Keeping it fresh ...

'Home' again to a distinctly cold and dusty desert after a whirlwind week in the UK for the launch of 'The Beauty Chorus'. It was so great to hold the launch party at One Tree Books in Hampshire - not only Independent Book Seller of the Year in the UK, but my home book store, whose cafe was the scene of hours of scribbling on manuscript pages while my son coloured at their kids' tables.

The whole week was amazing - from a morning spent at the BBC talking to radio stations all over the UK, to filming for ITV's 'London Tonight' with an ATA girl now in her nineties. If you have vpn or are in the UK you can see the clip on www.itv.com/london - just scroll down the headlines on the left until you find 'Female Pilots'. Then there was a dinner at the Canadian High Commission for the London Book Fair - the highlight of which was meeting an all-time hero, Fay Weldon.

Perhaps comment of the week goes to my 94 year old grandmother though. We drove half way across the country to see her for lunch, and when I handed her a copy of the book, her eyes lit up briefly. 'Oh, well done dear,' she said. 'Isn't it big! I'm so glad you're giving people value for money ...'

Today, we are off to Fresh Fiction on the blog tour, where I talk about how to keep your writing fresh through all the editing and rewriting that goes into a book ... and over at the Romantic Novelists' Association blog, I talk about what it is like to have your first book published, and people's preconceptions about writers. Enjoy.