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...)

HELP! I'M NERVOUS!

Nervous? Have you any idea, you readers? Do you think writers just sit glowing with pride at having published a book? Ohhhh no. We're sensitive souls, fragile creatures, and we care so very much about our books. We KNOW not everyone will like them but we also foolishly hope they will. Or at least that when people don't like our books they will find a nice way to say so or else say nothing.

And I am very nervous because it's horribly close to publication day for Wasted. Not that the exact day makes much difference because it's all too late to stop it now. I may WANT to change half the words in it but I can't. I may WANT to hide in a cupboard but I can't. (For a start, I have this blog and all of you are kindly and patiently sitting there waiting for Wasted to come out - or at least making a very good show of pretending to.)

Once a book is published, there's so much luck involved. So much can go wrong and there are myriad reasons why some books fail to be noticed. More reasons to be nervous. And some books mean more to the author than others. Wasted means more to me than any of my others - only The Passionflower Massacre came close, and that faded into obscurity despite having great reviews from the start.

I'm also doing an after-dinner speech this evening at the Scottish Arts Club, where they are having a black tie dinner to celebrate Walpurgis Night. They obviously thought that since Walpurgis Night is all about evil spirits and witches and other nasty things, I was a suitable choice of speaker...

Doing these things - writing books and giving talks is risky and nerve-inducing. But there's a lesson here, to do with luck. And luck is something that Wasted is very much about.

You see, I know there are lots of things that happen which we can't control. Really bad things happen to good people and good things happen to horrible people. But apart from that, I DO believe that if we are bold and confident and get out there and try things, we have more chance of luck coming our way. In other words, we have to take risks in order to succeed. (I'll be blogging about this another day.)

Writing a book is a very big risk. People might hate it; I might feel stupid; it might be a total waste of time if it does badly. It's very exposing. So I'm nervous.

But I'm glad I took the risk. I love so much about being a writer. And the pleasures of seeing people love a book outweigh the times when someone hates it. Yes, when someone criticises it, it's horrible, truly horrible, but I have to accept it as one of the risks. Like falling off a horse - it hurts. But you get back up and you gallop with the wind in your hair and everything is worth it.

Doesn't stop me being nervous about Monday, though!

(On the other hand, when you read the post on Monday, you'll see that I'm not going to have much time to be nervous...)

Thank you all so much for joining and reading this blog. I promise you lots of interesting stuff over the next few weeks. Several chances to win copies of Wasted or my other books, and lots of opportunities to be involved. And, as with everything in life, you just never know where it might lead. My motto in life is simple: do. If you do nothing, nothing will happen to you. And how boring and frustrating that would be.

THE BLOG TOUR BEGINS - WHERE AM I?

Today I am a guest on writer Nik Perring's blog, where I'll be talking about all the emotions that writers go through on their long journey to publication. Including being nervous, of course.

Tomorrow I'll be visiting the Book Maven, Mary Hoffman's, blog. I hop you'll join me at Nik and Mary's and check out the excellent blogs of those two successful writers.

Don't forget that tomorrow is also the next prize draw for a copy of Wasted - all you have to do is be a follower of this blog. Good luck! Oh, and do encourage people to enter the Flash Fiction competition - I've had a fantastic standard of entries but very few stories from school age writers. Go write!