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