April Fool’s, end of term and exciting news

Current work: Revisions
Listening to: Muse, Radiohead and Josh Groban (aka playlist for current book)
Reading: Shirley Wells, Where Petals Fall (finished last night –worked very, very well, and now I can’t wait to read The Broken Circle (which is on my desk as a carrot))

Today is the end of term, so I have to cram in a lot today. Like picking up Euros, buying the last-minute bits we need for Venice, going to the bank – getting some work done, arrgh – and being sociable. I could still do with that time machine.

How to make an almost-teenager grumpy: do the usual morning ‘pretend their door is a guitar and play Voodoo Chile in knocks until they get up’ (yes, really – one knock isn’t enough, and constant knocking is boring, so I pick a song to make it more interesting), then tell them sweetly that school’s cancelled today. ‘Really?’ Then they wake up fully and groan. ‘Oh, wait, it’s April 1.’ And then they go into the most enormous strop… (I think that might cost me in chocolate.)

I have some really exciting news, but I can’t share it yet :o) (And I know, I hate it too when authors do that… tell you they have news but they can’t say anything. Apologies for teasing but I’m a tad excited.) What I can say is that it’s PR for my publisher, and it’s in one of my favourite places in the world, and it’s later this summer. And I’m chuffed to bits that I was asked.

Not just because it’s utterly cool. Y’see, I’m having lunch with my editor next month. Most authors, when pressed, will admit that if their ed asks them to come to lunch, their first thought is ‘OMG, they’re going to tell me they don’t want my books any more…’ – and I’m no exception, even though I know that I plan my work a year in advance and it’s the time of year when I start thinking about what I want to write over the next year, and it’s sensible to include my ed in the planning process. (The words ‘gelati’ and ‘Capri’ have been floating around for a while – and no, Capri isn’t the PR, it’s a research trip that I’m planning for my wedding anniversary, if I can get the timing right – but that’s as far as I’ve got right now.)

Anyway. I need to put a lid on my excitement and knuckle down to some work. After I’ve nipped into town and done all the errands. Oh, and I’m going to be lazy and buy dinner from M&S tonight – we’re out tonight (so I can’t do the errands after school, as I had originally planned) so I’m grabbing some work time back.