Somewhere I have been other than at my desk

It’s been a long time since I’ve posted here. The reason is that I’ve been busy writing the second draft of novel#2. This means that a) my typing fingers are too exhausted at the end of the day to do a blog post and b) there’s nothing worth blogging about, because all I do is write.

That’s not strictly true, because I have had a little trip to New York, and some lovely nights in and out with friends and family. But that’s not what this blog is about, so I have restrained myself and spared the web from my personal to-ings and fro-ings.

But last night I had my first public outing as an author. My publishers Headline hosted what they called a ‘Sparkling Evening’ at the Groucho Club, where eleven authors due to be published in 2011 met a lot of members of the press to talk about ourselves and our work, nibble on canapés and have our glasses endlessly topped up by attentive waiters.

Now, I usually spend my days sitting as I am now, in my studio, at my computer. so waltzing off to the Groucho was like visiting another planet. But I had such a good time! It was a tremendously glamorous, scrubbed-up. new-dress occasion and I met lots of lovely people. It’s all a bit of a blur this morning – not so much because of the glass-topping-up (I switched to water mid-way, honest), but because of talking to so many different people in such a short space of time. I think I suffered from overload. There was so much potential for making a tit of myself. I so hope I didn’t.

I shared the train ride back home with the lovely Lizzie Enfield, who was also at the Sparkling Evening. Lizzie’s debut novel, What You Don’t Know is out on Feb 3. It’s a gripping read. I started reading it yesterday, and am having to force myself to put it down to get on with my work.

Ah yes, the work. I’m half way through the second draft now, and have given myself a slightly ludicrous but marvellously bracing deadline which involves writing at least 3,000 words every day. But I am seriously enjoying myself. Once again, I count my blessings.

Cuckoo has been getting some very good feedback and reviews. Cath Staincliffe reviewed it for Tangled Web. And Catherine Ryan Howard said in her review

Unsettling, mysterious and dark, Cuckoo is a great debut and I’m really looking forward to more from Julia Crouch.

And there are a couple of really great articles about how I wrote the first draft during NaNoWrimo, including Danuta Kean’s piece for Publishing Talk and Felicity Wood’s article The Internet: Good for Debut Writers Since Forever.

It’s all ramping up for the launch on March 4th. My only concern is that AgentSimon hasn’t spotted any more of my pink suitcase people. Where the hell are they?