Highlights of Edinburgh

Since coming back from Edinburgh on Monday I've had the worst time trying to stay awake, which probably means that the summer has finally caught up to me. Last year my first book had just come out, I knew no one, and I had to leave David at home, so I was generally shy and terrified throughout the festival. This year David came along, I kept running into book people I knew, and even though I was nervous about discussing The Lauras for the first time I had a rough idea of how the evening would go. 

Highlights of the trip include:

- Chatting with Gavin Grant and Olivia Smith, and listening to Kevin Barry's stories about minks, mice, and other vermin. 

- Spending an embarrassing amount of time in the Author's yurt trying to get in as much shop talk as possible. 

- Drinking pints of whisky with Jenni Fagan and Stuart Kelly after the yurt had closed and all sane people gone to bed.

- Dragging Dave to the top of an extinct volcano only to hear American accents. 

- Dragging Dave to eat cranachan and haggis only to hear American accents.

- Fangirling shamelessly over Marcus Sedgwick.

- Getting through my first reading from The Lauras without messing up or cursing. 

- Buying books when I'd promised I wouldn't. 

As the more social of the two of us, Dave made friends with pretty much everyone he came across, and now wants me to hurry up finishing the next book so we can go back. 

Edinburgh!

The Lauras was released on time, and if there were any negative reviews then I haven't seen them - and it would probably be good if it stayed that way, as I was a basket case for the week leading up and the week after publication. And now I'm a bit of a basket case again, because on Thursday I'll be at Edinburgh Book Festival, reading from and talking about book the second for the first time, and dammit if I don't have the slightest clue what questions, from audience or chair, the whole thing will lead to. In honesty, the only reason that I'm not hiding under the bed is that I've been paired with Jenni Fagan with The Sunlight Pilgrims, and there's a good chance I'll spend too much time asking her questions about her books to answer any about my own.

Dave gets to come along this time; I'm far too excited about getting to show him the yurt.

External validation

The Lauras comes out tomorrow, which means I'm halfway to a quivering ball of nerves - though that may be the six cups of black coffee that I've just drunk. It's not that I'm worried that the book will be badly received, because on a fundamental level I believe that the writing is the important part, and it being read once it's finished is somewhat superfluous. But I do have a fair amount of impostor's syndrome when it comes to my fictive tendencies, so the days leading up to a proving point, when something new goes out into the world and people are asked to respond to it, aren't exactly relaxing. I'm not sure what it is that's got me uneasy - but then, even though I can't say  what it is about cloudy water that makes me uneasy I still won't stay in the bathtub after it's gotten too soapy to see the bottom.

In the positive column I've got a firmer idea of what's going on than I did last time, and I've got enough of a reference point to know that what's going on is so far all good.

Yesterday I got to scoot into London to record a segment for BBC Radio 4's Front Row, which means that, as with The Shore, my first time talking about The Lauras was in a recording room with Kirsty Lang. Which was the best possible way to start things off, because Kirsty is wonderful. It's too early yet for me to have a solid idea of the sort of conversations the book will prompt, or to have well thought out responses to them, so her questions are my primer for what I should be thinking about as Edinburgh draws nearer and other speaking opportunities pop up.

The thinking is going to need to happen quickly, as I'm going back into London tomorrow afternoon for an interview with Radio Gorgeous, which is unexplored territory for me.

Text-wise, there have been good reviews in the Sunday Mirror, the Sunday Times, and Stylist Magazine, with rumblings of more to come. Even though no one's panned it as far as I've seen, I'm quite tempted to put my head down and pretend that none of it is happening. The writing is really the fun bit, and the thesis clock is ticking.