviewers and other authors) think about the book.

It's all starting to happen...

Meanwhile, with the macaroni cheese/boil-in-the-bag fish debate resolved (for now at least) I've been to the theatre. We went to see "Earthquakes in London". A very good, ambitious play, sort of a 'climate change meets Angels in America'. Thought provoking, but a little too long. It was on at the National Theatre, and we were sat at a sort of curving bar, as if in some kind of futuristic nightclub, as the action took place around us. It was quite something to be that close to the actors, and reminded me a little of the work of Punchdrunk. Theatre that takes place around the audience, not in front of it, and in which the line between audience and production blurs. I think it's interesting, and something that we'll see more of in literature.