NEWSLETTER December 2007

Hi,

We’re galloping towards Christmas as I write this. It’s the time of year when writing somehow fits in around kids’ parties, panto trips, carol concerts and mad dashes around Glasgow with about eight million carrier bags (er, I mean organic cotton shopping bags, of course). I can’t wait to kick back with the family. Top of my wish list is taking the kids skating for the first time, in Glasgow’s George Square. Wonder if I can remember my moves from Bradford’s Silver Blades ice rink back in 1981?

Since August I’ve been writing a new novel and today reached that wonderful point when I pinged it off to my agent. It’s a lovely feeling but kind of scary too - sending it out into the world. I won’t say what it is right now, as it’s very different from anything I’ve written before. It doesn’t have a contract with a publisher, so I don’t want to jinx it by blethering on about it!  So… fingers crossed it finds a home.

I will plug my next novel, though - it’s called Mummy Said the F-Word and is published by Hodder on Feb 21. Whereas most of my books have sprung from an idea for a character or a setting, this one started with the title. I was on the phone to my friend Jen when she burst out laughing, saying her son had run downstairs from his dad’s study announcing that ‘Daddy said the F-word.’ Their other little boy had turned off his dad’s computer, thus losing tons of work. In this case, I think Daddy’s outburst was justified…

I loved the title so much that I decided to build a novel around it. It’s the story of Cait, a mother of three whose husband left her for the fluffy young thing who serviced his office water cooler. When Cait is offered the job of agony aunt on an impossibly smug parenting magazine, she thinks she’s the last person qualified to offer advice. Then the mysterious emails start coming, signed simply from ‘R’. Is he a stalker, a fan or the key to her happiness?  

It was great fun to write - I hope you enjoy it. You can see it on Amazon here.

Well, I’d better try and get the last presents bought and wrapped or, come Christmas Eve, Mummy will indeed be saying the f-word…