Book feels...

Next Friday, the sixth of May, my current favourite book (of the ones that I wrote, I mean, not all the ones I've read because I don't think I could pick a favourite out of those.  Actually, picking a favourite of the ones I've written is hard too, it's a bit like asking me which of my collection is my favourite pet.  The answer to that is usually 'the one that's lying quietly in the corner and not pestering me for a walk/food', but that doesn't really apply much to books) - what?  Where was I?

Oh yes.  'I Don't Want to Talk About It' is out in paperback on Friday.

This one.

I'm quietly proud of this book.  It's made more people cry than I care to count.  Normally, making people cry isn't something to be proud of, any averagely rude and insensitive person can manage that several times a day, but it's different when it's a book.  It means that I managed to tell a story that readers got involved with, enough that they could identify with the characters and feel for them.

Usually I like my books to make people laugh - there's quite enough stuff in the world to make them cry already and I feel slightly uncomfortable writing things that are sad.  Laughing is more socially acceptable somehow, what's that saying?  Laugh and the world laughs with you.  Cry and you can say goodbye to your friends coming round to watch Game of Thrones ever again.  Something like that.

Anyway.  It's funny and sad, and it's got a hobby horse and a guinea pig in, and those are two groups that are massively under-represented in fiction, and a stone-mason and an author, and graveyards and...well.  If you like any of those things then you should read this book.

Oh, and it also has the worst ever Amazon review that I think I've ever got from any of my books.  All the other reviews are 5* and 4*, this is a 1*...

Oh dear Oh dear Oh dear. You've let yourself down, Choc Lit, with this one. Please be more careful about what you publish or I may not be able to rely on you any more. Appalling writing. Dreadful story. No tension. I didn't care about any of the characters. The conversations were completely unbelievable. Silly, silly, silly...nothing going for it at all. 

So, if you'd like to see who you agree most with, the 6* 'this is beautiful', or the 1* 'silly, silly, silly', then I suggest you hie you hence to a bookshop and purchase the book in question!

Go on.  I'll still be here when you get back.  I haven't finished all the biscuits yet...