Books

Monday 27 July 2009

A Busy Week...

Hello! It's been a busy old week, starting with my efforts to get to the Royal Welsh Show. It was chucking it with rain, so I abandoned all plans of walking, cycling or going in a hot air balloon and instead took the car to the Park and Ride. Now, usually Park and Rides are nice tarmacced areas that have a bus arriving near by: this was a forty-five degree field knee-deep in mud. I managed to get there early and slipped and slid my way down the field and came to a halt near the bottom track - perfect. Only a hack across two muddy fields to the bus and all was fine.

Firstly, I am sure that I sat next to Harry Enfield in one of his characters on the bus...

I arrived at the Show with plenty of time to spare and wondered around in the rain for a while, checking where the Radio Wales tent was, going to the toilet fifteen times with nerves and generally trying to keep my socks dry so that I could last the day...

Jamie Owen and Louise Elliot were already live on Radio Wales and I was sat down and told to chew my nails for a while whilst they interviewed their earlier guest. I could see lots of wires to trip over, a microphone to drop in a puddle and a large security guy to throw me out if I said Arse by mistake. Finally it was my turn and actually - it was OK. I managed to mention my book, my other book, and I managed not to mention that I had actually come to look at the bulls' parts, as had been in my dream the night before.

I was able to give them a free copy each and one for Derek the Weatherman on Huw's behalf, as he still thinks that Derek says, "Hello, S'mae" to him alone...

Finally it was over and I felt really pleased that it had gone well. I then got lots of texts from people saying, "so, when are you coming on then?" but never mind eh.

After that it was on for my Book Launch at the Welsh Books Council tent - with some poor bloke shouting out into the rain "come and see Lorraine Jenkin and her new book!" to people scurrying and sliding by in the mud. I did have some wine and some nibbles to give away, but in hindsight, I would have had a better reaction if I'd given away bin liners for people to put over themselves or wrap their kids in after they'd fallen headlong into the mud.

EventuallyI was free to go and after the world's largest pasty, I headed back to my car and then slid sideways down the field onto the track. All had been well.

PS - the experience gave me confidence to take the girls to the show on the thursday. The little one got "barked at" by a massive bull who stuck his head through the railings into her pushchair and so after that, every single animal was terrifying - not good at an agricultural show. Our return to the car also wasn't as easy as by that time, it had rained for another whole day and we, of course, got stuck. Seeing that everyone else was also stuck I thought "Oh my God, we're going to die here" but a couple of nice young men pushed me out of my rut and I was able to skid and slide my way down the hill eventually crashing down onto another track. I still haven't had the energy to take the pushchair out of the boot of the car, as the wheels had doubled in size due to the mud stuck round them and I don't think squirting a little WD40 over the bearings will work this time...

Saturday 18 July 2009

This evening, I shall mostly be reading Eating Blackbirds...

Hello all - just a small and rather triumphant blog to say that Eating Blackbirds has officially hit the shelves...
It is a tale that starts with a man who has spent his whole adult life waiting for retirement. He has scrimped and saved, pinched tea-bags and missed out. And then he retires and all his plans have to be put into action...
In addition to this fantastic central thread, we have council workers, men in tights, gerbils, teenage mothers and weeing under beds.
I did try and put in baby rabbits in cat sick, but my editor removed it. I put it in again. She removed it again. I hope that the final result is a successful compromise to all.

Please feel free to buy a copy and thoroughly enjoy it. Please also feel free to buy more and leave them on trains for others to enjoy, or give them as gifts to all your relatives and friends. Please note: to all my relatives and friends, knowing that you will probably get one for Christmas does not let you off the hook for buying your own now.

I am sure that, in the spirit of collaboration, we can all pull together and maybe I can recover the cost of the biros that wrote it.

In addition - here is your quest. Amazon have no reviewers yet (they will have in five minutes, I am almost 100% certain...) so you can be the first person to review it. However, on top of that you can now do a VIDEO review! How cool would that be. So, sit in your biggest pants and tell the world how good it was.


Many thanks,

Lorraine.

Friday 17 July 2009

Eating Blackbirds Lift Off!!

At last! We have the lift off of Eating Blackbirds!

