I said you wouldn’t be hearing from me until Summer Reads at the start of June, but I’m hoping you’ll be interested in (Writing) Each Book is a Different Story, a piece I wrote for the fantastic Women Writers website on trying new methods, strategies (and misjudgments, but it’s all good) in the making of my new novel Scent. I learned such a lot from the experience and will be just as keen to try different approaches with my next novel. Yes, I am finally coming round to the idea of starting one! Thanks so much to the wonderful Barbara Bos for hosting me and for being such an energetic champion of books worldwide.
In other news, I’m continuing to squeeze in bookshop visits and signings when time permits – here I am last week at London’s iconic Gay’s The Word (the UK’s oldest LGBT+ bookshop), where it was a real buzz to see Scent in pride of place at the front. Thanks to Erica and Uli for the lovely welcome and book chat – I could have spent hours and a small fortune there and highly recommend a visit if you’re in town as things begin to come back to life. And if not, please support your local or indeed any independent bookstore.
This weekend I’ll be on the radio TWICE talking about Scent: firstly on Saturday 15 May at 7.45 with Johnny Seifert of Badass Women’s Hour on TALK Radio. If you’re planning a lazy Sunday afternoon, please join me and host Antonia Honeywell from 2-4pm on Chiltern Voice for my 12 song playlist including Springsteen, Macy Gray and The Killers, and an in-depth chat about the highs and lows of my publishing journey and life in general. You can tell we’re friends; I almost forgot we were doing it for an audience and am probably going to be doing my usual ‘Did I really say that?’ when I tune in (The answer is always yes.)
The book has recently been featured in Diva and GScene, and I’m thrilled that Tom Bromley of Living Magazine said, ‘This is fiction that lifts the lid on love and relationships, doing so with a deft sense of description and place – as close as you might get to France this year.’
We’ll see about that!
Huge thanks to everyone helping to make all this happen.
A bientôt!
