Very exciting – am now officially published in America!!  Does that mean I’ve finally arrived? Will Scorsese or Bigelow be ringing me next week to take an option on LULLABY?!  You have to live in hope…

So my first novel LULLABY was published last week in USA by St Martin’s Press.  The reviews have been flooding in (ahem).  I was delighted to read the start of The Washington Post one here - “the opening pages couldn’t be much better” & the favourable comparasions to du Maurier’s Rebecca, a book I still remember devouring deep into the night as a teenager.  Reviews are a funny old thing; as an author hiding away in my garrett living in a dream world I don’t think of the reality of the book hitting shops and reviewers’ desks, and the fact that, as an old friend once sternly reminded me, I’m putting myself in the public arena…so therefore I’m inviting criticism…I’m not sure I agree.  It begs the question why we write, I guess.  I write because I love it and I am privileged enough to be paid to do it; I write because I have stories spooling through my head that I need to get out of me and because sometimes I prefer living in a fictitious world than a real one (Okay, I admit that sounds a bit scary).  But some might say being in print means everyone can take a shot… What do you reckon?  Should critics, either paid or ‘amateur’, ever mince their words?

Anyway, although Maureen Corrigan of Book World only celebrated parts of LULLABY,  luckily some other US readers liked the whole darn book (phew – thanks Becky!)…here..

So I’m now planning to ship the children and myself over the pond to NYC asap to meet my editors at Thomas Dunne and hang out for a bit in the world’s most iconic city.  Thinking of the US reminds me of my dinner in the summer at the Harrogate Crime Writing Festival with the brilliant David Simon, creator of iconic The Wire, and his charming wife Laura Lipmann whom I share a British publisher with.  I’ve never been so envied by my friends, really.  More of that dinner soon when I can actually get technical enough to upload a photo…