Lisa Jewell: Diary August 2003

Diary

November 2003

OK - by popular demand here's a mini update! Life's been ticking along quite nicely since I last wrote. A Friend of the Family, came, sold a few thousand copies and went. It was all very quiet but the real excitement will come with its paperback publication in February. For more information about signings, publicity and the like, watch this space!

As for motherhood, it just gets better and better. The first ten weeks or so went incredibly slowly - I was starting to think I'd have a newborn baby in my house for the rest of my life - not that there's anything wrong with newborn babies, they're adorable, but you do get to a stage when you desperately want them to start doing something other than pooing and sleeping. But ever since she hit the 12 week mark, time started to fly and I cannot believe that she's going to be four months old on Saturday! She's doing really well - she's very bright and funny and absolutely enormous - she's already starting to get a bit big for her 3-6 month sized clothes! She smiles all the time and occasionally has massive giggle attacks when she can't stop laughing for about five minutes, which are highly amusing. And nine nights out of ten she sleeps through until after 5 am and then goes back to sleep until about 8 o'clock, so I'm getting plenty of sleep! In other words she's perfect and is making me very very happy indeed!

The fifth book is starting to go really well now, too. I took the first third of it to my agent a few weeks ago, expecting her to say 'what is this load of hormonal drivel you've written - go away and write something decent' but she actually said it was great and just to keep going with it which was a huge relief. It also meant that I really needed to sort out some kind of childcare and just as I was wondering how I was going to find anyone, I had a fortuitous conversation with a friend whose nanny was looking for extra work in the mornings. So I now have a lovely girl who comes to my house four mornings a week and takes Amelie for a nice long walk while I write. Then after she's gone I put Amelie down for her afternoon nap and get another three hours of writing time. And it is quite amazing how having so little time - comparatively - to write, focuses the mind and how much more work I'm getting done now than I did when I had all day and night to write!

The fifth book hasn't got a title yet, but it's about a boy and a girl who meet as teenagers on a caravan site in Hunstanton, end up losing their virginity to each other and then seem destined never to see each other again. Until fate starts playing strange tricks on them. It's set in three parts over three decades and it's really just a very simple love story about two people destined to be together and the circuitous journeys they take to get there. Penguin are talking about publishing it in February 2005 so there'll be (yet another) long wait I'm afraid. Maybe I'll try and update this page a bit more often in the interim, just to keep things ticking along. Or then again, knowing me, maybe I won't!

Here, for the curious, are a couple of pics of my lovely lovely little girl. Isn't she a beaut?!

Much love until next time,

Lisa xx

Subscription Service
Leave your email address and get news from Lisa Jewell, her upcoming projects and events delivered directly to your inbox. You can unsubscribe at any time (if you wish). To finalise your subscription, you will be asked to reply to our introductory email.

How do we use your email address? Click here for Privacy Policy information.

Do you
Yahoo! Mail Spam Filters automatically move our introductory email to the Bulk folder. Please look there to complete your subscription.

Previous updates: