September, 2001

Well, I've finally broken through the Block, thank God. It's still going slowly, but at least it's going and I'm now confident that there will be another book at some point. At the moment it's called the London Brothers - I say at the moment because all of my previous novels originally had different titles to the ones they ended up with. Ralph's Party was called 31 Almanac Road, Thirtynothing was called Dig and Delilah and One Hit Wonder was called Whatever Happened to Bee Bearhorn. How's that for a bit of pointless trivia.

I'm off on holiday on 8th September - a week in Marrakech with twelve friends, which should be an experience - and when I get back all the exciting publication stuff will start happening. I've already got an interview with the Independent lined up and I'm doing a Reader's Day at Billericay School in Essex on 22nd September The lovely people at Penguin will be taking me and the husband out for a slap-up dinner at a fancy restaurant on 25th and then 27th is D-Day when One Hit Wonder is finally unleashed on the world! That's the official launch date but you'll probably find it lurking in some places a bit earlier than that - particularly at train stations and airports - so keep your eyes peeled. The publication process takes so long that it sometimes feels like your book will never be published so it's incredibly exciting when the big day finally comes around. While it's lovely when your family, agent, editor and friends say they love your book, I never quite believe that it's OK until I start getting feedback from readers. I noticed a couple of messages from people in my guestbook who've managed to get hold of advance copies - thank you so much for your comments - very reassuring.

If you've been to my site before you might have noticed that I've got rid of my e-mail facility. I hope you don't think I'm rude, but it was taking me up to an hour a day just to reply to them and it's just too time-consuming. I hate the thought that people have gone to all the effort of writing to me and I haven't been able to reply, so it's best that I just knock it on the head until I'm rich and spoiled enough to be able to employ someone to do it for me!

On another note, although I'm not entirely convinced by this whole e-book thing - I love books with a passion - I love the feel of them and the smell of them and they way they look piled up around my flat -I'm still rather chuffed to be one of the first handful of books being published electronically by Penguin. If anyone does choose to download me (as it were), please do write and let me know how you found the experience - I'm very curious.

Well, that's it for now. Back to the London Brothers. I'll try to update again next month once the book's out and I know whether it's top ten or turkey. In the meantime, here's some links:

Yasmin Boland the Queen of Bondi Beach, author of Carole King is an Alien and all-round inspiration

Jenny Colgan the Queen of Clerkenwell Road, author of Amanda's Wedding and Looking for Andrew McCarthy and a joy to know

Penguin the ultimate publishers and a really cool website

Pocketpig don't know why I love this site so, but I just do. Sabrina is an American living in Cambridge who keeps a diary of everything she eats (with accompanying illustrations) and just general stuff about her life. It's nowhere near as self-indulgent as the other myriad 'me me me' journal sites and I get very upset when she's late posting her entries!

Friendsreunited Hugely popular so probably doesn't need any help from me, but if you went to school or college with me, please leave some details here so I can have a nose at what you're up to now!

Chicklit Cool, intelligent and lively site for lovers of fiction, chick or otherwise.

Chatroom for me! A reader very kindly (and somewhat embarrassingly!) set up this chatroom about a year ago. Nobody seems to visit which is a shame, so maybe this link will give it a boost.

Girls' Night Out/Boys' Night In Great stories, good cause, please buy.

Lisa XXX

Previous updates:
July 2001
April 2001
September 2000