Bookwitch

The Derek Landy interview is now available, as some eagle-eyed readers have already discovered. I like sneaking things in to see if people notice at all. Lack of confidence, probably. This one is slightly different, with a straight Q &A part, which I don’t normally have, but which seems to work well. Many thanks to my wonderful helpers, Phoebe and Charlie. You can come and interview with me anytime. In fact, this ties in well with the mention of Hannah Pool the other day. It was Hannah who thought it was a very good idea to go round accompanied by children, when I was afraid it’d look more like a lack of babysitters. And then the dratted children grow up. But borrowing works just fine. Rather like the urge to borrow a young person to be able to use the Family Railcard discount.

The tale of last Monday’s meeting with Cathy Forde can be found here. Cathy is lovely, and it’s good to meet someone new, to me, that I can like instantly. Don’t know why this matters, but it’s nice. I’ve combined this interview with a brief review of Cathy’s latest book, Sugarcoated. I started reading her Fat Boy Swim while waiting for Cathy to turn up, but she was so early that I got almost no way at all… Looks promising, is all I can say.

I introduced Declan at Crime Always Pays to Sara Paretsky, and he fired off his standard list of questions at her.  Sara has now answered and you can find the results over on CAP. He found a great photo of her, too, so go across and have a look.

Authors have been like buses here. Several days have passed with no author in sight, and then you get two in 24 hours. Catherine Forde and Derek Landy have both called in at Simply Books, while the owners are away. So, the witch has played at being a shop owner, with none of the inconvenient hard work they have to do. Just swan in and greet people and have tea and chat to them. Not bad.

Catherine is doing a tour this week to talk about her new book Sugarcoated, a teen thriller. She turned out to be lovely, despite professing a wish to kill off her main character.

And we already knew Derek is a sweetie, but it doesn’t hurt to check again. He, too, has a tour and a new book, Playing With Fire. Derek admitted he quite liked killing his characters, so that makes two murderous visitors to start the week with.

I got to act as go-between, as well. We’re back to coincidence here. Cathy had a desperate need to send a thank you card to Derek, but didn’t have his address. Seeing the posters advertising his imminent arrival, she wrote a card and asked the witch to revert to her old profession of postal worker for a moment. I’d like to think it was MEANT. What’s more, I remembered to do it.

As a new idea, I met both Catherine and Derek in the company of two young readers, thinking I could get them to do my work for me. Not a bad idea, at all. I don’t have to think so much, and get to feel good with starry eyed fans who like meeting authors. The coconut cake can also be recommended.

The results of these interviews will appear here. Some time. Hopefully soon.

The Sara Paretsky interview is finally here. It may look long, but it could have been longer still. She’s very interesting, and there was so much to talk about. Writing it was good, but not something that combined well with school holidays. One day I’ll work out how to go without sleep. Maybe. And as you can see, photos were not down to the witch alone (forgetting, or otherwise). Son is responsible for all the diagonal pictures…

There’s been a pleasing regularity with things recently.

Author travels from North America to Britain. Gets to go on Woman’s Hour. Meets with the witch. Presumably goes home to Canada and Chicago again, mission accomplished.

So, after Budge Wilson last week, it’s Sara Paretsky this week. As I might have mentioned once or twice. (Don’t want to bore anyone. Much.)

Heard Sara speak at the big bookshop last night. If it hadn’t been for Sara, I may well have exited again, so uncomfortable was the venue. This morning it is the turn of the much smaller bookshop.

Will report back later, as usual. If there is a delay, it’s purely down to complete brain exhaustion.

My talk with Budge Wilson about her book Before Green Gables is up under interviews. She’s a lovely lady, so do read it.

here  is a link to Budge Wilson on Woman’s Hour from Wednesday morning.

Less than that, actually. But it’s hardly surprising I felt so tired in the end, after one event, one interview and one fight with hotel over internet access. And having to travel on the tube in the rush hour, almost like a real Londoner. Some of you will be surprised, very surprised, to hear that I didn’t buy any shoes. Didn’t even get to a shoe shop.

Is it OK for me to moan here about the lack of people who speak English in hotels? I have nothing against foreigners. After all, I live in a country that’s full of them. (I have read my George Mikes, you know.) I walked up to this fancy looking doorman on Thursday morning to ask for some information. He smiled at me very nicely, but had absolutely no idea what I was saying.

I can barely get over the idea that people now invite me to come and meet and talk to lovely authors. The hotel she stayed at may have had its shortcomings, but Budge Wilson was very charming. We were meant to have 45 minutes talking about Before Green Gables, but it somehow ended up being more than double that time, and even then we had to stop talking only to prevent me from missing my train home.

With Budge I talked about sewing, which is something Canadians do more than the stressed out souls in England. Though on Wednesday I did hear the tale of the literary lady who decided to sew on her missing button while on the tube to where she was going. Trouble was she sewed it onto the coat of the lady sitting next to her.

Also on Wednesday night (couldn’t think straight for Thursday’s blog, which is why things got missed out) I got to have a first peep at David Fickling’s new pet project, the comic. It’s not due until end of May, but it was good to see what he had so far.

Maybe it was the Indian take out thali I had that night that had a bad effect on my writing. It was very good, and so enormous that I didn’t eat most of it. Anyone want to share next time? I don’t stay in the hotel I always stay in because it’s close to the Diwana Bhel Poori, but it certainly helps.

The interview with Budge will follow as soon as the clues for the egg hunt have been thought out and written down.

The trip I made to Oxford the other week has finally resulted in another interview. Put down on the computer screen, I mean. The interviewing all got done on the day. Mary Hoffman was kind enough to spare some time to see me over pots of tea at the Q I Building in Turl Street. That counts as Pullman territory, so felt just right.

My other reason for travelling to Oxford, apart from enjoying a day out, was to meet Lowebrow, of blog fame. I first came across Lee on Dina Rabinovitch’s blog last year, before she ventured over here for a look. So, in effect, I did what I wasn’t too keen on Son doing a couple of years ago - I went to meet someone I’d met on the Internet.

It was a good day, and lovely to meet several interesting people. And thanks to Mary, Lee and I had a great Lebanese dinner. It could easily become a standard watering hole for the witch.