Pre wedding insomniac

Phew, just trying to get the hang of this adding-a-photo-to-your-profile lark. It's not easy! But then again, what did I expect at 6.42am on a Saturday morning...

Had a few too many Pinots last night and have been fidgeting since 3.48am. Poor old boyfriend has had to get used to sleeping alone recently - at least once a week I pad out of the bedroom, pre-dawn, wide eyed and wired. But how can I sleep with all this going on?!

• Two weeks till we get married!
• Two weeks to write and send out hundreds of pre-Christmas press releases at work.
• Two weeks to delete all personal messages from my work email.
• Two weeks to say goodbye to the cats before we go on honeymoon.
• Two weeks to sort the table plan, flowers and first dance song.
• Two weeks to tone my bingo wings.
• Two weeks to wax off two months worth of fluff - it'll be like a harvest festival.
• Two weeks to sort the airing cupboard before the mother in law comes to housesit.
• Two weeks to pray I get some more good feedback from my first few chapters...

Miss not so Write after all...

OK bloggers, I think it's about time I faced up to the dead end that is this competition... No news is bad news. Louise Candlish stated on her blog that the winners of the competition would be contacted towards the end of August. So for me and the other 2331 entrants whose phones have stayed agonizingly quiet over the past few weeks, it's time to hang up our hopes and move on.

Still, it's not all sighs and downcast eyes. Time to get on with getting some positive feedback. Over the past few weeks I've been tiptoeing around, gently tugging on a few sleeves and sliding my manuscript under the nose a few friends in the publishing world...

The response has been great! OK, so nobody has mentioned a bidding war or insisted on a two book deal yet (I wish), but there has been a few appreciative nods - enough to give me hope and a few leads, at least!

Hurray! I'm on the right path. Just got to keep ploughing on and get the damn thing finished. At the moment I'm darting between polishing the first half of my first draft (ready to send off to agents and submit formally) and writing the end. It's all a bit topsy-turvy but after a few wrong turns and lots of meandering, I'll get there in the end. Promise...

Buy the book

I went to my writing teacher's book launch last night. Sophie King was celebrating the launch of her latest novel: Second Time Lucky at Waterstones in Berkhamsted. http://www.amazon.co.uk/s?ie=UTF8&search-type=ss&index=books-uk&field-author=Sophie%20King&page=1

It was a glorious balmy evening and as I flip-flopped towards the bookshop, sunburnt boyfriend in tow, I couldn't help wondering what the event might have in store.

I haven't hobnobbed with publishing types since leaving my editorial job in fiction three years ago, but I knew some old faces would be there and was hoping they'd remember me.

The lady of the moment was surrounded by friends, family and fans but she made me feel welcome straight away.

'Here, let me introduce me to my agent,' she smiled, tugging me towards a friendly looking man in the travel writing section.

I trotted after her, swapping my flute of Perrier for Pinot Grigio on the way and took a deep breath. Wow. A real live literary agent. Shaking my hand. As a budding author, what was I supposed to do in this sort situation? Is there a rulebook of dos and don'ts? It was hardly the place to wave my manuscript under his nose...

After a shaky start, involving a mad rambling moment when I lost all track of the rather uninteresting point I was trying to make, the conversation started to flow. At the mention of my chick-lit novel, another guest asked 'but isn't chick-lit dead?'

'I don't think so, 'I replied, stomach on spin cycle. Didn't she know I was trying to impress him? 'I think its ok as long as you've got a new angle or a hook to draw the reader in.'

Stealing a glance at THE AGENT over my canapé, I was relieved to note he was nodding along with me. Thank god!

'Yes, as long as it has new take on things, a catchy title and a nice hook, chick-lit still works,' he commented.

So that was that. Chick-lit lives on! I scuttled home for a celebratory Tio Pepe and a long night of working on my hook.