Lovely start to the year

Current work: Med duo
Listening to: Michael Buble

Happy new year!

Yesterday I had the most marvellous boost, when one of my best writing buddies pointed me to a post on a forum where someone had really praised one of my books. So I had a mosey round – and what I read made me feel very humble and on cloud nine at the same time.

People actually like my books.

Intellectually, I know I can write or my editor wouldn’t accept my books. Publishers aren’t charities. But in this business, when it’s just you and a blank screen and a spaniel snoring softly behind you, real life has been a little bumpy and you have a screaming deadline which you’ve already moved, you sometimes wonder if you can still do it. (It’s called authorial paranoia, and I’m far from alone in suffering from it!) And when you see phrases such as ‘love the stories’ and ‘I wish she were on the book shelf all the time’ and ‘puts a lot of sensitivity into her characters’ and (as an English person I find it hard to write this word as an adjective describing me, but remember I’m reporting someone else’s view) ‘phenomenal writer’…

It’s just really nice to know that my words can have that effect on people. I really needed to hear that, yesterday. Thank you very, very much to the readers who posted such lovely compliments.

Took the kids to see ‘Bee Movie’ at the cinema yesterday morning. The animation was good (I particularly enjoyed the animation of Sting) but the plot was almost non-existent and I think I must have blinked and missed most of the jokes. (I think DH was glad he missed that one.) However, the kids enjoyed it, to the point where they didn’t complain when I suggested going into Waterstones to spend my Christmas book tokens. Bought Roy Strong’s ‘A little history of the English Country Church’ (one of my pet subjects) plus a biography of the 19th-century medic James Barry, which is interesting in itself but will also be excellent background research for a certain book of my heart. Lunch at M&S; then home to discover my journal and calorie book have arrived. (As well as a few, ahem, CDs. All right. So I’m profligate. ) Now I’m all set for the new healthy me.

Also heard that we’re due to have snow and ice this week. Uh-oh. However, have also checked dates with a friend and it seems that my diary is wrong: term starts on Monday next week, not Thursday this week. OK, so I lose two more working days than I’d planned… but if the road is covered in compacted snow with a layer of ice on top, I wouldn’t want to drive. I can always be Bad Mummy and let the kids watch a film while I do some very focused work.

Today: not sure what we’re doing (depends on the weather), but with any luck we’ll get a walk somewhere. And in between I have a deadline, so I’m gone.