a real red-letter day (and in praise of a truly excellent singer)

Current work: new outlines/nonfiction
Listening to: Kathryn Williams and Neill MacColl

Really fab day yesterday. Nice email from lovely ed. French edition of The Doctor’s Royal Love Child arrived in the post. Excellent guitar lesson – ignored the fact I didn’t do any of my homework over the holidays and we had a lesson deconstructing Neil Young (i.e. start off with the basic chord, add in the melody line, then work up the accompaniment – my homework is ‘Hey Hey My My’, which has such a lovely riff). Kids had a good day at school. Madam had a great swimming lesson. Had a lovely (and very long) chat with my ed about the next books, so I know what I’m doing now for the next year. Discovered that people are saying very nice things on eHarlequin about Where the Heart Is (which is a book very, very close to my heart).

And the really big highlight of the day? I saw Kathryn Williams and Neill MacColl at the Arts Centre in Norwich. Superb. Especially as this time the audience had chairs :o) (Clearly I am getting old… I used not to mind standing for 2 hours, but now I do. Probably because I spend too much time at my desk.) Anyway. I had a seat right at the front, in the middle. I was about six feet away from Neill and maybe eight from Kathryn (that’s tops – they really were that close).

Their support was Marit Bergman – a Swede who lives in New York, is very funny and plays the piano beautifully. If you like singer-songwriters (which I do – Joni Mitchell, Carol King, etc etc) then give her a listen. (I bought her album last night but haven’t played it yet. I Will Always Be Your Soldier is on Youtube (but bear in mind what I heard last night was this voice and a stripped-down piano accompaniment, so it was slightly different!).

And then it was Kathryn and Neill.

It was just fabulous.

They played most of the songs from the new album (and even the one track I’m not so keen on – the Tom Waits track – was better live). The guitar-playing was fabulous (and I was in the perfect place to watch how he did it – smooth, flawless, and the chromaharp was pretty good too). The banter between Kathryn and Neill had the audience in stitches. And the singing?

Just perfect. (Here's Come With Me Darling on YouTube - it's just lovely, and Neill's harmonies are gorgeous. Listen to it, then go and buy the album. It's seriously good.)

I first heard Kathryn Williams singing ‘Saturday Sun’ at the Barbican tribute to Nick Drake – just after she’d released her very first album. I loved her voice and went straight out to buy her album, the next day. Since then, I’ve bought every single one of her records on the day of release, and I’ve never been disappointed. Mojo once described her as ‘Melancholy you can lick like Haagen Dasz’. She has a very breathy, sweet voice – I’ve seen it described elsewhere as gossamer. Except her songs tell stories, and her words are very far from sugary, so there’ s this wonderful juxtaposition between her voice and what she’s actually singing. She also did one of my favourite from her backlist – ‘Little Black Numbers’ from the album ‘Old Low Light’. The sound system’s set-up means that she can sing one part of the harmony, then layer on two more, and the three are still going nicely while she sings over the top. Stunning.

It’s hard to pick a favourite track because they were all good, but I think last night had to be ‘Grey Goes’ (she did the same thing with the harmony – and there’s something hypnotic about the riff).

And then there was the encore. The song I so hoped she’d do (as she did last time I saw her and reduced me to tears because it was so hauntingly beautiful).

Now, if you like the Leonard Cohen track ‘Hallelejuah’… let me say now, just go and buy Kathryn’s cover album, ‘Relations’, immediately. Because her version is without doubt the best version I’ve ever heard. (And I speak as someone who’s heard probably a dozen singers’ versions. And I include Leonard Cohen’s original here, too.) Her voice will just blow you away. Singing with real heart. (It's also on Youtube - there's an interview first and then the song starts around the 3 minutes mark.)

So. Fabulous night. And today I feel ready to take on the world. Thank you, Kathryn and Neill.

Guess who’s on the Waldies again?

Current work: Med duo

Listening to: Genesis, Calling All Stations

Reading: Liz Fielding, Dating Her Boss (another thoroughly enjoyable read)

The Pregnancy Ultimatum is on the Waldies’ top 10 bestseller list this week :o) Thank you to everyone in the US who bought my book and put it there.

And I’m doing an interview on Future FM at about 10.30 (UK time) this morning.

Nice post yesterday: Italian edition of Seeing Stars (lovely title, too – La luce delle stelle), Greek edition of Seeing Stars, Greek edition of Where the Heart Is, Hungarian edition of The Baby Doctor’s Desire, and French edition of The Doctor’s Very Special Christmas. Clearly I’m up for world domination of Europe at the moment…

a bit from Kate - my first billboard…

I know, I know, it’s blowing my own trumpet and it’s very un-English of me… but I’m so excited I need to share this! DH did the weekly shop for me yesterday (being a star because my answer to everything at the moment is a whimper of ‘deadline’) and the Evening News ran their piece about Disasters yesterday. So he collected some copies for me (one for my press cuttings file, one for my agent, one for my ed at Breedon, and also one for my eds at M&B and Halsgrove because Derek James, the features ed, is lovely and mentions my fiction as well as my nonfiction). But DH came home with news I wasn’t expecting.

‘You’re on a billboard. In front of the petrol station at Sainbury’s. Big letters. COSTESSEY AUTHOR [mumble mumble mumble]’ (Actually – this is shaming – I can’t remember what he actually said. Thing is, I’m deaf and my husband mumbles - not a useful combo, especially when I’m working, because I turn my hearing aid off and everyone in the house knows they have to tell me if they hear thunder and have to turn my computer off because I won’t hear it.) ‘And our neighbour was on the checkout. She says she’s been telling everyone she lives next to the famous Costessey author who’s in the paper today.’ Am clearly going to have to don dark glasses and slink into Sainsbury’s, next time I run out of G&B.

But actually, it’s quite exciting, being on a billboard. The Evening News piece is lovely (unsurprisingly, as Derek James, the features ed, is a really nice guy), and has my colour pic of the kids next to the flood markers as well as one of the 1912 floods – and a huge one of me, standing next to my bookshelves and holding a copy of Where the Heart Is. Derek describes the book as ‘fascinating’ (good, I thought so too when I was writing it – lots and lots of little interesting stories, and you can look up what happened on your birthday/anniversary/any particular day you like!)

Also had a rather good bit of new yesterday from my lovely agent: another of my nonfiction projects has been commissioned. Can’t talk about it offically until I sign the contract, but it’s not one of the ones I took pics for last summer. Which means the kids and I have some exploring to do over the summer (excellent). Even better, the publisher wondered if I’d consider a project for next year – to be firmed up after Christmas. If I can sell him a book on an eight-word phrase, then he can definitely sell one back me one the same way! Dot reminded me it’s an idea so it might NOT happen, but it’s right up my street (and the publisher knows I’m keen, reliable, and they don’t have to do much to my stuff apart from mark up running heads and pick up typos) so fingers crossed it goes ahead too.

Oh, and my early night turned out not to be one. I'm catching up with my reading, and I started Margaret McDonagh's His Very Special Nurse. And couldn't put it down. Apart from this lovely, warm heroine and a gorgeous but tortured hero (our Mags has written a brilliant weepie bit), there's a really, REALLY horrible secondary character in there - the type I loathe in real life because they treat other people badly. And I was soooo pleased when said fictional character got her just deserts.