Cirencester - a little out of order!

My blog is a little out of chronological order - these photos are from my book signing at Waterstone's in Cirencester on Tuesday 15th June, ie. a day before the photos from Stanchester Community School! I suppose if I were writing about time travel like Alex Scarrow does (Timeriders), this would be entirely appropriate. Sadly it just means I'm disorganised!

Big thanks to Octavia at Waterstone's for organising the event, and to William Bond for drumming up the local press!

No pretzels, but lots of Swedish apple cake!

I did the first of three Carnegie shadowing scheme-related school visits today, at Stanchester Community School in Stoke sub Hamdon, Somerset. I'm pictured here with staff and pupils (some from Heathfield School), including the super Mr.Guy (group photo, at the back, right-ish, in front of the window) who invited me to the school, organised everything and even baked the utterly delicious Swedish apple cake! There was utterly delicious chocolate cake too but that was all scoffed up before I had finished speaking! It was brilliant to meet such a motivated, intelligent and (joy!) attentive audience. I guess any shadowing group is bound to be a self-selecting group of book-lovers and this was no exception. If everyone I talked to baked such delicious cakes I would be a very happy author, though perhaps a somewhat larger one...

Books in Blighty

Monday 14th is going to be the start of a very busy week - I'm leaving the house, the kids, the cats and the gerbils to my longsuffering other half, and coming over to the UK for a programme of book signing and school visits. I can't imagine what that will be like - I haven't had that much time away from the hurly-burly of family life, with its endless round of fish fingers, homework and Dr.Who, since 1998! As one of my friends stoutly remarked, it will probably "do them all good".
I'm kicking off the week with the Puffin 70th birthday party in London. I'm panicking slightly about what to wear, especially after reading Amanda Craig's excellent blog about clothing for female novelists this week: http://www.amandacraig.com/pages/blog_01/blog_item.asp?Blog_01ID=240
God forbid I should go "all arty craft about the neck and ankles". I've been picking the Bookwitch's brains as she has actually been to one of these events before. However, I think the fundamental problem is that I haven't quite moved on from living in rural Germany for 7 years. All my clothes are scruffy jeans (some with holes), cosy fleeces and practical dark t-shirts. I barely possess a single pair of high heels - useless when you step out of your door into six inch mud/snow (delete according to season). Sigh. Perhaps I'll find something in London on Monday afternoon...
On Tuesday I'm going to be in Waterstone's in Cirencester (14.30 and 16.30, if you're in the area that day), signing books. I know that particular shop fairly well as when we come to the UK to visit relatives I often nip in to stock up on English language books. You can get those in Brussels but generally they are a bit more expensive.
On Wednesday, Thursday and Friday I am going to be talking to Carnegie shadowing scheme groups in Somerset, Cardiff and Warwick. I'm visiting the Stanchester Community School who sent me such a charming invitation that I couldn't refuse it - also they are allegedly going to have real German pretzels, athough I don't know where you can get those in Somerset. The Cardiff and Warwick events are both in theatres and groups from lots of different schools will be attending. In Cardiff the audience will be about 300-strong. At times like this I am very grateful for the 10 years I spent working in Marketing. (I worked on Twiglets and Mum deodorant amongst other products.) I've had to do lots of presentations before and once you've faced the northern region sales force and lived to tell the tale, you feel you can cope with anything. I have some gorgeous slides to show all the groups, plus a very special surprise indeed, which I'll describe afterwards, just in case anyone who's going to attend lays eyes on this blog.
I'll then be heading back to Brussels, laden with goodies from M&S and Waterstone's, and desperate to find out how my family managed without me (have the cats got into the guest room and eaten the gerbils? etc.). Will it have "done them good"? We shall see...

Corks popped for The Glass Demon!

Corks popped this evening for the launch of The Glass Demon at Treasure Trove Books in Tervuren, near Brussels! Appropriately enough, the wine was a German sekt (the German equivalent of champagne) which I bought in Bad Münstereifel when I was there at Easter. We didn't drink all of it, though, because it was a blisteringly hot day in Brussels - instead, we got through litres and litres of mineral water!

I talked for a few minutes about the inspiration for The Glass Demon, including the true story of the Steinfeld glass, which I've talked about before on my blog, and the involvement of the famous ghost story writer M.R.James. Then I read chapter 11 of the book, in which a character familiar to anyone who has read The Vanishing of Katharina Linden makes a guest appearance to reveal the details of someone's horrible death!

Big thanks to the ladies at Treasure Trove for the gorgeous window display and for organising the event, also to Tom Alaerts and Richard Bishop for manning the cameras at short notice. It was also great to see representatives of the Brussels Writers' Group and the American Women's Club Writers' Group. A big hand also to German pal Gabi who nobly sat through the reading in English!

Finished the evening with a Chinese takeaway (too late to starting cooking, and I couldn't face it, either!); tomorrow the glamour factor in my life is going to take a steep nose dive as I tackle all the jobs that have been neglected today, starting with cleaning the house...

Launch party, The Glass Demon

Today I'm going to be celebrating the launch of The Glass Demon at Treasure Trove Books in Tervuren, near Brussels (from 5pm to 7pm, if you're in the area!). I'm going to be talking about the inspiration for the book, reading from it and signing copies - plus helping to hand round glasses of pink sparkling wine (appropriately enough, from Germany, where the book is set). Treasure Trove Books is, as far as I can tell, a unique phenomenon - an English language children's bookshop in Flanders. I held a reading and signing session for my first book, The Vanishing of Katharina Linden, at the shop last year and am thrilled to be returning with The Glass Demon. I popped in yesterday for a last-minute chat with Jane of Treasure Trove and found her hard at work creating a really fabulous window display designed around the theme of stained glass windows. If I can get some pictures (I guess stained glass is not the easiest thing to photograph) I'll post them later.
As for me, I was expecting to be skipping around like a spring lamb this morning, full of excitement, but I've had the mother of all migraines which started on Thursday afternoon. It's just as well it didn't start today as I don't think I could have read a word. The headache has gone but now I've got a "migraine hangover" and a glance in the bathroom mirror this morning revealed the horrid truth - I look like Bagpuss in drag. Let us hope that strong tea, fresh air and a hot shower can work a bit of magic, otherwise I may be mistaken for someone's granny this afternoon....