Diary entry Oct 2007

At last . . . Nine years since I quit a perfectly good day joy to write a novel, the paperback edition of I Did a Bad Thing hits the bookshelves.

Publication day did not go entirely to plan. My son Rohan, who has a bad cough, threw up all over me in the early hours. Consequently I started the day rather bleary-eyed and smelly. I did at least have a chance to shower before the photographer from the Halifax Evening Courier arrived to take my photo. Oh, the glamour of being a published author!

Travelled down to Birmingham to sign copies of my novel in Borders and WHSmith, great to see people buying it and was chuffed when the nice man from Borders said it had been selling very well.

Saw I Did a Bad Thing on prominent display in WHSmith at Manchester Piccadilly station, Rohan said very loudly to a man who was looking at the display: “Would you like to buy my Mummy’s book?” Am thinking of employing him as a sales rep.

The local launch in Todmorden went well, lots of people came, listened, laughed in the right places, enjoyed the food and drink and bought the book on the way out.

Am, of course, checking the novel’s ranking on Amazon at least once a day. Only three left in stock now and they’re re-ordering which only leaves me to ponder how many they started with . . .