Sunday 24 May 2009

Countdown to Claudius

It's been an interesting week for a lot of reasons. On Tuesday I was up at 4am and spent ten hours on trains to and from Yorkshire for work stuff. Getting up was a pain but I managed to make a lot of progress on my latest project because writing on the train is what I do best. Every cloud etc.
On Thursday I took part in an event in Glasgow at the Mitchell Library to promote greater links between libraries and publishers. All the big publishers were there and librarians from all over Scotland and there was much talk of book groups, readings and promotional events. I'm committed to doing something in Polmont prison which should be interesting, and Conton Vale (Scotland's women's prison) which will be more interesting still. Sam my publicist made a great presentation in which I was hailed as a brilliant new voice in British historical fiction. It was lovely but I'll believe it when I read my name in the Sunday Times bestseller list.
There were also quite a few fellow authors there. It was great to see my mate Bob Low of Oathsworn fame again. I had a good chat with Alan Clements, who somehow found time while helping to run STV to write a political thriller, Rogue Nation, which has really captured the imagination in Scotland. Carmen Reid, whose chick lit novels my girls adore, was also at the event and turned out, like most writers I've met, to be totally unassuming despite her success and had the library ladies eating out of her hand.
Stan was on the phone with some optimistic news about what happens after Claudius. I can't reveal anything at the moment, but things are definitely looking up!

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