July 2001

Writing - oh God - what's that again? Since I finished the last raft of edits for One Hit Wonder I've been trying frantically to get myself back into writing mode for book number four. To no avail. I feel like I've never written a thing before in my life. Me? a writer? what nonsense! ... I have the storyline in my head, I have all my characters and all their names - they're all running around merrily in my mind but every time I get anywhere near a keyboard, I freeze up. Well, these things are sent to try us and no doubt in a week's time I'll be cracking on with it. But for now, I am the ultimate Queen of Procrastination (live, all-day Big Brother coverage, anyone?)

I had some great news from the States last week, which almost - almost - galvanised me into writing action for a moment, but then something came up - I think it was Wimbledon. Although Ralph's Party and Thirtynothing didn't exactly storm up the US bestsellers, there's been sufficient buzz and sales to convince my US publishers to offer me another two-book deal - which means that One Hit Wonder will be published over there some time in 2002. And not only that, but in hardback, too! This is very, very exciting news and means an awful lot to me. It also means that US readers won't have to get their Brit relatives to send them a copy or pay exorbitant mail costs. Yay!

One Hit Wonder will be published in the UK on 27th September. If you want to pre-order a copy from Amazon, click the link - they'll send it to you as soon as it's published - in the meantime, here's the blurb:

Bee Bearhorn had a number one hit single in 1985. And was never heard of again. Fifteen years later she is found dead in her flat and nobody seems to care.

Ana Wills has daydreamed for years about the famous and exotic half-sister she hasn't seen since she was thirteen so when she comes to London to clear out Bee's flat she is surprised to discover that her life was far from glamorous. And there are some very strange things going on - a missing cat, mysterious weekends away and a secret cottage in the country. Instead of going home, Ana tracks down Bee's two closest friends, mad Lol and strong, silent Flint and together they set out to find out whatever happened to Bee Bearhorn.

I've finished and submitted my short story for the 'Tart Noir' anthology I mentioned last time. It's called 'Labia Lobelia', it's quite black and it involves dead film stars and interesting cuisine - that's all I'm saying - you'll have to wait for publication (May 2002) to find out what it's all about! And if my story doesn't sound very appealing, you'll be pleased to hear that there is a truly fantastic range of female authors involved, including Stella Duffy, Sparkle Hayter, Lauren Henderson, Val McDermid, Laura Lippman, Martina Cole, Shyama Pereira and the very wonderful Jenny Colgan...

Here, as ever, is a link to the site of the Queen of Bondi Beach, and the woman who made me a writer, Yasmin Boland, and to her fantastic book, Carole King is an Alien, on Amazon. And here's a link to the new Girls' Night In short story anthology - this one's got boys in it, too! I'm not involved this time, but all the proceeds are still going to the fantastically worthy War Child charity, and apparently it's much better than the first one. You absolutely have to buy it - I insist!

Well - nothing else to report in the way of new projects - life is dead quiet right now. Come back in September when the old publishing wheels will have started creaking into action and everything will have suddenly started to get extremely exciting. Oh - and my sincerest apologies for disabling my e-mail facility. It's not because I don't completely love getting your e-mails, but so that I could focus myself on writing. Oh, the irony. Ha ha ha ....

Love to everyone and thanks for visiting.

Previous updates:
April 2001
September 2000