Hi there

I don't use this account anymore. Come and find me at www.pollywilliams.com or follow me on Twitter at https://twitter.com/pollywilliams

Polly x

Daffs and displacement activities

Daffs are out. Marvellous. Less marvellous is that these yellow flowers are reminders that the deadline for my next book is looming ever nearer. (Writers. Self obsessed? Nah.)

Isn't the world just too full of displacement activities? I have noticed that the more I Tweet the less I write. The less I write the more I shop online. The more I shop online the more journalism I have to write to pay for the rubbish I buy. It's a flickering downward spiral of words, Adobe Flash and neon yellow shoes. (Hated neon yellow all my life, now, oddly, love it. Why is that?)

I will also blame the unfinished book on the fact that I've been helping pull together the debut Queen's Park literary festival - Sat June 11, in the park. Put it in your diaries. I'll be there. More enticingly so will Sebastian Faulks, Tasmina Perry, Christina Hopkinson, Geraint Anderson, the brilliant Peep Show writers and many others.

Ooo. Shall I Tweet that?

First bite

First draft of my new book has just pinged off to the eagle eye of my agent. Yikes. Waiting for a response to a first read is always nail biting, especially if it's going to a candid reader. So much easier to be convinced of one's genius when no one else has read it. So much easier to laugh at one's own jokes. :)

Moving on, the paperback launch of my new book It Happened One Summer is slated for the 26th May, which is very exciting. Set in Cornwall during one long sexy summer, I hope it offers you a good few hours of page turning pleasure. It's probably my most sweeping novel to date. It's meant to immerse you like an Atlantic breaker. Oh yes.

That's the best bit about books isn't it? Total immersion from all the other stuff going on in the world right now. (Have just finished reading the brilliantly chilling Room by Emma Donaghue, like everyone else, and am still to come to the surface.)

Other good news - the days are getting longer again! Raise a glass to that!

Polly xxx

New year, same old me

Happy new year!

I hope you had a fabulous Christmas and new year. It's all back to work here now, along with a houseful of sick children, boiler on the blink, tax returns and all those other things that life throws at you the moment you try to knuckle down to write. But having made a resolution not to make any new year's resolutions - watch alcohol units, run more, write faster, spend less, being old favourites - I'm feeling quite chipper. There are no high expectations to dash, no diets to dread. Recommend it.

And the hardback of my new book, It Happened One Summer, is out this month, which I really hope you'll enjoy. (Paperback out May 12.) It's a tangled sexy love story set in Cornwall, a sunny shot of summer in these dark months. Do let me know what you think. I love to hear from you.

Best wishes,

Polly

November 2010

Hi there

Hope you're enjoying the icy mornings and the chance to snuggle under the duvet with a good book. So nice to sink into a 12 tog London winter, don't you think? No more bare legs to worry about! No more bikinis, and Christmas around the corner with all its eating and drinking opportunities! The legacy of which can be hidden under layers of wooly things. Win win.

I'm also well into my sixth book - never imagined I'd write that - and hugely enjoying it. Headline, my publisher, are putting final touches to the cover of It Happened One Summer (which happens in April 2011) and as soon as it's done I'll stick it up on the site.

My brood - now aged 7, 3, and almost 2 - are still the most enticing distractions from writing and get bigger, louder and more opinionated by the week.

Other distraction? Jonathan Franzen's brilliant new novel, Freedom. You can hear me guffawing from space.

Best wishes,

Polly xx

A good summer

Hi there!

A whole summer gone by in a blink! Finished one book, It Happened One Summer, which is out next spring and, er, not quite started a new one. But gestating.

Still counting the cost of our summer holiday with three kids. It goes something like this. In the course of three weeks my formidable brood achieved...

Four stitches to back of the head, one sliced-in-a-door finger, the loss of one pair shoes, three hats, two spades, sunglasses and countless Euro coins swiped from my purse. Also managed to break a couple of plates and glasses at the holiday rental, obviously. Good going!

We came back to find that our nanny - essential for me to do any writing at all - is stuck in Brazil until Christmas...

But apart from that a wonderful summer. I hope you had a good one too.

All the best,

Polly xxx

Hello there!

I've emerged from dark, mole-like experience of writing my book into wonderful sunshine! Nothing like writing 'The End' after a year's work to raise the spirits.

Although, after the last few mad weeks to meet my deadline the rest of my life sits in chaotic piles of unopened post on my desk. My legs are January coloured, I'm in need of sandals - the sales already, all the size 38s gone! - and it's as if I'm a few months behind everyone else, lumbering up for spring in June.

Oh well. Ice creams and summer shopping to catch up on. Life could be worse.

I hope you enjoyed my last book, How To Be Married, and that you're having a wonderful summer.

Best wishes, Polly xxx