It's all hotting up and this afternoon I'm speeding (well, driving in second gear) up to my publishers to fetch a big box of books, so I'm very excited to be able to see the book in the flesh! I want to Up the marketing, so am doing a "book signing" at the Royal Welsh Show next week - aisle D, The Welsh Book Council, 12 - 1 p.m. If you are in the Show, I'll be the one sunk up to my knees in mud, mumbling from a wet book and shivering - I might even be in lycra, you never know...

Last year, the travelling and parking for the Show was a nightmare and people were sitting in a traffic jam until midday, so I was nervous about how I might actually get there by 11.30ish to sort myself out. So, I decided to walk - it's only 5 miles after-all, and after having spent years happily being able to manage thirty miles a day over the Brecon Beacons, I was sure that a few miles along a smooth road would be a doddle. However, as time was ticking I was getting a bit nervous.
Therefore I was highly relieved when I somehow managed to wrangle myself onto no other than Jamie and Louise's morning programme on Radio Wales for Tuesday morning! Apart from the excitement about getting on the programme (http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/radiowales/sites/jamieandlouise/ tuesday at some point between 9.30 and 10.00 ish!) it also meant that the walking wouldn't be possible (there was much rejoicing!). However, the down side is that I might have to dig my old bike out of the barn, scrape the bird sh*t off the handlebars and see if I can lift my leg high enough to swing it over the saddle. So I am hoping that there isn't a webcam for the show, as I'll probably be perched on the edge of my chair, red, sweaty and dressed in a tigger outfit, as I mistakenly pushed it into my saddle-bag thinking it was my most dynamic animal print top.

I'll let you know how it went...

Lorraine.

Monday 6 July 2009

A Day in the Life...

Sometimes things happen that epitomise our lives - this week it struck me that I had a few of those moments...

We had to buy something for our daughter for her school uniform and found that the nearest stockists were about an hour and a quarter away (take note those looking to open a new shop), so after a great deal of faffing, we set off and arrived, starving, at about half past two. We decided to go for some lunch and found a nice little place that did a good bargain meal for the children. It turned out to be a three-course bargain meal for the children and another bargain offer was to buy two beers and be allowed to take home the lovely beer glasses - big old carved things that the brewery were obviously throwing out. Realising that we weren't going to be able to go anywhere before all three courses were scoffed, we said, Why Not, to the beers and settled down to enjoy them.
By the time the girls had finally finished wiping their ice cream over their t-shirts, we realised that the beers were about a fiver each, which more than covered the naff glasses - which turned out to be one glass. Although I was very tempted to shove the second one in my bag, I didn't and I was soon pleased, as the thing that we were given is too tall to fit in any of our cupboards. Well done, Cafe Ask, top marketing strategy.
Oh, and the thing we went to buy was sold out, and on the way home a friend said we could borrow hers.

The second thing was in relation to my bad back which we didn't think was being helped by our cheap matress, which is so knackered that one lies in a little pit. Huw bought a lovely one that comes in a box and unfolds in situ. Great - apart from the fact that I did my back in dragging the damn thing up the stairs...

And the third one was a blinder - but, I've forgotten it, and it's nearly 11pm. However, I am sure that you get the drift...

Thursday 2 July 2009

A Pleasant Experience in the Post Office...

Evening,

I usually end up in our village shop most days and tend to forget what I went in for and come out with a pile of chocolate for Huw and a jar of Marmite. Yesterday I went in and smiled vaguely at the woman in front of me in the queue. I was a bit of a state, having been up most of the night before with one of the girls, was wearing a bad vest and had "it'll surely do another day" hair.

She went to the counter and asked, "Do you have the new book by Lorraine Jenkin in please, as I'd heard her new one is out?"

Ali at the counter said, "ooh, I don't know, but ask - her" and pointed to me, frantically rubbing a cornflake off my vest. The woman looked at me and obviously thought, "Why? Does that state deal with the shelf stacking and ordering?"
"Yes, I wrote it! Why, have you read the other one?"
It turned out that she had and she had enjoyed it and she had sent it off to a few mates! Great!

I walked out of the shop with a smile on my face - and a tin of Golden Syrup for tea.

There is little else to report as I've spent the rest of the week nursing a child with suspected chicken pox and chasing a blue bottle fly.