PUBLICATION DAY!

Publication Day! So, what do you think I'll be doing? Opening bunches of hand-tied flowers and drinking champagne? Basking in pleasure?

Not quite. First, I'm presenting the prizes at the Pushkin prizes in Edinburgh. This is a creative writing competition for teenagers in Scotland and Russia and it's a fabulous showcase of young writing talent. I've been judging the competition with the poet Stewart Conn and Jenny Carr from the Scotland-Russia institute and today we present the prizes to the winners, with their families and teachers and lots of important people. All the winners and runners-up will receive a copy of Wasted as well as lots of other books.

Then, I'm leaping into a train to go to London. Oh, you mean for a glittering reception for publication day? Or to Buckingham Palace so that the Queen can personally congratulate me? Er, no. (Thank goodness...) We've bought a flat in London and one of my daughters and I are doing the removal bit tomorrow, with two vans arriving with stuff from storage. So, I will be sleeping on the floor tonight and I may have no internet connection. But I'll have my favourite possession - iphone - so I'll be able to read your comments.

Thank you ALL so much for all your support up to now - today, I'm not bringing you any mind-boggling science or fascinating philosophy, just thanking you for your kind words and hoping you'll stay with me for a while and share your thoughts about the ideas behind the book. If you read Wasted and like it, DO tell your friends, comment on the blog and put a review on Amazon. I really really really do need all the help I can get and I will be grateful to you for ever, if not even longer.

I have been stunned by the response so far and am now even more dreading the first time someone will think (and say) that the book is rubbish. Until that point, I'm thrilled with the Amazon reviews and other online stuff. I happen to know there's a major newspaper review coming up soon, but obviously I don't know what it says. *bites nails*. Trust me when I say that it's not the fact that the reviews have been so positive that I'm so pleased about, but the fact that every single one of them has understood exactly what I was trying to do. It seems to have struck chords and I'm so glad it's not just me who thinks about the world in this weird and wondering way.

Meanwhile, this evening I will raise a small glass of sparkly stuff to you all. By chance  -  chance rules again  -  tonight I'm staying with my old friend from university, Karen, and the philosophy stuff in Wasted was what we used to spend hours and hours arguing about. And her daughter is currently at our old college so there'll be lots to talk about.

THE WASTED BLOG TOUR - WHERE AM I TODAY?

Over on the fabulous publishing blog of Jane Smith at How Publishing Really Works. I still haven't met Jane but we've become good friends through our shared desire to strip away the mysteries of publishing and tell it how it is, to help good writers achieve publication. Join me there! (Though I can't remember what I said in the post...)